Homeless in Fairfax County

Posted on October 25, 2012 by Marie LeBlanc

By Marie LeBlanc, Community Partnerships Coordinator

In Fairfax County, the very rich and the very poor live side by side. The Washington Post recently reported that the homeless student population in Fairfax County is on the verge of breaking 2,500 students — a record for the county, which is by some measures the second most affluent county in the US. Since 2005, the number of homeless students in Fairfax County has been on the rise — growing by 58% from 2005 to 2011. This trend echoes the observations made recently in Venture Philanthropy Partners’ Capital Kids report, which offers comprehensive data on the state of children and youth in the greater Washington area. (Read our review on the report here.)

Capital Kids focuses on “the poverty factor” as one of the four main issues involving children and youth in the National Capital Region: “The negative social, academic and health outcomes for children raised in poverty have been well documented. They include a greater incidence of chronic health conditions (such as asthma); mental disorders, including depression; and risky behaviors such as smoking, drugs, alcohol and early sexual activity. Childhood poverty is also associated with poor school attendance and decreased academic achievement, as well as behavioral problems such as delinquency.”

According to the Post, the recession and its after-effects have caused this explosion of homeless youth and students. Right now, more than 1 million students are experiencing homelessness across the country. Judith Dittman, executive director of Catalogue nonprofit Alternative House, was quoted in the Post, expressing her concern about this situation in Northern Virginia: “Nobody wants to see these kids sleeping on the street. No matter how bad the economy is, we don’t want to see 17-year-olds sleeping in the doorways at libraries.”

Working specifically with runaway, abused, and homeless youth, Alterative House “offers safe and accessible places where teens can get help” and has served thousands of youth over the past 40 years. Alternative House is one of many Catalogue nonprofits that serve the homeless population in Fairfax County. Here’s a brief look at several others, and you can find a complete list of nonprofits serving Fairfax County here.

= Doorways for Women and Families has worked for 30 years to break the intergenerational cycles of homelessness and domestic violence, providing a variety of support services to families who are working to move out of homelessness.

– For over three decades, Shelter House has provided a structured and supportive environment for homeless families in Fairfax County, through transitional housing programs, emergency shelters, and case management for newly-housed families.

– Main Street Child Development Center is one of the few nonprofit childcare centers in the area, ensuring that children from low-income households have the same educational start as their higher income peers.

– FACETS provides emergency services and supportive programs to prevent homelessness and assist those who are already homeless, working to ensure that every Fairfax family has a place to call home.

In The News …

Posted on October 3, 2012 by Spur Local

Profile: Matthew Wheelock, founder of Live It Learn It (Washington Post: Schools Insider): “A decade ago, the next logical career move for Matthew Wheelock was to head overseas to work in his law firm’s Tokyo office. Instead, aiming to make a difference in the city where he grew up, he became a fourth-grade teacher at the District’s Walker-Jones Elementary School …” Looking for new ways to motivate students, many of whom were living in poverty, Wheelock found the answer outside of his classroom. Three years later, Wheelock founded Catalogue nonprofit Live It Learn It — “a nonprofit dedicated to making sure disadvantaged kids get access to hands-on field trips […], a model that draws plaudits from teachers and principals.”

Oxon Hill town meeting focuses on financial literacy (Gazette): “Financial literacy and investment experts stressed at a meeting last week the need for Prince George’s County residents to have access to financial training, but added that perhaps even more important is the need for teens to get the same education.” At a town hall meeting last week, John Hope Bryant (chairman of the Underserved and Community Empowerment Subcommittee) pointed out that “financial literacy courses are key to encouraging teens to aspire to be entrepreneurs and small business owners;” however, not all schools offer such courses. You can explore Catalogue’s life skills and employment-focused nonprofits here; for example, at Cakes for Cause, youth learn to work in a bakery and handle their own earnings.

Helping Children Soar With Educational Advocacy (Huffington Post): “As the country and the District debate what goals we should set for student achievement, [10-year-old Sky Stringer] reminded me that a failure to invest in all of the children in our community will rob us of the talents and skills of those we leave behind,” writes Judith Sandalow (executive director, Children’s Law Center) Two years ago, Sky was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia. However, “the school didn’t want to give Sky special education services;” so the Children’s Law Center took her case to court to see that she received an “individualized education program (IEP), and intensive services.” Considering this case, how else can we ensure that children (in all grades and schools) have an advocate when they need one?

In The News …

Posted on September 26, 2012 by Julia Cain

DC officials change policy on charter schools’ occupation of surplus buildings (Washington Post): “District officials have tweaked the way they determine which charter schools should be allowed to move into surplus public school buildings […] The new points-based system gives an edge to high-performing charter schools that are already operating in the city.” Newer charters can also receive points if they have strong prior records of raising achievement elsewhere. At present, the DGS is accepting offers from charters for two buildings: the former Young and J.F. Cook elementary school sites in Ward 5. “For fast-growing charter schools, which often struggle to find and afford suitable real estate, the unused buildings offer a rarity: a long-term home.”

