Our journey began with a simple idea and a passion for serving the underserved. After two months of collecting handwritten Christmas cards from high school students, they were delivered on December 23, 2017, to elderly residents in nursing and end-of-life facilities—reading letters aloud, spending time together, and sharing love. Our founder, Jilkiah Bryant, grew up surrounded by clinical environments—her mother a nurse and her grandmother a CNA who cared for patients in their final days. From them, she drew the inspiration to show love and appreciation to patients during the holiday season.

Shortly after the first service project, Jilkiah began teaching Bible study at St. James Methodist Church in Columbus, MS. The church hosted a biweekly Saturday feeding program from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., which also provided school supplies and other seasonal resources based on donations. After volunteering one Saturday, Jilkiah learned the program needed more local volunteers. In response, St. James partnered with Project Powerful to engage high school students every other week as volunteers. It was mutually beneficial as it introduced students to service and expanded the program’s reach. On average, more than 50 meal bags were prepared for the community, with a record high of 150 distributed in a single day. Each semester, Project Powerful contributed over 30 volunteers to sustain the effort.

In 2018, we launched the Service Advocate Program, our flagship initiative empowering high school students across Mississippi to design and lead service projects in their own communities. Over two years, 11 Service Advocates completed 11 projects—gaining leadership training, fundraising experience, and a deeper understanding of community change.

In 2019, Project Powerful was formerly registered and incorporated as a nonprofit in the state of Mississippi.

From 2019–2023, Project Powerful continued serving Mississippi communities — through service advocates, food drives, the PowerPartner Program, the Power in Knowledge (P.I.K.) tutoring initiative, sponsorships, donations, and ongoing volunteer efforts — even when our impact wasn’t as strong as we hoped. These years became a season of learning, reflection and resilience, giving us space to rethink, reimagine, and prepare for our reestablishment.

In July 2024, our founder, Jilkiah Bryant, was awarded a $25,000 grant. Over the past year, she has been designing the F.A.I.T.H Funding Micro-Grant Program with community at its core. Applications open soon — be part of our next major milestone.