This Sisters with Superpowers story is sponsored by Chevy.
Minou Jones, founder and CEO of Making It Count Community Development Corporation, successfully used her life experiences to help educate minority communities on healthcare rights. Growing up with minimal resources during Detroit’s drug epidemic sparked Jones interest in protecting her loved ones and those like them. She began work with the city of Detroit and also served as the CEO of the Black Caucus Foundation, where she helped curate drug prevention programs in the youth community.
Through her organization, Making It Count, the smoke ordinance in Detroit and Wayne County was passed to mandate a statewide smoking ban. She has also secured substantial funding to foster health initiatives to improve access to healthcare and well-being for residents of the Detroit metropolitan area.
What do you consider to be your superpower?
I would say my superpower is being a protector of my community and my people. I make sure that we have equal access to the things that impact our health. Also that our youth has every opportunity available to reach their dreams, and be successful, happy, and healthy in life. It’s my passion.
What are some of the responsibilities that come with your profession?
I’ve been in community organizing and have focused on public health for about 20 years. I started with the city of Detroit at the local health department and was able to matriculate all the way up to the state level and have a fellowship through the centers for substance abuse and prevention. During that time I learned about how to get funding, how to write grants, and how to articulate our problems in a way that would amount to resources being brought back to our community. Some of that in large part is related to policy work. Policies create what we call “population-level change.” You can work to change one individual with a mentoring program or one-on-one service and I love to do that work, but you can also impact an entire community through policy change.
Please share one of your career success stories.
Most recently, one of the policy pieces and community mobilization efforts that I’ve been working on is addressing tobacco-related disparities in the Black community. We are disproportionately affected by tobacco. It’s close to home for me, and I’ve been working to really educate the community, bring awareness to this issue, and hopefully save black lives through policy change.
In Jones’ spare time, she is a mother of six and a respected interior decorator. She practices self-care through therapy and other routines to help balance her many ventures.
