Surviving Poverty

Nicole Hudgins is a Detroit-born entrepreneur, author, program developer, and survivor whose life is a powerful testimony of resilience, transformation, and impact. Raised in deep poverty on Detroit's west side, Nicole experienced childhood trauma that included neglect, family separation, foster care, and the tragic loss of her baby brother in a house fire at just two years old. At the age of 12, she was removed from her mother's care and spent the rest of her adolescence in group homes and foster care—navigating unstable environments while holding onto a deep hunger for learning and growth. Despite these challenges, Nicole was a high-achieving student, making the honor roll from kindergarten through her high school graduation. She attended several Detroit high schools—Northern, Detroit School of Arts, CMA, Kettering, and Central High—before graduating alongside her identical twin sister in 2000. Nicole briefly attended Eastern Michigan University in the honors dorms but left college following the devastating loss of her mother in 2002. Her life then spiraled into homelessness and survivalism, including living in her truck and doing whatever was necessary to survive. But Nicole never gave up. She began to rebuild her life in 2004, moving to Indiana with her brother and eventually marrying a man she met while working at Burger King. That same year, she launched her first nonprofit: The Escalady Organization, created to combat after-school violence and substance abuse in underserved youth. Using her own food stamps to fund daily programming in the park, she led peer mediation sessions, tutoring, anti-bullying workshops, music expression, and distributed newsletters to parents and neighbors. Her passion for community healing had officially begun. Nicole soon expanded her work into international trade, traveling multiple times a year between Michigan, West Africa, and Paris. She imported handcrafted items—jewelry, clothing, novelty statues—from artisans in Africa, selling them to church groups and clients in the U.S. This venture generated up to $40,000 a year, with Nicole building both a home and lasting relationships in her husband's homeland of West Africa. She returned to the U.S. in 2007 and gave birth to her first child in 2008. Nicole worked at Comfort Suites Hotel in Wixom and later at St. John Providence Hospital in Novi, where she rose to supervisor. She held additional jobs at Vista Maria Group Home and Spectrum Juvenile Justice Center, all while nurturing her growing family and dreams. Between 2016 and 2019, Nicole launched a street-based business selling apparel, accessories, and household items from her car in front of a local Detroit grocery store. She went from making $15 per day to earning up to $1,700 a day around the holidays—all while giving free items away every single day. Over three years, she grossed more than $375,000 and eventually left her jobs to run her business full-time. When the pandemic hit in 2020, Nicole pivoted again. She became a grant writer, business infrastructure specialist, and custom program developer, offering an expansive range of services including: EIN filing & business registration Articles of incorporation, licensing, and permits Board development & board training Partnership & fiduciary structuring Grant writing & annual funder compliance HIPAA & confidentiality agreements Fiscal projections, audits, and tax compliance Transportation, logistics, inventory, and quality control Since December 2024, Nicole has written and delivered over 20 custom-built nonprofit and business programs, each over 200 pages, for clients across multiple sectors. These include: 3 Veterans Programs A Medicaid-Based Service Program A Licensed Group Home Program A Reentry Program for Formerly Incarcerated Individuals A Youth and Community Violence Prevention Program Two Economic Development Programs One Youth-Focused Economic Empowerment Program And additional custom programs tailored to underserved populations Each program is fully structured with operational models, staff roles, measurable outcomes, funder-ready documentation, and practical implementation plans. Nicole not only develops the boards for these organizations—she trains them, empowers them to execute the programs effectively, and aligns them with funding opportunities and strategic partners. She has also written 10 full-length books (150+ pages each) during this same period, while managing client work, raising three children, and building her business. Her children—King (16), Prince (13), and Naiyla (3)—are all straight-A students and junior entrepreneurs who are following in their mother's footsteps of excellence, innovation, and purpose. Now, Nicole is releasing her most personal work to date: a 10-volume eBook series titled "Surviving Poverty", based on her real-life experiences growing up in extreme adversity and learning to build a life of impact. The series is part memoir, part guidebook—a blueprint for anyone who has faced despair but believes in the possibility of something greater. Nicole Hudgins is a dynamic force of nature whose journey—from pain to purpose, from survival to strategy—is inspiring a new generation of changemakers, dreamers, and builders. Her work is raw, real, and rooted in a belief that transformation is possible for anyone—regardless of where they start.