Today’s post comes from the DC Diaper Bank, whose mission is to strengthen families by providing a reliable and adequate supply of free diapers to families in need living in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Begun in 2010, DC Diaper Bank works with a network of 17 social service agencies to provide diapers to more than 1,700 babies and families a month. Continue reading
With Fall in full swing, our nonprofits are getting busy! See what great events you can head to in the upcoming week. Are you a current Catalogue nonprofit with an event to promote? Make sure to put it in your portal so you can see your event in an upcoming Around Town! Continue reading
Today is World Food Day where organizations of all sizes mobilize to end hunger. In that spirit, here are a few food-related items to consider:
1. An estimated 870 million people in the world are chronically hungry. About 60 percent of those are women. In the U.S., more than 16 million kids live in food-insecure households. In DC, 15.7% of households suffer from food insecurity; in Maryland, 15.6% of Prince George’s County households risk going hungry food compared to the state’s average of 13.4%. (from Feeding America)
2. Programs that work to provide kids with free lunches & breakfasts reach over 9.6 million kids each year, but an equal number of eligible students are not enrolled. Hear one story about a 12 year-old student going to school hungry and its impact from an “Education Nation” broadcast here.
3. While the SNAP and WIC programs are currently funded through the end of the month, some local food banks are gearing up for a crunch, due to delayed benefits and the lingering government shutdown. Federal assistance aside, area food banks have seen a 25% increase in demand since 2006.
In greater Washington, there are so many organizations working tirelessly to combat hunger every day. Consider getting involved — by volunteering, making a donation, starting a food drive — with one of our partners today, including: Arlington Food Assistance Center, DC Hunger Solutions, Food for Others, Manna Food Center, Miriam’s Kitchen, Our Daily Bread
Today we welcome Global Kids to Goodworks! Global Kids works to ensure that urban youth have the knowledge, skills, experiences and values they need to succeed in school, participate effectively in the democratic process, and achieve leadership in their communities and on the global stage. A nationally known educational nonprofit, Global Kids combines global learning, youth development, and experiential learning strategies to work closely with underserved, at-risk youth, to improve their academics, prepare them for college and careers, and to cultivate the next generation of leaders.
Tshala Pajibo is a senior at McKinley Technology High School who plans to study literature next year in college. She joined Global Kids this summer for the Global Gateways Summer Institute and was selected to be one of the eight students who travelled to Costa Rica for a week-long service-learning trip. Tshala is a long-time resident of Columbia Heights who is active in her community and at church.
Complexities of Development: An Account by Tshala Pajibo
Here in Costa Rica we have been learning about development and some of the complexities that come with it. It really resonated with me and my experience in DC.
You see, the house that I live in- my grandma’s house – is really, really old. They have been in Columbia Heights since the Great Migration. The house, which used to be painted pink to keep it cool in the DC heat, is the family center- from family meetings to cookouts to graduation parties. Everything is held there.
It used to be in a shady neighborhood where you couldn’t go out after dark. Then it started getting better, when neighbors started looking after one another. Then the local stores started to leave. The carry-out that my brothers frequented moved because they weren’t getting business. Now there’s a strip of chain stores like Sprint, 7/11, and Target. Meanwhile, the empty houses on the block started getting fixed up, so they didn’t look weird.
That’s when my family got a letter from the DC government saying that we would have to paint our house. My grandma has always had the house painted pink to keep it cool. Now the letter said that the house was too different and was impacting the property values of other houses. It’s already hard to meet the changing prices of things, so we painted the house brown and burgundy to avoid fines.
With the increases in property tax and the cost of living, poor people are forced to move from their homes. My neighbors have changed from being families who have been here forever to people that stay for just a few years.
It’s these changes that make gentrification hard. It may not seem significant that my family had to paint over the pink paint that my grandmother loved so much, but it’s an example of how sometimes I feel like I am being made invisible in my own neighborhood. It makes me understand how some of the people in Puerto Viejo feel now that they are being move from their land for development.
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To learn more about Global Kids, please visit: http://globalkids.org/#/our-programs/washington-dc
No matter what type of event you are looking to head to this weekend, the events featured below will all help you make a difference in your community. See what you can do to give back to great nonprofits in your own backyard. Continue reading
It’s Mental Illness Awareness Week, and DC’s Mayor Gray is hosting a city-wide conversation on mental health on Saturday October 12th. The forum, entitled “Creating Community Solutions DC,” aims to engage hundreds of residents to “develop strategies to reduce the stigma associated with, and increase openness to, mental-health care,” according to the City’s website. This conversation will be the starting point for a community action plan to be developed by government officials, nonprofit and private sector leaders.
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Today we’re shining a spotlight on Horton’s Kids (a recent winner of a Washington Post Charities Award and City Paper’s 2013 Best NonProfit) to find out what they’re most excited for this year and congratulate them on their 25th Anniversary!
Horton’s Kids: Celebrating 25 Years
by Kristin Frontiera
This year is an exciting one for Horton’s Kids! We are thrilled to be celebrating our 25th anniversary, an incredible milestone for our organization and the children and families we serve.
We kicked off the celebratory year over the weekend, with a dedication of the Horton’s Kids Community Resource Center to our founder, Karin Walser. This look back at the organization’s early days was a reunion of some of our earliest volunteers and the children who first joined Karin on weekend field trips! As the organization grew to include tutoring, meals, and basic needs items like shoes, coats, and glasses, Horton’s Kids served more and more children. Last year, for example, Horton’s Kids reached 676 children through tutoring, older youth programming, summer camp, and the many support services delivered at the Community Resource Center. (We blogged about the March 2012 renovation of the Community Resource Center on the Catalogue blog here!)
