Tag Archives: Youth

7 Questions – Doug Yeuell (Joy of Motion Dance Center)

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Welcome to “7 Questions” … Doug Yeuell, Executive/Artistic Director of Joy of Motion Dance Center. Embracing a wide range of dance from Middle Eastern to flamenco, hip hop to ballet, West African to tap and welcoming first-times and professional dancers, JOMDC always strives to make dance accessible regardless of financial means.

1. What was your most interesting recent project, initiative, partnership, or event?

I must say it was our recent gala fundraiser. Galas can be many things. Ours was simply a dance party and simply fun. A good time was had by all — and good money was raised. DJ spinning tunes and many, many people finding their dance on the dance floor. What could be better? It’s nice when you spend all your days focusing on dance training, curriculum, and educational programming to just let it all loose with co-workers, students, and all those that support what you do. Dance truly is for everyone, and I now have the pictures to prove it.

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The Amazing (Theatrical) Race

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Looking to combine volunteering, fundraising, and community outreach in one event? Draw some inspiration from The Theatre Lab’s newest venture!

By Jeff Scott, Marketing & Events Manager at The Theatre Lab:

On Saturday, June 18, The Theatre Lab School of the Dramatic Arts hosted its first-ever Amazing Race. The one-day event featured teams of volunteers approaching local businesses to solicit donations which could then be auctioned off at The Theatre Lab’s annual benefit in the fall (which helps to fund education and community outreach programs). The volunteer group included current and past students of The Theatre Lab along with their friends and colleagues.

The racers were divided into teams and each team was assigned a specific area of town to target, which included Capitol Hill, Dupont Circle, and Georgetown. Armed with packets of information on The Theatre Lab’s education and community outreach programs, and dressed in matching fire engine red t-shirts, the volunteers set off into the unknown.

Prior to the event, certain stores had prearranged donations with The Theatre Lab. The volunteers were given clues by Theatre Lab staff members to direct them to these stores to add a scavenger hunt element to the activities. Theatre Lab alum Tina Ghandchilar recounted her team’s experiences:

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Fathers’ Day

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From NPR Weekend Edition, June 18, 2011:

When Alice Ozma was in the fourth grade, her family was going through a rough patch. Her parents had just split up, and her older sister had recently left for college. Ozma was suddenly spending a lot more time alone with her dad, Jim Brozina, an elementary school librarian. So Ozma and her father made a pledge: to read together every single night for 100 days.

But after 100 days, they just kept going. Their streak ultimately lasted 3,218 days — spanning from Ozma’s fourth-grade year to her first day of college. […] Reading together was one thing they knew they could depend on. As Ozma got older, it got harder to keep it up, but the pair persisted — even on the night of Ozma’s prom.

From epic novels to fairy tales, books have a strange ability to bind two people together. You know that flash of excitement when you realize that a new acquaintance shares a favorite author or series? That giddy realization that you both “speak” the same language, that you have numerous topics of conversation? It’s a great feeling, that closeness. And in the case of Ozma and her father, they share not one book or one writer, but a whole library.

Ozma’s website, The Reading Promise, offers a starter book list to initiate your own “Reading Streak.” And I recommend the list in part because it features Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, which I vividly remember reading with my own father when I was about seven or eight. In his edition, the picture of the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come was deeply creepy, but I’ll always be glad that I first experienced that story with him. I also recognized quite a few other books on Ozma’s list: Maniac Magee from fifth grade language arts, Sherlock Holmes from middle school science (really!), and Macebth from sophomore English. Certain books can be indelibly linked to certain moments in life — and seeing them is like stumbling on a memory. And when that memory is shared with a loved one, all the better.

In sum, do check out the complete story on NPR and celebrate this week after Fathers’ Day with a quick read — with a parent, child, or friend. Also: learn more about Catalogue non-profits who are working to spread literacy to each and every family in our region. Let’s make sure that everyone has the chance to experience what Ozma and her father did.

Quotes for the Day

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“The camera is a remarkable instrument. Saturate yourself with your subject, and the camera will all but take you by the hand and point the way.”

