Lauren Gaskins ’18, ’22: A Grandmother’s Inspiration

Lauren Gaskins ’18, ’22 spent a lifetime watching her grandmother take care of the people who lived in her New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) complex in the Bronx. There was no nonprofit, no board, and no staff. It was simply powered by her grandmother’s passion and energy for helping others.

Shortly before her grandmother died last December, a woman said to Gaskins, “What am I going to do without her?  Your grandmother is the reason why I have food on my table, my kids have book bags, my family has turkeys for Thanksgiving, and my kids have Christmas gifts.”

The comment nagged at Gaskins. “I couldn’t let that go,” Gaskins says. “So, before my grandmother died, I told her, ‘I got this.’”

A week after her grandmother passed away, Gaskins launched the Barbara Holmes Impact Foundation. Named for her grandmother, the non-profit is “dedicated to uplifting families, empowering individuals, and creating lasting change in our community.”

A Legacy is Launched

Gaskins grew up adoring her grandmother, who arrived in New York City at the age of 12, after running away from her home in South Carolina. Holmes found refuge with her own grandmother in NYCHA housing in the Bronx, where she would single-handedly raise six children and seven grandchildren in a three-bedroom apartment.

Gaskins lived nearby with her mom and sister. A self-described “troubled child,” Gaskins attended the Fordham High School of the Arts, where she was eventually kicked out and sent to the Jill Chaifetz High School. “I had caring teachers and a caring principal who changed the trajectory of my life,” she says. 

As a teen mom, Gaskins finished high school early and began attending Empire State University in 2014. She also worked full-time at a daycare for teen moms. After graduating in 2018 with a B.S. in educational studies, she went on to get her MBA in 2022. She set up a business helping others establish their own businesses.  

Teach the Skills

No matter where she was in her life, Gaskins always helped her grandmother help others, whether it was attending events, making deliveries, or packing food boxes. Now as the head of her own nonprofit, Gaskins wants to do more than help people get through immediate challenges; she wants to give people the skills and knowledge they need to thrive.

For example, when she gave out school supplies this year, she also handed out flyers inviting parents to a series of workshops about Individualized Education Programs (IEP), which are required for children who have special needs. The goal was to teach parents how to be advocates for their children who have IEPs.

Other projects include scholarships for swimming lessons and an upcoming job fair. Gaskins also plans to hire a grants officer and to build more partnerships.

“My grandmother did all this work for a community for 50 years without an organization behind her,” says Gaskins, now a mother of four. “Everything was just from the kindness of her heart. I want to expand this all over New York City, to other boroughs and the rest of New York State.”