Today we’d like to introduce you to Aida Seeraj.
Hi Aida, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself
My name is Aida Seeraj, and I am the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Inspire to Rise, Inc. My story begins in 2018 when I reached my 20th year working in the nonprofit child welfare and homeless sectors. I had completed 7.5 years working as the Executive Director of a local foster care agency, and I just needed more than that moment. I started praying, searching, and seeking the advice of several mentors to find out what was next for me.
At the suggestion of one of my mentors, I attended a Generation W’s Women’s Leadership Conference at the University of North Florida on April 13, 2018. One of the speakers asked the attendees, “What is your passion?”
Then she said, “Now if you do that thing and include your family, then you are just following your passion, and it’s not a job. Even your children will learn from it.” My passion is to inspire and uplift others to become their best selves, whether that is family, friends, clients, or staff. I love to see people grow into their best versions of themselves. That is when it came to me very clearly. I texted my husband from the conference and told him that I wanted to start my own company. Before the conference was over, I had written the mission statement, service array, and scope, and decided on the name, INSPIRE TO RISE, and the vision was born.
It was especially important to me that my family be involved; my husband, my children, mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law, aunt, uncle, grandmother, and best friend have been instrumental in shaping this idea into reality. My husband of 21 years was supportive, and his financial management expertise has been invaluable. He recognized that INSPIRE TO RISE needed an administrative body to help support it. He also founded 5 ELEPHANTS, a consulting and business solutions company that provides staffing, accounting, process, and program services to small businesses and non-profits, in April 2018.
After being granted 501(c)(3) status, the hunt was on for a building to house the newly established INSPIRE TO RISE. Realtor, Amanda Kinkade showed us, a former Faith Lutheran Church at 5927 Old Timuquana Road, Jacksonville, FL 32210. The property was perfect. Even though it needed a lot of work, I saw and envisioned a comprehensive, wraparound, full-service community center that could empower children, families, and individuals to rise, overcome, and shine through their most challenging moments.
Unfortunately, the property was unaffordable. Amanda then introduced me to Mr. Ray Janney, the Board Chair of the church. He wanted the church property to be purchased by a worthwhile, community-minded organization and liked the vision that I had for the property. He said, “This community needs you.” When we did our research of the community, we identified 32210 and 32244 to be two of the highest-needs communities in Jacksonville; with the highest number of overdoses, individuals and families struggling with substance misuse and mental health, second highest crime rate, and removal of children rates, and even the highest number of pregnant women actively misusing substances.
Mr. Janey believed so strongly in my vision, that he offered to lower the price of the sale. The only remaining hurdle was the down payment. My mom and dad, aunt and uncle, grandmother, and a best friend heard and believed in the vision and contributed to the funds for the down payment on the building for the community center. With the help of a community-minded finance group, INSPIRE TO RISE closed on the property on December 21, 2018.
Then, my family, friends, and volunteers worked tirelessly to clean, paint, and renovate. So many people provided services free of charge during the first year of our opening that my strong belief that God is in charge of this project was reinforced daily. We also found a community-minded church to lease the sanctuary and provide additional volunteers. INSPIRE TO RISE opened its doors to the community on April 13, 2019, one year exactly from the vision.
I want INSPIRE TO RISE to be a place where anyone can go to get help and inspiration. Everyone needs help at one time or another, and sometimes people just don’t know where to go. INSPIRE TO RISE can be that help when we are needed.
The following series of events has allowed Inspire to Rise, Inc. to become the full-service, comprehensive service center that it is today:
- 04/13/18: Created by Founder & CEO Aida Seeraj.
- 04/15/18: Agency registered and formed.
- 08/19/18: Incorporated & Organized for charitable purposes & the prevention of cruelty to children under Section 501(c)(3).
- 12/21/18: Obtained Community Center Property and began renovations.
- 04/13/19: Opened its doors to the community.
- 05/01/19: Recognized as a Community Behavioral Health Center by the Agency for Healthcare Administration.
- 08/02/19: Received a grant from The Partnership: for Mental Health, a project of Baptist Health, and the Delores Barr Weaver Fund at The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida.
- 09/23/19: City Council approved ITR to be the future expansion site of Volunteers in Medicine, to offer free medical services for the working, noninsured adults. Opened June 2020.
