Though the original “Kids’ Chance of Mississippi” has been around for 20 years, this year it became its own nonprofit out from under the Mississippi Bar Association (where it lived since 2002, powered by the workers’ compensation section mediation program of the Mississippi Bar).

Jim Anderson, President of Kids’ Chance of Mississippi (KCMS), first heard about Kids’ Chance in the early 1990’s but, he remembers, they didn’t have enough traction to start one of their own. The workers’ compensation section of the Mississippi Bar Association established a Kids’ Chance Mediation Program to serve as mediators for the litigated Mississippi workers’ compensation cases and to raise funds to provide scholarships. Mississippi Workers’ Compensation  mediators donated $50 per hour for each hour spent in these mediations, and that fundraising effort continues to this day!

This arrangement  was successful over the years, but many thought there was an opportunity to serve more students if they spun it off on its own. After early stumbles, KCMS officially became its own 501(c)(3) nonprofit this year — with 21 board members ready to go.

“We knew that there were a number of people who were interested in being on the Board,” Jim says. “We made a long list of people who were connected to medical, insurance, claims, and the other components of the entire workers’ compensation community. Everyone we approached said ‘yes’.”

The newly-formed KCMS board includes, as examples, doctors, a commissioner,  an administrative judge, the MWCC Secretary, the Executive Directors of the Mississippi Association of Self Insurers and the Mississippi Truckers Association, and other claims professionals, attorneys, nurse case managers, and a vocational rehabilitation professional.  

In these early months, Jim and the board are focused on setting expectations for KCMS and determining fundraising initiatives. They began meeting monthly to establish committees and to work on getting organized and establishing income streams with the plan to scale back to quarterly meetings as things progressed. KCMS is proud of how far it has come!

“We are fledgling in terms of our identity,” Jim says. “Not everyone has heard of Kids’ Chance, even in the workers’ compensation legal community.  Educating people about who we are and getting money in the door is our first challenge.”

‍Photograph: (from left) Jim Anderson, President, Hannah Adcock Wallace, KCMS scholarship recipient, and Deneise Lott, Vice President.

‍About Kids’ Chance

‍Kids’ Chance of America is a 501(c)(3) organization that represents a collection of state-level nonprofit organizations that provide scholarships and support to the kids of workers who have been injured on the job. Cumulatively, since their inception in 1988, Kids’ Chance organizations have awarded over 9,300 scholarships totaling over $33 million dollars. To learn more about Kids' Chance, visit our website at www.kidschance.org.