Danae Briggs

Danae, a single mother of three small children, moved from Kentucky to Tennessee in 2000. She enrolled in Tennessee’s TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) program, called Families First, and immediately encountered difficulties in obtaining her child support payments and accessing services in the “First Wheels” program, a program designed to assist Families First enrollees obtain a car. She worked diligently with TJC to get those services. 

In addition, she was facing obstacles in securing necessary medical care for one of her sons, five-year-old Jacob, who had been diagnosed in Kentucky with behavioral disorders – oppositional defiant behavior, destructive behavior disorder, impulse control disorder, and autism. Danae worked tirelessly and heroically to get the services her son so desperately needed and to avoid having her son enter state custody. 

Published in 2004