- 08/19 & 12/2/19: Selected as the provider for the Healthy Start Services, Azalea Project aimed at addressing Duval County’s Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) and infant mortality rates. Services started on 12/2/19.
- 03/31/20, 05/01/20, & 9/17/20: LSF Health Systems approved ITR on 03/31/20 to create and fund the RISE Case Management & Substance Abuse Intervention & Treatment Components.
- 09/17/20: ITR became officially licensed by DCF to provide these services.
- 02/01/21: LSF Health Systems approved funding to create the Sammy Project, an SEN Prevention Program.
- 03/31/21: DOH & Health Planning Council approved the OD2A grant for ITR to provide Peer
Community Advocate Program.
Now, the Inspire to Rise Community Center has grown to serve as a full-service, comprehensive hub of resources and services; and more families and individuals residing within the high-needs communities continue to seek out our services in search of help.
We are focused on holistically helping make the community a little better, happier, and healthier place by offering family-centered, strength- and evidence-based, best practice, and solution-focused services that endorse the recovery-oriented system of care model; address parental diminished protective capacities; and holistically treat an individual’s heart, mind, body, and soul through small actions that create a great impact.
We achieve this mission by inspiring through community behavioral health services, community education services, community services and resources, the arts, and peer community advocacy.
Additionally, we collaborate with numerous community partners to integrate our efforts and expand the array of our services to strengthen the families within these high-needs communities. Our focus is to address an individual and family’s protective factors (social determinants of health) and rebuild and sustain an improved quality of life in the community, focusing on:
Integrating those struggling with substance abuse and mental health issues back into the community,
Addressing and reversing the effects of trauma.
Serving as a resource center promoting protective factors by linking children, families, and individuals to local resources; services; concrete supports; behavioral health, treatment, intervention, educational, and wellness opportunities; and social supports.
Breaking the cycle of child abuse and neglect through primary prevention efforts and education, which ultimately reduces the rate of infant mortality or morbidity, substance-exposed newborns with neonatal abstinence syndrome, and the number of children entering into foster care.
Addressing some of the needs of those struggling with poverty, including facilitating access to health care and healthy food options.
Assisting with the personal growth and overall wellness of those we serve, and
Strengthening families.
We will help everyone that is in search of help, inspiration, kindness, education, and personal growth. The belief is Stronger Families = a Stronger Community.
Since opening our doors in April 2019, the Inspire to Rise, Inc. census has exponentially grown and has provided over 10,000+ services to the participants and families we serve. We are also now expanding to two additional locations in the high-needs communities of 32254 in Northwest Jacksonville and Nassau County.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
We have had numerous hurdles along the way, including but not limited to: (1) Obtaining funding to purchase the property. While it seemed “easy”. My husband and I sought out numerous avenues to obtain funding. We were amazed, proud, and excited to see that our family truly supported our vision and that we were able to find a community-minded finance group to help us purchase the property.
(2) Obtaining funding to support positions. Even with all of my professional experience; local state and federal grantors were hesitant in providing us grant opportunities since we were a brand-new organization. It took a lot of convincing, lots of interviews, lots of outreach, and lots of proof that our services work before grantors started noticing us and selecting us for contracts and grants.
(3) Physical labor of renovations. It has taken us a lot of manual hours of work renovating the property. Since we had limited funds, we have tried to do the work ourselves, with the exception of the things that we needed a contractor for. As such, my family and I have put in many, many hours of physical labor cleaning, painting, patching, picking up furniture donations, gardening, repairing, and looking for deals to make the campus beautiful and family-friendly. Since obtaining the keys to the property; we have worked tirelessly almost 7 days a week to make the campus look the way it does today.
(4) Creating policies, procedures, forms, etc., for everything. My Chief Program Officer and I have written every word that is on a form, policy, procedure, etc. It required a lot of research, brainpower, and time. We still continually revise to help improve our policies and procedures.
(5) Staffing challenges. Since we did not have money at the beginning, we had to convince people to join “our cause, our vision, and our mission.” Many staff at first volunteered their time. Then when we started billing for some services, we recruited staff as Independent Contractors. Now that we have more grants, contracts, and fee-for-service dollars available; we have hired some employees. We are now a team of 25.