“We are in a privileged and sometimes happy position. We see a great deal of the world. Our obligation is to pass it on to others.”

— Margaret Bourke-White,

American photojournalist, born today in 1904

(And in her spirit, do check out this recent coverage in the Post and on DCist of Catalogue nonprofit Critical Exposure — which, in linking arts and advocacy, teaches kids about their singular power behind the camera.)

7 Questions – Carina Gervacio (Brainfood)

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Let’s welcome … Carina Gervacio, Program Coordinator at Brainfood! In an after-school program that gets at-risk youth off the streets and into the kitchen, Brainfood teaches cooking alongside reading, math, science, creativity, teamwork, and leadership.

1. What was your most interesting recent project, initiative, partnership, or event?

On Thursday, June 2nd, Brainfood graduates led a cooking demo at the Penn Quarter Farmers Market through Fresh Farm’s “Chef at the Market” program. Our students typically cook in our industrial kitchen, so it was a real treat to be making food outdoors, handing out samples, and talking with market customers about easy ways to cook with farmers market produce. The Farmers Market Fried Rice students made featured great market ingredients, including local mushrooms, asparagus, seasonal garlic scapes, and farm-fresh eggs. The best takeaway from the event, however, was seeing how easily Brainfood grads stepped into leadership roles and relished the chance to share their cooking skills with the public.

2. What else are you up to?

There’s really great energy (both nationally and in DC) behind improving food access, promoting urban agriculture, and building community through food and cooking. At Brainfood, we’re trying to build on this momentum with the fall launch of our Community MVPs program. This program is geared towards Brainfood grads who want to stay involved with Brainfood for a second year and use their cooking and leadership skills to give back to the community. The MVPs will develop a curriculum to teach hands-on cooking classes to community groups, and the focus of these classes will be teaching healthy food alternatives to residents and groups in the District. This summer, we’ll be putting all the pieces in place to roll out this new program in the fall. It’s a big task, but one that I’m excited to take on. Continue reading →

7 Questions – Michele Booth Cole (Safe Shores)

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Good morning, folks! And welcome to … Michele Booth Cole, Executive Director of Safe Shores. With a child-friendly and welcoming approach, Safe Shores (the DC Children’s Advocacy Center) ensures that abused children’s voices are heard in criminal investigations, their needs are placed first, and a safe space is available to them.

1. What was your most interesting recent project, initiative, partnership, or event?

In April 2011, we held a series of free community trainings for adults on child sexual abuse prevention in different wards throughout DC in recognition of National Child Abuse Prevention Month. Safe Shores partnered with DC Council members Yvette Alexander (Ward 7), Muriel Bowser (Ward 4) Jack Evans (Ward 2), Jim Graham (Ward 1), and Phil Mendelson (At-large), DCPS Parent Resource Centers in Wards 1 and 7, and Nineteenth Street Baptist Church in Ward 4, all of whom co-sponsored the trainings to raise awareness about this critical public health and safety issue. The trainings were attended by a really diverse and engaged group of community members who learned how to recognize, respond to and prevent child sexual abuse pursuant to the “Stewards of Children” curriculum.

2. What else are you up to?

After six years of working, we finally completed the renovation and furnishing of Safe Shores’ new home at the former Bundy building. We moved into the newly renovated space last year along with the partners from our public and private Team agencies. Safe Shores’ Board and staff are now energetically engaged in strategic planning to chart Safe Shores’ course for the future. In addition, we’ve recently adopted the Benevon fundraising model to increase the organization’s long-term financial sustainability by expanding our base of individual supporters.

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7 Questions – Sveta Wilkson (Horton's Kids)

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Let’s welcome to “7 cialis soft tavs Questions” … Sveta Wilkson, Development Coordinator of Horton’s Kids, which has served as a second family to over 1,500 children from the Ward 8 housing projects for two decades. Also … we are sending many Catalogue cheers to Horton’s Kids for receiving the 2011 Washington Post Award for Excellence in Nonprofit Management just last night!

