Our Story
H.E.R. is not a program designed from a distance. It was built by someone who grew up here, worked in the system, watched what it costs girls — and decided to build something different.
Founder's Story
I grew up in Cedar Rapids. Like a lot of Black girls in this city, I learned early how to move through spaces that were not built for me — how to adapt, how to shrink, how to survive. Some of those lessons served me. Some of them cost me. And for a long time, I carried both without knowing the difference.
I got into my own trouble at 23. The kind that could have defined me — and didn't. I made a decision to flip my life, and that decision led me into youth work. I spent over a decade in residential treatment and specialized youth programs, learning from the inside out how trauma shapes young people, how systems respond to them, and how much gets missed when we only meet kids after something has already gone wrong.
I was given real responsibility in that work — and I also learned what it feels like to be kept in a box. To see what's possible and not have room to build it. When it was time to go, I knew. And I went.
My last years in direct service, I worked with girls. It changed everything. Girls require something different — not tougher, not softer, just realer. They need someone who is not performing safety. Someone who actually is safe. I became that person in those rooms, and I have not stopped trying to be her since.
H.E.R. is my healing and theirs at the same time. Everything I had to figure out on my own — about identity, about power, about what it means to be a Black woman building something in a city that wasn't built for you — I am turning into a curriculum. Into a community. Into something that will outlast me.
Cedar Rapids has needed this for a long time. The girls here deserve it. I am proud to be building it — in the city where I grew up, for the girls who look like the girl I was.
— Micah J. Reed, Founder & Executive Director
Over a decade of frontline experience in residential treatment, trauma-informed youth work, and leadership development with Black adolescent girls.
Born and raised here. This isn't an outside intervention. It is community-rooted infrastructure built by someone with skin in the game.
The peer mentor-to-employee pipeline is written into H.E.R.'s organizational design from the beginning. The girls we serve today become the facilitators of tomorrow.
The Organization
H.E.R. — Hope. Empowerment. Resilience. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. We are prevention-focused, school-based, and built entirely around the belief that Black adolescent girls deserve leadership development infrastructure — not just crisis response.
Our flagship program, Pathways to Power, is a 12-module leadership curriculum currently piloting in an alternative school setting, with additional partnerships in development. It is not therapy. It is not risk management. It is leadership development — organized around Five Pillars: Identity, Regulation, Power, Vision, and Community.
H.E.R. was incorporated in May 2024 and received its 501(c)(3) determination. Every document, policy, and practice is built to protect participants and honor their dignity.
See the ProgramWhat We Stand On
To develop emotionally intelligent, self-aware, and community-rooted leaders by providing Black adolescent girls with the skills, support, and cultural affirmation they need to thrive — before the system ever gets the chance to define them.
The girls we serve today return tomorrow as the mentors, facilitators, and changemakers who sustain this work for the next generation. The peer mentor-to-employee pipeline is the long-term heart of this organization.
We center Blackness as an asset. Identity is not a risk factor — it is a foundation.
We meet girls before the system does. Our work is upstream, intentional, and long-term.
Every program element is designed to build leaders — not manage behavior.
We understand the role of trauma without letting it define our participants.
We are accountable to the girls, their families, and the Cedar Rapids community.
The harvest belongs to the girls. We are planting now, on purpose, for the long run.
Ready to support the work? Every dollar funds leadership development that meets Black girls where they are.
Make a ContributionCedar Rapids, Iowa · (319) 361-0111 · hopeempowermentresilience@gmail.com