DUNEDIN, Fla. — Tamika Holland is celebrating a young life lost way too soon. But there was more going on Sunday at the celebration of two-year-old Jordan Belliveau. Although she’s raised all her children years ago and now helps with her own grandchildren, she says she’s learning to become a better parent. 

“I learned to budget. I learned how to cope better with the kids compared to back in our day,” she said. “It was more so, isolation, not so much being one-on-one with the kids. Because I was a young parent.”

Jordan’s tragic death four years ago at the hands of his own mother shocked most people, but for Founder and President of A Mother's Arms, Inc. Chantala Davis, it made her take up a cause to help prevent this kind of tragedy from happening again.

“So within my program they’re learning about themselves,” she said. “They’re learning why they think the way they think. Why do they do some things that they do?”

Holland says the eight-week program opened her eyes on how to control the stresses of raising a child that every parent faces. 

“Budgeting. How to deal with the men,” she said. “How to deal with your children, especially yourself. By the time you finish this class, if you’re not embracing a new person, you weren’t focused enough.”

Davis says the program has even led to conversations with Jordan’s mother from prison 

“She actually thanks me all the time,” Davis said. “I’m in touch with her. She writes to me. She emails me and she says that she hopes what she did will help other mothers and she thanks me for developing this program.”