TRIP BURNS
JACKSONIAN DAPHNE HIGGINS
D
aphne Higgins was born in Clarksdale in June 1961, one of 10 siblings. The big family made her into a people person, she says. After receiving her bachelor’s degree in mass communications at Jackson State University in 1983, she continued her education in public relations at the University of Memphis. Higgins got married and moved to Jackson with her husband, John, in 1992. “He’s from Jackson, so that was my reason for working here, ” Higgins says. Together, the couple has two children: a daughter Charence, now 18, and a son, J.P., who is 16. In 1992, Higgins started a 13-year sales career at The Clarion-Ledger. She left the paper in 2004 because of her son’s learning disabilities. “I felt I was fixing my son,” she says of giving up her full-time job. “I wanted more time with him—and my complete focus.” In October 2008, Earnestine Alexander convinced Higgins to volunteer and sit on the board of Dress For Success Metro Jackson. Alexander is the sister of DFSMJ’s executive director, Pat Chambliss, who asked Higgins to come on staff a year later. Dress For Success is an international organization that helps improve the lives of women and has 129 affiliates in 13 countries. It provides professional clothing, retention programs and support to instill confidence and secure jobs. Women come to Dress For Success through referrals. The DFSMJ Career Center helps clients create resumes and conducts mock
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interviews so that they’ll be ready to land a job. DFSMJ then dresses them from head to toe for interviews through the Suiting Program. As a program coordinator, Higgins has dressed women from Mississippi Valley State University, the Rankin County Department of Human Services, the Jackson WIN Job Center and dozens of other local referrals. “When a woman comes here, I dress her inwardly more so than outwardly,” Higgins says. “I help her realize she is filled with potential, and her outfit complements her person.” After a woman finds work, she can return to Dress for Success for a full week’s worth of professional attire. The Going Places Network, Professional Women’s Group and financial literacy programs help women gain professional skills, network and advance in their careers. In partnership with DFS, departmentstore chain J.C. Penney invites customers to easily make contributions to local chapters. “When we pull up our screen, it shows us this month’s donations. At the end of each transaction we ask customers to round up their dollars for donations to DFS,” says Teresa Powers, a J.C. Penney sales associate in Flowood. “I believe that God sent me here,” Higgins says of her work with Dress for Success. “I was successful in my communications career, and now it’s time to do this.” For more information about Dress for Success Metro Jackson, call 601-985-9888 or 601364-1722. —Angelica J. Allen
Cover photograph by Trip Burns
10 Running Man
“Just like everybody else, when I graduated in 1974, I wanted to get as far away from Mississippi as possible. … So I went to California and spent four years in the Army as a military policeman from 1974 to 78. Then I decided there was no place like home.” —Robert Thompson, “Thompson: Family Man.”
28 Good for You
First lady Michelle Obama praises improvements in Mississippi school lunches as a success story in her fight against childhood obesity.
31 Mini City
MMA’s public-art project, “C3: Creativity. Conversation. Community.,” gives participants a chance to learn about the city by building replicas of vital neighborhoods.
jacksonfreepress.com
4 ............................. EDITOR’S NOTE 6 ................................................ YOU 8 ............................................ TALKS 12 .....................................BUSINESS 14 ................. EDITORIAL CARTOON 15 .................................... OPINION 16 .............................. COVER STORY 25 ................................LIFE & STYLE 26 .....................................HITCHED 28 ........................................ FOOD 31 ...............................DIVERSIONS 32 .......................................... FILM 33 ............................... EIGHT DAYS 34 ............................... JFP EVENTS 36 ........................................ MUSIC 37 ..........................MUSIC LISTING 38 ...................................... SPORTS 39 ............................... ASTROLOGY 41 ............................. CLASSIFIEDS 41 .................................... PUZZLES 42 .............................................GIG
COURTESY JULIAN RANKIN ; OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE PHOTO BY LAWRENCE JACKSON; JACOB D FULLER
MARCH 6 - 12, 2013 | VOL. 11 NO. 26
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