JAMILA TRIMUEL
Guiding Her Ladies Down a Virtuous Path
Written by Lorena Arbe
Edited by Shannon Blum
When Jamila Trimuel is hanging out with the girls she mentors at Cambridge High School, her life looks like that of a typical teenage girl—laughing, teasing, hugging everybody goodbye. But when it comes to her life goals, Trimuel has been dead serious since she was a girl herself.
“When I was a little girl my dad would tell me, ‘You’re an African-American girl and you can do anything your mind wants to,’” Trimuel said.
Trimuel, 37, was brought up in a home where helping others was just part of being in the family. Whether it was encouraging talks with her father or singing their own “You and Me Will Conquer the World” song with her mother, she always had a positive outlook on her future. Her father had a dream of having his own business and hiring people who’d been incarcerated while her mother worked in nonprofit community organizations.
None of this changed Trimuel’s future as much as one conversation with her younger sister did.
Jamila Trimuel at a Ladies of Virtue meeting. Courtesy of Lauren Tussey
“When my sister was 5 and I was 18, I asked her the typical ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ question and she said ‘I want to go to high school, go to college and then go to grad school,’” Trimuel says. “It was that moment when I realized we grew up in that ‘college-going’ household.”
Trimuel did not see these same opportunities for the friends and neighbors around her in the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago. Negative comments were thrown at her friends. Violence and drugs surrounded their everyday world, with little to no support in creating a better life.
Trimuel wanted to change this.
Equipped with the inspiration and encouragement her parents gave her during her childhood, Trimuel decided to start an organization. She now provides the same encouragement to her mentees today, as they chat around classroom tables and plan their next projects together.
Trimuel is the founder and executive director of Ladies of Virtue, an organization focused on helping young girls ages 10 to 18. LOV matches girls with mentors that focus on teaching life lessons and leadership skills. Girls enrolled are also given internship opportunities to prepare them for their futures.
Trimuel launched LOV in October 2011 with 10 other volunteer mentors by her side. Initially, they had one location in the South Side. With the help of the Salem Baptist Church of Chicago, located in the Pullman neighborhood on the South Side, word spread about Trimuel and her group. The church gave LOV a booth once a year—a Sunday in September— to encourage new mentees. LOV has also gained a partnership with the Chicago Park District and teaches an after-school enrichment program at Crane Medical Prep High School.
LOV now has three Chicago locations and 40 mentors.
As a mentor herself, Trimuel assigns the girls certain group projects and teaches them how to represent themselves professionally. Projects and workshops are based on the ages of the mentees. Younger mentees tackle “My first resume” lessons where they are taught how to build a resume using their extracurricular activities. High school-aged students get to choose an issue they feel strongly about and find a solution for it through their own personal projects. LOV girls follow the group’s three virtues: purpose, passion and perseverance. Trimuel wants the mentees to learn how to finish what they started and focus on how their projects will illuminate problems in everyday life.
Jamila Trimuel leading a Ladies of Virtue meeting. Courtesy of Lauren Tussey
“We want them to become changers in their communities,” Trimuel says.
When they grow up, Trimuel wants her LOV students to focus on what they love instead of finding a way to make money.
“We don’t push a typical career that pays good,” Trimuel says. “We want to find what they love and what they are talented in.”
To Janiela McKinney, a mentee in LOV, Trimuel is an important role model in her own life alongside her mother. When Trimuel heard this about how McKinney views her, she couldn't help but laugh sweetly with an “Aww.” With the guidance of her mentors, McKinney led a project called “Barbie Me Not” to target the media’s idea of what is beautiful. McKinney aimed to help girls avoid unrealistic standards.
“Janiela is such a great example,” Trimuel said says. “She was excellent and she would take every opportunity that was presented to her.”
“We don't push a typical career that pays good, we want to find what they love and what they are
talented in.”
Jamila Trimuel
Trimuel is dreaming big—she wants LOV to reach the lives of girls in the Chicago suburbs and eventually, the lives of girls nationwide. For now, Trimuel stands proud with how far her ladies have come and how much she is influencing these girls’ lives.
“My biggest accomplishment is to see that 80 percent of our girls are on their way to graduate—it is huge to see that accomplishment for us,” Trimuel says.
As the LOV girls achieve their goals and find their callings, Trimuel is reassured by her own fulfilment of her life’s purpose.
The organization, she says, “means being a big sister, being there through the ups and downs and being a figure that loves them. We are giving back to the next generation so they can give back as well.”