Our Programs
First Light
Cancer Support Services
First Light helps people in underserved communities get screened for breast cancer.
First light is the moment before sunrise when it becomes possible to see what is actually there. In cancer care, that moment has a name. Early detection is the single greatest predictor of whether someone survives breast cancer, and it is the one most determined by circumstance rather than by biology. This program exists to bring it within reach of the people it has been passing by.
That is a narrower purpose than most cancer organizations open with, and it is deliberate. Screening access is the point in a cancer journey where an ordinary obstacle produces the most permanent consequence, and it is the point where an organization our size can genuinely impact what happens to someone.
The program carries our mother's circumstances. She was taken by a cancer that is caught early far more often in communities with more money and more access than the one she came from.
The need
A cancer diagnosis is difficult under any circumstances. It is considerably harder without insurance, without transportation, without a primary care relationship, and without anyone in your life who has been through it before and can tell you what comes next.
Black women are 38% more likely to die from breast cancer than white women despite a 5% lower incidence rate, and they have the lowest survival rates of any group at every stage of diagnosis. That gap is not biological. It is assembled out of late detection, delayed treatment, and the accumulated weight of obstacles that have nothing to do with medicine.
We work on the earliest of those obstacles, because it is the one where showing up on the right day with the right coordination changes an outcome.
Sources: American Cancer Society, Breast Cancer Facts & Figures 2024-2025; Giaquinto et al., Breast Cancer Statistics 2024, CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, 74(6), 477-495.
What we do today
Breast cancer screening access
We help people who face barriers to routine mammography get screened. In practice that means three things:
- We create access, coordinating with healthcare providers, Federally Qualified Health Centers, and mobile mammography programs to bring screening within reach of people it has not been reaching.
- We do outreach and education in the communities we serve, working through congregations, health centers, and neighborhood organizations to talk plainly about screening eligibility, guidelines, and why early detection matters.
- And we remove the logistical obstacles that sit between a person and an appointment they have been putting off, which is usually the part nobody else is handling.
Licensed providers deliver all screening. The Foundation does not provide medical services. Our role is access, education, and coordination.
Who we serve
We serve people in underserved communities who face barriers to routine mammography, whether that is a lack of insurance, no reliable transportation, no primary care relationship, or simply no one in their life telling them it matters.
The program operates with an open door. No one is turned away based on insurance status, immigration status, or ability to pay, and there is no cost for anything the Foundation provides directly.
Set to begin operations in Jacksonville, Florida and the surrounding region in October 2026, with expansion planned as need and capacity allow.
What we are building
Screening is the entry point, not the whole of what someone needs. The services below are what First Light is designed to become, and each one will open as we can fund and staff it properly.
- Care navigation.
- Helping people understand a diagnosis, communicate with a care team, find financial assistance, and move through a fragmented system with someone beside them.
- Transportation.
- Getting people to appointments and treatment reliably.
- Companionship.
- Trained volunteers who go with patients who would otherwise go alone.
- Mental health referrals and caregiver relief.
- Support for the person in treatment and for the family carrying the weight nobody sees.
- End-of-life family liaison.
- Helping families navigate hospice, communicate with care teams, and reach grief support.
- Screenings beyond breast cancer.
- Prostate cancer is the clearest next step. Black men experience roughly double the prostate cancer mortality of white men and a 67% higher incidence rate, and the American Cancer Society recommends that Black men discuss screening with a provider beginning at age 45.
Source: Kratzer et al., Prostate Cancer Statistics 2025, CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, 75(6), 485-497.
Not sure whether we can help?
Reach out anyway.
What we offer today is access to screening rather than cash assistance, and we are honest about that. But if you need something we do not yet provide, tell us what it is. We will do our best to point you toward someone in your area who can help, and knowing what people actually need is how we decide what to build next.
This page is not monitored around the clock. If you are experiencing a medical emergency, call 911.
Support First Light
A gift to First Light funds screenings for the uninsured and underinsured and the outreach that fills them. Volunteering helps us reach people who are not being reached. And if you run a clinic, a church, or a community organization, partnering with us is the fastest way to put this program in front of the people who need it.