(6) Identifying the needs of the community. We have worked diligently to meet the needs of the community. First identifying what the needs were and then trying to figure out cost-effective ways to provide those resources and services.
(7) Building trust in the community and referral source providers. We have continuously met with community partners and leaders to explain the “why” behind Inspire to Rise, and then convince them to partner to build up our resource and referral sources. We have had to prove ourselves in our provision of services to our partners. Additionally, we have conducted numerous outreach events at the Center and within the community to create awareness about our services and build up trust within the community.
(8) COVID impacted us. During the 2020 COVID shut down, Inspire to Rise was not only impacted by:
less services provided during the shutdown;
the financial impact felt during that time,
the participants who are separated from their children not being able to visit with their children; impacted them mentally and emotionally, even causing some to revert to using substances;
ultimately seeing an increase in overdose deaths during this time, and
losing staff that we’re unable to rejoin us when we fully reopened.
(9) Having the financial capital to support all of the operations and personnel needed to provide the services. Sometimes, I just stand in awe that we continue to be able to pay our bills, our staff, and still manage to find the resources need to provide quality and comprehensive services.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
See below BIO:
Mrs. Aida Seeraj is the founder and CEO of Inspire to Rise, Inc. She has over 23+ years of child welfare experience working with the Department of Children and Families and the nonprofit (homeless and child welfare) sectors and has over 18+ years of top management experience. Mrs. Seeraj holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Dallas, a Masters in Business Administration from St. Leo University, and is a graduate of the Nonprofit Center of Northeast Florida’s first Bank of America’s Emerging Leaders Program.
In April 2018, Aida and her husband, Michael Seeraj, opened 5 Elephants, LLC, a consulting and business solutions company that helps nonprofits and small businesses find innovative and cost-effective solutions that transform their business and the communities they serve.
In April 2018, Aida Seeraj also opened Inspire to Rise, Inc., a nonprofit comprehensive, wraparound, and full-service community center that helps to inspire children, families, and individuals to address their individual trauma and family needs, and become their best self for themselves and for their families.
Over the years, she has been honored with several awards, including DCF Case Manager of the year; two Secretary of the State awards for outstanding team performance; three Davis Productivity awards; and was selected by WJCT and Baptist Health as the honoree at its August 2012 speaking of Women’s Health Conference. Most recently she was honored as a Times Union Eve Award finalist in September 2020 and was presented with the Liberty Bell Award by the Jacksonville Bar Association in May 2021 for her significant contributions to the Jacksonville community at large.
I am proud of marrying my best friend and high school sweetheart, Michael Seeraj. We have been together for 30 years and have celebrated 21 years of marriage. I am also most proud of our three amazing children. They are smart, kind, giving, and beautiful souls.
What were you like growing up?
As a child, I lived in many places. I was born in Puerto Rico, but my mom moved to the Dominican Republic, and later back to Puerto Rico. In 1981, we moved to New York, and eventually, in 1984, we moved to Sebring, Florida, where we remained until I went off to college. I believe that these exposures to other countries, cultures, languages, and lifestyles; made me love travel and exploring new cultures.
I am very close to my parents and my siblings. I am the oldest of 3 siblings and the only girl. Because my 2 brothers are significantly younger than me; they see me as their second mom and remain very close to me. They are my best friends. Even though we lived in Sebring, our household was very Puerto Rican. We honored and celebrated our culture.
I would describe myself as a total nerd growing up. I was a straight-A, honor roll student throughout school after I learned the English language. I enjoyed doing community service, and my first experience with community service was in 1990 when I volunteered with Special Olympics while in high school. I also was the president of the Interact Club that led many local community service projects. In college, I continued volunteer work including working a children’s hospital, women’s health clinic, and even participated in missionary work helping orphaned children and leprosy patients in Ecuador.
After graduating from the University of Dallas in 1998, I moved back home, but eventually married my high-school sweetheart and moved to South Florida in 2000, and then Jacksonville in 2005.
I love my family; love to travel; love spending quality, fully present time with my children; love my faithful dog, love to explore, and love to laugh. I love to help others. I always say that people will know me through my work and service.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.weinspiretorise.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/weinspiretorise/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/weinspiretorise.org
