Author: Lisa Kays

Ayuda: Fighting slavery in our own backyard.

Posted on by Lisa Kays

Ayuda is deeply familiar with the struggles of low-income immigrants in the Washington, D.C. area. We have been at the forefront of providing multi-lingual social and legal services to immigrants for the past 34 years. Ayuda routinely helps immigrants reunite with their families, apply for citizenship or asylum and protect themselves and their children from domestic violence.

Several years ago, Ayuda began representing immigrants who had been illegally trafficked in the United States and forced to work under horrendous conditions for little or no pay. In 2003, Ayuda launched the Human Trafficking Project to serve this extremely vulnerable population. Five years and 100 cases later, our clients’ empowering stories continue to move us to action.

Human trafficking is a crime in the United States. An estimated 20,000 people are trafficked in the United States annually, according to the latest report by the U.S. Department of State. Trafficking victims come to the U.S. from their home countries in search of work, opportunity and a better future. Deceitful traffickers often prey on these dreams by promising safety and securing employment, while in reality they deliver victims into forced labor arrangements.

Ayuda serves a range of human trafficking cases each year. Recent clients include: a Latin American child forced to work as a prostitute by a man she believed to be her boyfriend, a South Asian woman forced to work as a domestic servant for a diplomat, and an African young woman forced to work in a beauty salon by a family member. As human trafficking activity increases worldwide, Ayuda has served clients from countries around the globe, including El Salvador, Bolivia, Brazil, Guatemala, Peru, Honduras, Thailand, Mexico, Ethiopia, India, Korea, and the Ukraine.

Victims of human trafficking face many difficulties in escaping from their slave-like conditions. Trafficked persons often don’t speak English, and are isolated from families, friends, and support networks. They are often completely dependent on their traffickers for food, shelter and clothing. Traffickers use coercion tactics that include physical restraint, beatings, rape, emotional and psychological abuse, and threats to family members to keep their victims in the trafficked situation.

The resulting trauma of human trafficking makes recovery difficult for survivors. Ayuda has found that it takes a great deal of time for clients to build trust with their attorney and social worker. It is important for survivors to know that reporting the crime will actually protect them from their trafficker and will not jeopardize their ability to remain legally in this country. Trust is also essential for clients to open up about their situation and give full details to our attorneys and law enforcement officials in the case against their trafficker.

Ayuda attorneys help victims navigate the complex legal system. Victims can gain legal relief through protection under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. Relief under this law grants victims a T visa to allow them to legally live and work in the U.S. and eventually apply for legal permanent resident status. Ayuda attorneys maintain a remarkably high success rate for legal cases of human trafficking, a testament to the expertise of our legal staff.

In addition to legal representation, survivors of human trafficking also need help learning how to become self-sufficient. Survivors struggle with securing basic needs and services, such as a source of income, emergency housing, clothing, food and other immediate needs. They also work to recover from the emotional trauma of their abuse to build stability in their lives. Ayuda’s social workers also help clients enroll in job training programs, GED courses, and English classes and give referrals for affordable housing programs, daycare, medical care, and government programs.

Identifying the victims of human trafficking is a significant challenge of the Human Trafficking Project. Victims often do not seek assistance because they fear retaliation from their trafficker. Ayuda has seen many examples of traffickers threatening victims’ family members in their home countries, physically beating and emotionally abusing the victims, and using many other forms of control and intimidation. Ayuda’s social workers and community outreach staff work to educate immigrant communities about the law regarding human trafficking and encourage victims to speak out and seek help.

Recently, Ayuda launched a community outreach campaign with a grant from the D.C. Metropolitan Police. We are targeting the African and Latino immigrant communities with brochures in Spanish, French and Amharic. Ayuda will reach thousands of D.C. area residents through the dissemination of outreach material, radio commercials, bus ads, community presentations, and articles in ethnic newspapers.

Although we have served more than 100 clients since the Project started, much more needs to be done to reach local victims with information about human trafficking and direct assistance. More and more victims are trafficked to the D.C. area, one of the nation’s hotspots for this type of criminal activity. Ayuda needs the continued support from our partners to collaboratively address this tragic problem in our community.

