Our Story: From Loss to Legacy
The Akin Initiative was born from a family’s experience with profound loss. The Akin Initiative was created to turn one family’s experience of loss into a legacy of compassion, connection, and opportunity for others.
In 2025, Tajudeen Bola Akinwande died from colon cancer at the age of 57, leaving behind his wife and three children. The days and months that followed revealed something the Akinwande family could never have fully understood before experiencing it themselves: when someone you love dies, grief is only one part of what a family must carry.
There are decisions to make, responsibilities to manage, children to support, documents to understand, institutions to navigate, and a future to reconsider. Yet all of this must happen while a family is still trying to comprehend its loss.
For immigrant families, those challenges can be even more difficult. Many are building their lives far from extended family and familiar support systems. They may not know what resources exist, whom to ask for help, or how unfamiliar systems work.
Out of the Akinwande family’s experience came a desire to make the journey different for someone else.
The Akin Initiative was created so that families facing loss, illness, and major life transitions can find community, practical support, and a path forward.
Our vision also looks beyond moments of crisis.
We believe one of the greatest investments we can make in immigrant communities is an investment in their young people. Through mentorship, peer support, educational guidance, career exposure, and encouragement, we want high school and college students to have people in their corner who remind them that their circumstances do not determine the limits of their future.
We also recognize the courage it takes to begin again in a new country. Through resource navigation and community connections, we seek to help newcomers find their footing and build stable, connected lives.
Our programs are different expressions of the same commitment:
To walk alongside people through transition and help them move toward stability, opportunity, and hope.
What began from one family’s experience of loss is becoming a commitment to serve many families.
This is the heart of The Akin Initiative.
Through Loss. Through Transition. Toward Hope.
What We Do
01
Support for Today. Opportunity for Tomorrow.
Our work focuses on four areas that help immigrant individuals, families, and young people navigate challenges, build resilience, and move forward with hope.
Family & Grief Support
Walking alongside families when life changes.
We provide compassionate, non-clinical support, peer connection, resource navigation, and referrals for families grieving the death of a loved one or coping with the serious or terminal illness of a family member.
02
Youth Mentorship & Peer Support
Helping young people see what is possible.
We connect high school and college students with mentors, peers, educational resources, career exposure, and caring adults who can encourage them to stay focused, overcome challenges, develop confidence, and pursue their goals.
03
Newcomer Resource Navigation
Helping new beginnings feel less overwhelming.
Starting life in a new country can mean navigating unfamiliar systems without an established support network. We help newcomers and immigrant families connect with trusted community resources, educational opportunities, services, and organizations that can help them establish and strengthen their lives in New York.
04
Empowerment & Life Advancement
Building skills. Creating opportunities. Strengthening futures.
Through workshops, information, professional connections, and community programs, we help individuals develop practical skills, confidence, and pathways toward education, employment, leadership, and greater self-sufficiency.
Who We Serve
A Community for Every Season of Transition
The Akin Initiative primarily serves immigrant individuals, young people, and families in New York, including:
- Families grieving the loss of a loved one;
- Families navigating a serious or terminal diagnosis;
- High school and college students seeking mentorship and guidance;
- New immigrants adjusting to life in the United States; and
- Individuals and families seeking resources, connection, encouragement, and opportunities to move forward.
Whether you are facing loss, beginning again, searching for guidance, or simply need someone to point you in the right direction, you are welcome here.
Founder
Funmilayo Akinwande
Founder
Board Members
Ify Ezinwa
Iretiayo Olusoga
Olayinka Odubanjo
Volunteers
Dammy Akinwande
Dolapo Akinwande
Dara Akinwande