Every Friday, Anitrice Jackson, better known as \u201cMama Joy,\u201d devotes her only day off from working as a health information specialist at Jackson Hospital to feed and clothe underprivileged families in Overtown.<\/p>\n
Jackson, 62, is the founder and chief executive officer of Nana\u2019s Restart, a nonprofit organization created in 2013. Under her guidance, Nana\u2019s Restart has provided hundreds of school uniforms, meals, and basic necessities to youth in one of Miami\u2019s oldest Black neighborhoods.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Born and raised in Liberty City in 1962, Jackson grew up an only child. At 14, she became pregnant with her daughter, Lakeycia, and dropped out of Miami Edison Senior High School. Two years later, she got her first job at her father\u2019s restaurant, Narobe\u2019s, as a cashier.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Anitrice Jackson, in red, poses with one of the families she\u2019s helped through Nana\u2019s Restart.<\/p>\n
(Courtesy of Lakeycia Garcia)<\/p>\n
\u201cI was a teenage mom and a dropout,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cAll in one.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Four years after Lakeycia was born, Jackson gave birth to her first son, Gecobe Sr. Four years after that came James Jr. And then in 1991, twin girls Jamie and Jane arrived. During this time, she was married to an infamous drug dealer. Jackson says her then-husband went to jail twice facing trafficking charges.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was in a domestic-violence relationship,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cNobody knew until I got divorced in \u201894.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Throughout her marriage, Jackson was subject to physical and verbal abuse. Although she recognized the signs, she wanted her children to grow up with a mother and father.<\/p>\n
With tears in her eyes, Jackson recalled the day she nearly committed suicide;\u00a0she stood before the bathroom mirror, pills in her hand, with her mother, Gladys, on a phone call.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said, \u2018You\u2019re a great mama\u2026Your kids need you. I could give them grandmother\u2019s love. But I can\u2019t replace a mama\u2019s love,\u2019\u201d Jackson said.<\/p>\n
Gladys instilled faith in her from a young age. She encouraged Jackson to live another day to be there for her children.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jackson relied on multiple forms of financial aid to feed her family while her husband was incarcerated. Then at age 28, she was hired at Susanna Wesley Health Center as a nursing assistant. She earned\u00a0 $4.25 an hour and was the youngest one there.<\/p>\n
When Jackson moved to Overtown in 2008, she says the locals welcomed her. Five years later, she founded Nana\u2019s Restart. She says she was inspired by the Angel Tree Program, a national program that provided new clothes and toys to her family and many others across the nation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As the leader of\u00a0 Nana\u2019s Restart, Jackson has learned the value of listening.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to let people know there is help here,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cBut I just love people. I love to see people smile.\u201d<\/p>\n
So far, Nana\u2019s Restart has raised over $50,000 in grants. Organizations such as Catalyst Miami and Overtown Youth Coalition have made donations ranging from $1,000 to $3,000. Jackson hopes to retire from her job at Jackson Hospital in 2027 to be a full-time leader at her nonprofit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s impeccable, like, as far as where she\u2019s come from and where she has gone\u2026it\u2019s amazing,\u201d said Jackson\u2019s oldest daughter Lakeycia, who is vice president of Nana\u2019s Restart.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nana\u2019s Restart has allowed Jackson to give back to Overtown what Liberty City gave her as a single mother: clothing, food, and a community. In August 2025, Nana\u2019s Restart helped 275 students by providing more than 500 sets of school uniforms.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jackson also hopes to work in a police department, where she can hear the stories of domestic-violence victims.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be the chaplain\u2026for mothers who went through so much domestic violence,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cThat\u2019s my goal. To let them know my story.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jaime Rubio contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every Friday, Anitrice Jackson, better known as \u201cMama Joy,\u201d devotes her only day off from working as a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[79793,79806,79804,79812,33666,79809,79797,79815,79808,79800,79796,79810,79811,123,79803,79799,125,124,18484,79814,79794,79818,79801,79807,79817,24590,79795,79802,79805,79798,79813,79819,79816],"class_list":["post-167814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-anitrice-jackson-mama-joy","tag-back-to-school-help-miami-families","tag-catalyst-miami-community-grants","tag-community-leaders-making-a-difference-miami","tag-community-outreach","tag-domestic-violence-survivor-community-advocate","tag-feeding-families-overtown-miami","tag-grassroots-charity-programs-south-florida","tag-inspirational-story-miami-community-activist","tag-jackson-hospital-employee-community-work","tag-liberty-city-community-leader-story","tag-liberty-city-upbringing-community-service","tag-local-charity-helping-miami-children","tag-miami","tag-miami-black-community-nonprofit-leader","tag-miami-grassroots-nonprofit-helping-kids","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-miami-nonprofit","tag-miami-volunteers-helping-low-income-families","tag-nanas-restart-nonprofit-miami","tag-neighborhood-organizations-overtown-miami","tag-nonprofit-helping-underprivileged-families-miami","tag-nonprofit-providing-meals-and-clothing-miami","tag-nonprofit-school-supply-drives-miami","tag-overtown","tag-overtown-families-support-program","tag-overtown-youth-assistance-programs","tag-overtown-youth-coalition-partnerships","tag-school-uniforms-donation-miami-students","tag-small-nonprofit-impact-overtown-neighborhood","tag-story-of-nanas-restart-founder","tag-support-for-underserved-communities-miami"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}