Women & Families
Women building connection and opportunity
More Than A Smile Foundation creates welcoming, culturally responsive opportunities for women and families in Louisville to connect, learn, and lead.
Our Commitment
Community-led support, grounded in dignity
Women and families bring knowledge, resilience, and lived experience to their communities. Our role is to create spaces where those strengths are recognized and relationships can grow.
Programs are shaped around connection, practical learning, peer support, and access to trusted resources. Activities and participation are shared as they are confirmed through program records.
We work with community members and appropriate partners to offer culturally responsive opportunities while reporting outcomes only when they are documented and verified.
Our Programs
Our pillars of women's empowerment
Lead & Inspire
Leadership Development
Leadership activities create space for women to explore communication, civic participation, and community leadership. Topics, formats, and participant pathways are shared as programming is confirmed.
Heal & Grow
Wellness & Mental Health
Wellness activities offer culturally responsive opportunities for connection, peer support, and conversation. More Than A Smile Foundation provides non-clinical support and care navigation, with counseling, assessment, diagnosis, and treatment provided by qualified behavioral-health partners.
Build & Earn
Economic Empowerment
Practical learning opportunities may include digital literacy, financial learning, resume support, career exploration, and small-business information. Referrals to specialized services, employers, and funding opportunities are offered through appropriate partners when available.
Connect & Belong
Mentorship & Community
Peer connection and mentorship opportunities help women build relationships rooted in shared experience, cultural understanding, and mutual respect. Participation formats and mentorship practices are shared as they are confirmed.
Women in Our Community
Faces of strength
Joy as resistance
Culture kept alive
Finding her voice
Families, whole and thriving
For funders & grant reviewers
Women & Family Empowerment — Program Summary
The information below is structured to support grant applications, funder due diligence, and partnership inquiries. For a full conversation, please reach out directly.
Immigrant and refugee women in Louisville face intersecting barriers: language access, social isolation, limited economic opportunity, and systems that were not designed with their cultural context in mind. Many are primary caregivers managing family needs while navigating an unfamiliar environment with minimal support.
Women and families from immigrant and refugee backgrounds, primarily Somali, Somali Bantu, and other East African communities. Participants range from recently arrived refugees to long-term residents seeking economic mobility and community connection.
South Louisville (Shawnee, Wyandotte, Parkland) and West End. Programming is delivered in community spaces accessible by public transit.
- Women's leadership development workshops and cohort programming
- Economic empowerment sessions including financial literacy and small business basics
- Mentorship circles pairing emerging leaders with established community members
- Wellness and self-care programming in culturally affirming settings
- Family engagement events including bowling nights, park days, and cultural celebrations
- Referrals to legal, health, and social services
Year-round. Monthly workshops and cohort sessions; seasonal family events. Programming is scheduled around school calendars and family availability, with childcare provided when possible.
Participation and outcome data will be published following the 2026 program cycle. The program has engaged women and families across multiple program cycles since 2021.
- Women build leadership skills and confidence to advocate for themselves and their families
- Participants gain access to economic resources and workforce pathways
- Families develop stronger social networks and peer support systems
- Women connect to health, legal, and social services they were previously unaware of
- Cultural identity is affirmed and celebrated as a community asset
Participation and outcome data will be published following the 2026 program cycle. Programming is grounded in community-centered, trauma-informed practice developed in partnership with participants.
- Somali Bantu Community of Kentucky
- Louisville Coalition for Immigrant Support
- Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky
- Local faith communities and cultural organizations
Additional investment would expand workshop capacity, fund childcare during programming, support stipends for peer facilitators, and allow the Foundation to develop a structured economic empowerment curriculum.
Amina Shale, Executive Director — [email protected] | 502-956-1414
Ready to invest in this program? We welcome site visits, due-diligence calls, and partnership conversations.
Invest in women and families
Support culturally responsive opportunities for connection, practical learning, and community leadership in Louisville.