Bill Clinton Urges Donors to Think About Results From the Start (Chronicle of Philanthropy): “The theme of this year’s Clinton Global Initiative is “Designing for Impact,” a nod to the growing influence of “design thinking” in shaping efforts to eradicate poverty and improve society. Explained Tim Brown, the chief executive of IDEO, “design is about being intentional about what you want your outcome to be” in the context of efforts to eliminate hunger and poverty. Have you ever planned in similar terms on a local scale? Or is this type of thinking, in fact, more inherent in local philanthropy?

With Charity for All: Big Philanthropy and the Challenge of Democracy (Forbes): “Philanthropy remains vital as a force for change and societal support — and as a growing portion of the US social safety net; where governments cut services, nonprofit organizations often step in to support those on the bottom economic rungs. Giving rebounded after the Great Recession of 2008, rising to $298.3 billion in 2011 according to Giving USA, an increase of nearly four percent over 2010.” The article also cites two “extraordinary chapters in US philanthropy” — the Giving Pledge, made public two years ago, and the annual gathering of the Clinton Global Initiative — and asserts that “there remains a disproportionate power gap between those doing the work (nonprofits and other organizations) and those funding that work.” Do you agree or disagree?

Capital Kids

Posted on September 13, 2012 by Marie LeBlanc

By Marie LeBlanc, Community Partnerships Coordinator

Last week, Venture Philanthropy Partners published Capital Kids: Shared Responsibility, Shared Future, the first comprehensive study of the state of children and youth in the National Capital Region. Capital Kids reveals starling statistics and information regarding the state of the region’s children and youth, which Venture Philanthropy Partners (VPP) CEO Carol Thompson Cole describes as “in crisis.”

Top-line findings from the report show that child poverty continues to plague the District and National Capital Region (NCR), with some of the highest child poverty rates in the country. The report identified three other key trends and factors that influence the disparity among life situations of children within the NCR, in addition to the poverty factor: the opportunity divide, the achievement gap, and the immigration impact. The entire report is available for download online at http://capitalkidsreport.org/, and the accompanying website includes additional information on many areas explored in the study.

Some key facts from Capital Kids:

– 30.4% of children in the District live in poverty
– Between 2005 and 2012, the rate of childhood poverty in Alexandria increased four times, while the rate doubled in Montgomery County
– 41% of children in the NCR have at least one immigrant parent
– Almost 43,000 youth in the NCR are not enrolled in school, including 14,000 youth between the ages of 16-19 who are neither enrolled in school nor employed in the labor force
– 41.5% of third graders in the District scored proficient in reading, a key indicator of future academic achievement.

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A Colorful Addition

Posted on September 6, 2012 by Marie LeBlanc

By Marie LeBlanc, Community Partnerships Coordinator

The brick wall of a small alley just off U Street, between 12th and 13th streets in Northwest Washington, looks a little brighter these days. You might recognize that block as the home of a DC institution — Ben’s Chili Bowl — but another, newer DC institution has spent the past few weeks making its mark on that same corner. Catalogue nonprofit Words Beats & Life Inc., a member of the Washington-based partnership Murals DC, worked with renowned local visual artist Aniekan Udofia and Ben’s Chili Bowl to plan for and create a striking new mural, which features the faces of Bill Cosby, President Obama, Donnie Simpson, and Chuck Brown. According to the Washington Post, “the mural is a tremendous example of what happens when government and nonprofit groups work together.” The work of art has so far received a positive reception from the public, despite the push-back that graffiti-based street art has faced in the past.

Murals DC tackles this (mis)conception of street art head on. Their mission is to “help replace illegal graffiti with artistic works, to revitalize sites within the community, and to teach young people the art of aerosol painting”, and in doing so, “positively impact the District’s youth by providing them with the resources they need to engage in this project.” Words Beats & Life Inc. plays an important role in this collaboration, as a nonprofit partner working with several offices of the DC government. WBL Inc focuses more broadly on the role of popular, urban art (including music mixing and break dancing, as well as graffiti art) as a positive force in the lives of youth.

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Post-Pi Day

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Julia Cain

Hope that you had a good (and potentially tasty) “Pi Day” yesterday!

According to PiDay.org, “With the use of computers, Pi has been calculated to over 1 trillion digits past the decimal. Pi is an irrational and transcendental number meaning it will continue infinitely without repeating.” As many of us learned in middle school, Pi is the ratio between a circle’s diameter and its circumference and thus can be employed to calculate the area of a circle and volume of a rectangular prism. Pi also makes regular appearances in physics, statistics and probability, and calculus.