September is Human Trafficking Awareness Month, and Ayuda is working with Washington Area Women’s Foundation to bring awareness to this issue.

If you are interested in learning more about human trafficking in the D.C. region and how Ayuda is responding to this crisis, call Estera Barbarasa at 202-243-7306.

Or, learn more about how you can join The Women’s Foundation in its support of local nonprofits and their work on issues, like human trafficking, that impact women and girls in our region every day.  Join us, and get involved with The Power of Giving Together, where we work together to bring change home.

(Also, join us for our Leadership Luncheon on October 10.  Come get inspired and connected to the work we’re doing, and see the change we’re making firsthand.)

Ayuda is a Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation.  This blog was prepared by Estera Barbarasa, Ayuda’s fundraising and public affairs coordinator, in collaboration with Drake Hagner, Ayuda’s development and communications associate.

The revolution will begin with women.

Posted on by Lisa Kays

Last night, I had the pleasure of attending the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s International Humanitarian Symposium and awards ceremony.  The event this year was themed, "The Changing Face of Philanthropy: Evolution or Revolution?"

I couldn’t help but be pleased to note that throughout the symposium and dinner discussions–formal and informal–that there was an important subtext. 

That it seems that practitioners of community development, of philanthropy, of effective giving and nonprofit work are coming around to the idea that yes, philanthropy and development are evolving, and that women are very much at the heart of this evolution.

And that they’re talking about it no longer like it’s new, or different or a maybe-this-is-something-to-think-about sort of idea on the margins.

That they’re talking about it like an accepted tenet, a truth, that has finally arrived. 

That the revolution will, most likely, begin with women.

Rock on.

Just  a few tidbits and examples to get hopeful about:

The winner of this year’s Hilton prize was Tostan, an NGO working throughout Africa to promote human rights, and by extension women’s rights, and is revolutionizing issues around early marriage and female genital mutilation and changing the way women, and people throughout Africa, think about themselves.

Dr. Helene Gayle, president and CEO of CARE, spoke earlier in the day about CARE’s new I am Powerful campaign, and its acknowledgement of the role of women in building stronger communities around the world.  And about how CARE has restructured its work to place women and girls front and center in their efforts.  Because they know that empowering women and girls works to empower entire communities.

The keynote speaker, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, addressed the role of women in development, citing them as a backbone of their communities, as the force of change.  His exact words will be available here, soon.

Indeed, the revolution–to reduce poverty and improve our communities and the lives of its children–will begin with women.

It already has.  

And this isn’t just true in Africa or Asia or the Middle East.  It’s true here, too.  To find out how we’re bringing the revolution home, just Ask Us How.  Because for nearly 10 years, we’ve been improving the Washington metropolitan area by investing in women and girls. 

Because whether in Angola or Anacostia, Sri Lanka or Silver Spring, the revolution, and true change, will, inevitably, begin with women.

Join us to help bring the revolution home.

Washington 100: Giving that makes you feel like a million bucks.

Posted on by Lisa Kays

You don’t have to be a millionaire to give a million, or to feel like it, when you’re partDoreen and Barbara of the power of giving together.

No one knows this like the founding members of Washington 100, The Women’s Foundation’s premier group of supporters who give $10,000 each over two years, generating a collective $1 million that is changing the way The Women’s Foundation works by supporting the efforts that are changing lives and our community.

Phyllis Caldwell, a founding member of Washington 100, explains that her commitment stemmed precisely from this, saying, “I liked the idea of being part of a $1 million donor pool. It’s more than I could ever donate as an individual.”

Co-chaired by Barbara Strom Thompson and Doreen Gentzler, Washington 100 met its charter membership goal in July with 118 founding members. This achievement was due in great part to the enthusiasm and dedication of its co-chairs and early members who reached out and brought people into this esteemed network.

Strom Thompson describes the fulfillment of this network of leaders as a natural outshoot of the desire among women philanthropists to find innovative, effective ways to invest their gifts.  “Women are looking for new ways to give,” she says. "Women don’t want to just support the status quo, particularly Washington women. They want to be very savvy about where they’re investing their time and their money, and they value the camaraderie of giving collectively.  Washington 100 is a perfect match for these women.”

