Help us Lift the City 🌆

Greetings,

My name is Tamika Bruce, and I am the founder of Lift the City Foundation, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit devoted to restoring hope and healing for children and families affected by incarceration and generational trauma.

In 2008, I was sentenced to 120 months in federal prison. I left behind three children—ages 10, 9, and 7—who needed me. The pain of that separation cannot be overstated. When a father is removed from the home, the challenge for a mother multiplies—but when a mother is removed, it can become nearly impossible for the child to thrive.

This reality became painfully clear when my own daughter stood before the same federal judge who sentenced me over a decade earlier. He saw firsthand the residual impact of parental incarceration and granted her a downward variance. Still, the system failed her. That failure—repeated across communities—is what Lift the City Foundation is committed to changing.

We are a mental health education and trauma-informed care agency—but more than that, we are a movement. Our mission is to break generational cycles and reimagine systems through healing, advocacy, and empowerment.

I am not just an advocate. I am the resource. I am in the community. I fill in the gaps. I see the voids others overlook.

For the past several years, I have immersed myself in direct service and professional development to equip me for this call. My experience includes:

    •    Certified Credible Messenger through the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services

    •    Conflict Resolution Facilitator at Kimball Elementary School

    •    Mentor and Program Facilitator for MyDC After School at Turner Elementary (serving youth in Wards 7 & 8)

    •    Motivational Interviewing Certified, enabling trauma-aware, person-centered engagement

    •    Academy DC Facilitator with CSOSA, helping  justice-impacted adults access hands-on training in music, entertainment, and digital media production

    •    Member of the Unlock the Box Coalition, a national movement to end solitary confinement

    •    Performer and Activist with Voices Unbarred, a theatre company using Theatre of the Oppressed to reimagine criminal justice through storytelling

    •    Mentor for the Community Justice Advisory Mentorship Program, a faith-based initiative supporting transformation for justice-involved individuals

    •    Ongoing mentor to youth and justice-impacted adults, providing consistent support, advocacy, and direction

Now, I’m asking for your help.

We are currently raising startup capital to operationalize our first full year of programming. This includes mental health education, caregiver coaching, trauma informed care, and youth mentorship. Your financial support—whether individual, philanthropic, or corporate—will directly fund interventions that change lives and reclaim futures.

This is not charity. It is justice. It is restoration. It is strategy.

We are calling on community leaders, business owners, and believers in systemic change to invest in the launch of Lift the City Foundation. With your support, we can build an infrastructure of healing that sustains long after the trauma.

To partner with us please send your emails to: 

Tamika@liftthecityfoundation.org

Help us lift the city—one child, one caregiver, one story at a time.

With urgency and purpose,

Tamika Bruce

Founder & Executive Director

Lift the City Foundation