So if you celebrated with both edible and numerical pie yesterday, consider learning more about our educational nonprofits today — which are improving and supplementing math and technology education for students in our region. Just for some examples:

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Taking Care

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Julia Cain

From “Commentary: Mental Health Of DC Youth Needs To Be Priority” by Judith Sandalow, executive director of the Children’s Law Center, on WAMU 88.5:

Health care can be the difference between life and death. I’m not talking about a surgeon performing quadruple bypass. I mean mental health services such as therapy, counseling, and medication. […]

The human and financial cost of not treating mental health disorders is staggering. Nationally, 67 percent of young people in the juvenile justice system have a diagnosable mental health disorder. Last year, 66 percent of children entering foster care in the District were found to have mental health needs. And last year, more than 200 children were sent to residential programs as far away as Texas because DC couldn’t provide intensive in-home support.

Citing the example of an 11-year-old boy who was treated physically, but never mentally, following a drive-by shooting, Sandalow points out that “literally thousands of the District’s children never get needed mental health services” — and mental wounds, like physical wounds, cannot heal if not promptly detected and treated. Moreover, these same wounds have long-term effects, and costs, for both the individuals and communities; thus spending on preventative medicine is, in essence, an investment for the future.

Often, mental health needs are not instantly apparent — like a broken bone or cold. Realizing, understanding, and ultimately responding to these needs require a high level of engagement that is not present in every child’s life. So how can we ensure both proper care and the engagement that leads to it?

In The News …

Posted on December 14, 2011 by Julia Cain

Little known about DC’s young homeless, except that numbers are growing (Washington Post): “Though relatively little else is known about them, the number of homeless youths in the District has jumped, according to numbers released Tuesday by the National Center of Family Homelessness […] In 2010, 4,309 children were found to be without stable housing in a city where 27% of households pay more than 50% of their income for rent.” According to the State Report Card on Child Homelessness, “Virginia and Maryland ranked 18th and 22nd for risk for homelessness;” and the DC Alliance of Youth Advocates finds that a growing number of homeless individuals are also parents under the age of 24.

Foundation Funding for Hispanics/Latinos (Philanthropy News Digest: PhilanTopic): “Our colleagues here in the Research Department have just released a new report that examines foundation giving to Hispanics in the U.S. and for Latin America over the last decade […] Foundation Funding for Hispanics/Latinos in the United States and for Latin America found that over the past decade, U.S. foundation giving intended to benefit Latinos remained steady at about 1% of total foundation giving, even as the Latino population in the US grew significantly.” The report, which gave particular focus to the 2007-2009 period, also found that the greater Los Angeles area received the largest share of both grant dollars (17%) and grants (13%) of any US metropolitan area in that time.

Theaters’ Fiscal Outlook Improves Slightly (Chronicle of Philanthropy): “The latest round of an annual survey of nonprofit theaters’ finances offers some optimism […] Theater Facts 2010, compiled by grant-making and advocacy outfit the Theater Communications Group, found total assets, including box office, gifts, and endowment earnings, exceeded expenses last year for the 113 organizations that have participated in the study for each of the last five years.” TCG head Teresa Eyring points out that rising attendance, at readings and workshops as well as full productions, also “bodes well for the health of theater overall.”

7 Questions – Buzz Mauro & Deb Gottesman (Theatre Lab)

Posted on October 25, 2011 by Julia Cain

Today, we are welcoming not one … but two non-profit leaders to “7 Questions.” Buzz Mauro and Deb Gottesman are co-directors of The Theatre Lab School of the Dramatic Arts, which serves hundreds of youth and adults through its Life Stories program, and hundreds more through classes and summer camps in acting, directing, playwriting, and musical theatre .

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

We are about to embark on a project that is one of our “big dreams:” a theatre and documentary film project by and about the participants in our Life Stories program for homeless women residing in N Street Village’s Recovery Housing Unit. Life Stories is our signature outreach program which trains people from typically marginalized populations to create original dramatic works based on their real-life experiences. We work with incarcerated and severely at-risk youth, seniors, critically ill children and their families, as well as with formerly homeless women. And we now feel that it’s time to share the work of the women from N Street on a larger stage. The monologues, scenes, poetry, and more that these women have created are so powerful and so well-acted that we want to make sure their voices are heard — not only by social justice activists, but also by people who love great theatre.

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Collaborating with Shakespeare

Posted on October 20, 2011 by Julia Cain

From “Shakespeare gives the latest strategy in anti-bullying in schools” in The Denver Post:

Shakespeare is the latest strategy in combating bullying in America’s schools, but the idea was not an immediate hit. “When we first told people, they said, ‘What? That’s weird. How do those two things go together?'” said Jane Grady, assistant director for the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the University of Colorado.

But after a month of performances of “Twelfth Night” in 25 schools across Colorado, which were followed by workshops in which kids talked about the character Malvolio and other bullies in the play, the results surprised the experts. […]

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