The Upton Program

The Upton Program (TUP) aims to create systems that break barriers and dismantle stigmas that the community of parenting and pregnant youth face. TUP equips parenting and pregnant youth with tools to thrive in career skills, personal finance, and parenting. This model supports TUP participants and their children to prosper and create an elevated future for generations to come.

Our Team

Madeline "Maddie" Hodapp: Executive Director & Co-Founder

Kimberly "Kimmi" Towers: Board President & Co-Founder

Charlie Barba-Cook: Board Secretary

Kierra Thomas: Board Treasurer

Tori Hensley: Board Member

Our Name

The Upton Program is named after the street our founders, Maddie Hodapp and Kimmi Towers, grew up on in North Minneapolis. The community of North Minneapolis has stayed at the core of our founders "why" as they grew into their careers of youth work, business evolution and program development. After years of ideation, interviews, and brainstorming, their passion for curating opportunities for young people grew to become The Upton Program. They are committed to this work and are actively building a platform for parenting young adults to be seen, cared for, and space for continued growth for themselves and their family. 

Our Pilot Program

We are thrilled to announce the successful launch of our pilot program through The Upton Program, which took place on Thursday, September 19th. This initial session welcomed five parents and their children, marking an important step in our commitment to building TUP’s curriculum, fostering community engagement and supporting parenting young adults. During this pilot program, The Upton Program will:

• Serve parenting young adults, age 18-25, living in Minneapolis
• They will participate in a trauma informed curriculum, created by parenting youth for parenting youth (check out "A Snapshot" to learn more about our previous Advisory Council), that will focus on three pillars- financial wellness and career readiness. 
• Parents will be paid for their participation and will be able to utilize what they learn from the curriculum on how to budget their wages. 
• Eliminate barriers such as lack of access to childcare and transportation while parents invest time in accessing career readiness training and financial literacy education. 

Our Give to the Max Goal

We are excited to be given this platform in support of our fiscal sponsor, Propel Nonprofits and Give to the Max, to share our story and connect to donors, like yourself. Our goal of $5000 will be used to address barriers such as childcare, transportation, and access to nutritious meals and basic needs for the families. Your donations will ensure our first cohort of parenting young adults are able to experience a quality program and can successfully complete the program without barriers. 

“It’s not only children who grow. Parents do too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can’t tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it, myself.”

- Joyce Maynard