Toni LaBarbara
Founder of the Social Mobility Journal
I believe social mobility is a battle to make a tomorrow that is better than today. After losing my mother, enduring homelessness, and inheriting a world of incarceration, addiction, and abuse, I found refuge in my journal. I needed a place to register my pains and take authorship of my story. My stories became college essays, my college essays became scholarships, and my scholarships led me to research the systemic problems facing my community.
The Social Mobility Journal is a national platform for youth to share personal stories, research, poetry, and photography that demonstrate the resilience of working class communities. Our mission is to train the next generation of journalists and document the powerful narratives that history should never forget.
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At SMJ, we journal together, build resources together, and remind ourselves that our resilience is power.
Research areas:
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1. Accessibility of the basic needs of survival to all humans
2. Representative democracy with free press, universal voter engagement, and the separation of corporate interests from public governance
3. Human-centered AI systems to ensure humans and AI symbiotically coevolve
4. Environmental and Human Health through sustainable economic and physical infrastructure
Research
Nonprofit
Leadership
Founding SMJ has been a labor of love: a lifelong project to connect with humans and elevate important stories through youth journalism.
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Having worked closely with leadership of international humanitarian nonprofits, I aim to ignite meaningful change through grassroots movements that empower people over profit.
