Meet Our Co-Founder: Constance Merritt

 Award-winning poet and writer, and Co-Founder of Bringing Justice home, Constance Merritt had humble beginnings growing up in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. For most of her childhood, her dad worked delivering furniture and her mom worked as the the delivery clerk for a local drugstore. Industrious from the beginning, she sold seeds, Watkins, and Blair to earn spending money. As a teen, she volunteered at a local nursing home and with a family working to heal a toddler who had suffered a traumatic brain injury.

Constance held a deep admiration for journalists and her passion for writing was further fueled in the fourth grade when she entered, and won, a tall-tale writing contest. And for as long as she can remember, she wanted to make a difference in the world and help people who were marginalized in society.

Although Constance was extremely bright and motivated, she faced an obstacle - Constance was legally blind - but this only served to motivate her. Besides attending the School for the Blind, Constance attended the University of Utah in Salt Lake City where she received her B.A. and M.A. She then attended the University of Nebraska in Lincoln where she received her Ph.D. in Creative Writing.

Later, she attended University of Louisville's Kent School of Social Work, where she received an M.S., focused on gerontology and palliative care. From UofL, she received a Graduate Dean's Citation, which recognizes students with exceptional academic achievements and leadership potential. She also received a Critical Thinking Award.

Dr. Merritt's desire to help those who are marginalized led her to volunteer with AIDS Interfaith Ministries (AIM), delivering food bags to home-bound clients, and working in their food pantry. She also served on their Board of Directors. She performed social work internships at Christian Care Communities (low-income housing for older adults), Jewish Hospital Palliative Care team, and Wellspring Inc. (mental health recovery and housing services). After graduating from UofL, she was a medical case manager for people living with HIV/AIDS.

Dr. Merritt's achievements are vast and broad: She is also the winner of the Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry and a finalist for the William Carlos Williams Book Award. In 2001, Merritt received the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award and a fellowship from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. From 2003 to 2005, Merritt served as the Margaret Banister Writer-In-Residence at Sweet Briar College. She is also licensed as a Certified Social Worker (CSW).

Despite all of these outstanding achievements and qualifications, Merritt faced the same barriers to employment faced by many people with disabilities - from discrimination in the hiring process to an unwillingness to accommodate persons with disabilities. All of which culminated in the co-founding of Bringing Justice Home (BJH) with her wife, Maria Accardi.

Constance says that the idea for starting BJH came to the couple in the early months of 2020 over a sink full of dirty dishes while musing about how to help solve food insecurity in the Louisville area. Within a few short months, what began as a simple idea quickly became a full-fledged nonprofit.