1. What was your most interesting recent project, initiative, partnership, or event?

Earlier this month, we hosted our third annual Home Runs for Horton’s Kids fundraiser at Nationals Park. Guests got the chance to bat on the field with Nationals staff, take pictures with Screech, bid in a silent auction, and just have tons of fun at this private event at the ballpark. Children also raced Teddy, one of the Nationals Presidents mascots. Our Board of Directors and many generous corporate sponsors helped make this event a success and raised a 1/3 of this year’s operating budget.

2. What else are you up to?

Horton’s Kids is wrapping up our tutoring program for the school year and gearing up for summer. Every year, we have a six-week, literacy-focused summer camp for the younger children. I’m looking forward to helping out our education staff and attending field trips like exploring local museums and swimming at the pool.

The application process for the for the 2011 Washington Post Award for Excellence in Nonprofit Management also helped us take a big picture look at all of our management practices, and I am looking forward to hearing other nonprofit leaders speak about what has worked for them.

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Quote for Monday

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Education is for improving the lives of others and for leaving your community and world better than you found it.

— Marian Wright Edelman (1939-Present)

Free the child’s potential, and you will transform him into the world.

— Maria Montessori (1870-1952)

This week, as countless high school seniors decide where they will spend their college years, we would like to recognize our Education non-profits — many of whom work tirelessly to remove all obstacles on the road to college for young scholars in Greater Washington. In the words of Rassan Salandy of The Posse Foundation‘s National Office, we are “working to develop a new kind of leadership network in the United States — one that will better represent the nation’s shifting demographics at the tables where decisions are made.” It’s a truly crucial assignment!

7 Questions – Rachel Friedman (Men Can Stop Rape, Inc.)

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Good morning, Washington. Today, we welcome to “7 Questions” … Rachel Friedman, Director of Foundation and Government Grants at Men Can Stop Rape, Inc. (MCSR), which provides young men with opportunities to challenge old models of masculinity and embrace their duty to end violence against women. MCSR offers a safe forum where young men learn to to form healthy relationships and create safe communities.

1. What was your most interesting recent project, initiative, partnership, or event?

We recently submitted a three-year $5 million grant to the Department of Justice for their multi-state mentoring initiative. It is the largest grant that I have ever written — and the largest grant that the organization has ever taken the lead on. What made it so interesting, however, was designing a project that encompassed so many elements of the work that we do (mentoring, violence prevention, training and technical assistance, community outreach) on such a large scale.

2. What else are you up to?

We are in the planning stages for our next national conference, the “State of Masculinity,” which will be held in October of 2012. The conference will examine the link between violence and masculinity, as well as the value of healthy masculinity; and will also launch a year-long campaign to provide training and technical assistance to selected communities across the country.

3. Is there a moment, person, or event that inspired you to do this particular work?

When I was a freshman in high school, a good friend of mine was brutally gang-raped. It was awful. It was so awful that I couldn’t believe that it had happened. But it did. And gender-based violence occurs every day. I feel a profound sense of responsibility to prevent and end that violence. (I am proud to say that I continue to be inspired by this person, who is now pursuing her social work degree, is married, is expecting her first child, and continues to be an amazing woman.)

4. Who is your hero in the nonprofit/philanthropy world?

Rachel Lloyd, the Executive Director and Founder of Girls Educational and Mentoring Services (GEMS), is an amazing woman and GEMS is a phenomenal organization!

5. What is the single greatest (and non-financial) challenge to the work that you do every day?

Time. There just aren’t enough hours in the day! I think that’s a universal challenge, though.

6. What advice do you have for other people who want to work in your field?

First, fundraising is both a science and magic, so don’t get discouraged! Second, unhealthy masculinity affects everyone, so there is always a connection to be made.

7. What’s next?

I plan on getting my MBA. I’m also getting married in 2012.

EXTRA: If you could have a power breakfast with any three people (living, dead, or fictional) who would they be?
– Catharine MacKinnon
– My great- great- grandmother in Russia
– Dave Chappelle