In addition to the many services offered in the Community Resource Center, Horton’s Kids continues to bring the children out of their isolated neighborhood into the heart of this amazing city! We are just a couple weeks into our 13th year of tutoring on Capitol Hill, and Horton’s Kids has already enrolled 120 children! With support through The Washington Post Charities, a fund of the McCormick Foundation, Horton’s Kids continues to deliver three evenings of one-on-one tutoring for children in grades K through 6.
Horton’s Kids is targeting our younger readers this year, as children need to be reading on or above grade level by third grade, or they’ll always be behind. We use a research-based intervention model, developed at the University of Virginia, that moves readers along a sequence, so they can really focus on what they need to learn, rather than what their grade level dictates. Children spend the 90-minute tutoring sessions working on reading and math skills through fun and interactive games with their dedicated volunteer tutors.
To learn more about volunteering at Horton’s Kids, visit www.hortonskids.org/volunteer. In addition to tutoring, volunteers can work with older youth on homework help, join the children on weekend field trips, and more!
Are you a golfer that is looking to support a good cause while still working on your golf game? Or are you a non-golfer (like me), who just likes to get out and support local nonprofits? If so, Rebuilding Together Montgomery County has a great event for you!
Rebuilding Together Montgomery County
The RTMC Golf Classic brings together motivated golfers and socially responsible businesses, joining hands to take a swing at providing low-income homeowners with the help they need to live in safe and healthy homes. While enjoying a day out on the green, golfers have the opportunity to network with other professionals and commit their resources in support of our community and its most vulnerable residents. This year, corporate executives, civic leaders, skilled trades professionals, and community leaders will come together again to support Rebuilding Together Montgomery County and the work we do across this region. Lunch, goody bags, and course beverages will be provided, as will many opportunities to enhance your game play and score! Once again, there will be a Harley Davidson on the course just waiting for the talented golfer to get a Hole-in-One! After the tournament, players will enjoy dinner and a silent auction while awaiting word of the victors. Prizes are available for game and tournament winners.
When: Monday, October 7, 2013 (10:00 AM – 7:00 PM)
Where: Whiskey Creek Golf Club – Ijamsville, MD, 4804 Whiskey Court, Ijamsville, MD 21754
Fee? :yes Volunteers are free; golfing begins at $250, sponsorships begin at $150
Volunteer Info: Register Golfers, Sell Raffle Tickets, Host Games
Contact: Lee-Berkeley Shaw, (301) 933-2700 ext 307
For more information: click here
Remember: if you are a current Catalogue nonprofit, we would love to post your events and volunteer opportunities! Make sure to put them in through your portal and they will go out not only on our site, but on our blog as well! If you have any questions about how to access your portal or posting events and volunteer opportunities, email our Community Partnerships Coordinator Jenn Hatch at jhatch@cfp-dc.org.
by Scott Schenkelberg, Miriam’s Kitchen
The Federal government shutdown has been the talk of the town all week. And here at Miriam’s Kitchen we all want to know: how will this impact our guests?
Believe it or not, there actually is some good news: the D.C. Government found a way to stay open, and we’re incredibly grateful that they did. Through the use of the District’s “rainy day fund,” the City is expected to be funded through the next two weeks.
That means that shelters and housing will be unaffected during that period, and libraries and other government facilities where our guests often go during the days will remain open. Additionally, local outpatient health, mental health and substance abuse services that are funded by the government should remain open as well.
Federally, HUD and HHS homelessness assistance programs are considered essential, and are operating with funds from fiscal year 2012 and 2013.
That doesn’t mean it is all good news.
Certain benefits that our guests rely upon are expected to be affected. Specifically, new applications for Social Security benefits, Medicaid, food stamps and even Veterans’ pensions and disability payments might see longer than usual processing times.
And our guests are feeling the pinch in other, unexpected ways. One guest told us that his Street Sense sales had plummeted this week because Federal employees aren’t out and about during the day.
Here at MK, it is business as usual. We are open Monday through Friday, as we are year-round, providing the same high quality meals and case management services for which we are known. If you are a Federal employee who has been furloughed and is in need, please know that we are here –whether that need is for a hot meal, or to fill your time with some volunteer hours.
In the meantime, we’re standing with our guests and the rest of the nation, hoping that Congress can finally please work things out.
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HOW HAVE YOU BEEN AFFECTED BY THE SHUTDOWN?? LET US KNOW! Email Jenn, at jhatch@cfp-dc.org
Today marks Day 3 of the federal government shut down. We’ve all seen a laundry list of closings, large and small — from the Panda Cam to a set of Head Start programs. But in all the chaos, there is an opportunity: news outlets of all sizes are hunting for stories of local residents and organizations already seeing the effects of the shutdown, creating an opportunity for nonprofits meeting critical community needs to draw attention to the necessity of their work. Here are a few tips and resources for awareness and even donation drives from Nancy Schwartz’s gettingattention.org blog and the Nonprofit Quarterly :
If your organization is seeing an increase in demand for your services due to the shut down, make sure your supporters know! Take a page from Feeding America‘s communications strategy, where they’ve highlighted the fragility of our hunger relief programs in all their external communications. Or use this critical moment to rally your networks, as some food banks have, through a call to action for donations and volunteers to help with a surge in clients.
If your organization has a federal grant in jeopardy, make sure your supporters know what is at stake. Take that story of the needs that won’t get met, and incorporate them into your current giving drives or communications plans.
Even if your organization is not yet directly affected, you may be able to capitalize on its prominence in the news by incorporating the effects of the shutdown into your organizational story about why your work is so critical. As the gettingattention.org blog points out, any communication is probably better than the news “blackouts” from the federal agencies.
Other resources for nonprofits can be found at the Nonprofit Roundtable of Greater Washington and the Chronicle of Philanthropy.