Washington 100, which is made up of a diverse, engaged community of women and men representing industries, neighborhoods, interests and talents throughout our region, is a unique opportunity for philanthropists who want to broaden their engagement with giving, but on their own terms.

“Women have chapters in their lives, and Washington 100 provides a really important way that women can get involved in The Women’s Foundation and have it meet their own needs, as well as doing really important work,” Strom Thompson says.

She explains that one of the advantages of Washington 100 is that it provides an opportunity to make an impact through various levels of involvement. It’s fine to give a check, or, for those who want to be more involved, the networking with like-minded community leaders and the philanthropic education opportunities are plentiful and meaningful.

“One of the reasons I got involved in The Women’s Foundation was that I felt like I didn’t even know my hometown,” Strom Thompson says. “It felt odd to live in a place for decades and not know such huge parts of the city. A lot of women are drawn to the opportunity to broaden their sense of home.”

Opportunities like this exist for Washington 100 in the form of networking events with other top leaders from the region; private receptions and forums on key philanthropic, community issues; personalized assistance from The Women’s Foundation with creating giving plans, connecting with other community organizations and leaders and finding additional ways to become involved in our community; and more, including site visits to see firsthand the work being done by The Women’s Foundation’s Grantee Partners.

Cathy Isaacson, a founding member of Washington 100, gains perspective from these opportunities. “It is a much deeper understanding,” she says. “Hearing from the women who benefit from those programs so that you can—in a very concrete way—learn about the impact is so valuable.”

In turn, the commitment and support of Washington 100 is invaluable to The Women’s Foundation, providing the core support that enables its grantmaking, leadership development and technical assistance to Grantee Partners, research and community education efforts and the long-term social change that is the goal of its work.

“We’re not funding band-aid efforts,” Strom Thompson says. “This is about institutional, societal, cultural change. We’ll be able to exponentially grow and expand on the progress The Women’s Foundation has made in less than 10 years. It’s been amazing what The Women’s Foundation has accomplished, and it’s our job to provide the financial security for that work to continue.”

Caldwell sees it also as an important force in our region’s growing wave of women philanthropists. “The founding members of Washington 100 all believe in the vision of The Women’s Foundation as part of the new wave of women as philanthropists,” she says.

Strom Thompson agrees, saying, “There is a certain alchemy when women get together, and we’re creating new ways of engaging in the community that go beyond just the money we give. And not only are we helping change others, but we’re changing ourselves.”

Learn more about this powerful network of women and men investing in women and girls in our region.

(Photo: Washington 100 co-chairs Barbara Strom Thompson and Doreen Gentzler. Courtesy of Michael Colella.)

Marjorie Sims speaks out on WAMU!

Posted on by Lisa Kays

On Labor Day, Marjorie Sims took to the airwaves on WAMU, during the Diane Rehmwoman with drill Show, to offer a powerful commentary on the importance of investing in nontraditional pathways to opportunity for women in our region. Hear her speak out.

Then, tune in on Friday, September 14 at 6:35 and 8:35 a.m. to hear Marjorie’s commentary on women’s empowerment on 88.5 FM WAMU.

Low-income women missing on Mommy War battlefield.

Posted on by Lisa Kays

The "Mommy Wars," as they’re known, are heating up again, but there are key players missing from the field, it would seem. 

According to a recent article in the San Fancisco Chronicle by Maya Rupert, "The working wounded: Most women don’t have a choice to stay home with kids," it’s time to reframe the way we talk about women, work, motherhood and what the "choice" between family and work really means–and to rethink who is part of this discussion. 

Of note, Rupert writes, "For low-income mothers, summer brings a different set of challenges: finding a new means of child care now that the days aren’t filled with classroom instruction. There often is no money for vacations, and certainly not for the sizable registration fees required at the various day camps. But these concerns aren’t part of the parenting debates — and of the Mommy Wars in particular…The result is an explicit and inexplicable rejection of the view that class should matter in discussing the expectation of mothers to stay home. In essence, it’s an onslaught of negative third-wave feminism, which assumes everyone has the financial security to make a choice and tells low-income and poor mothers that this doesn’t concern them."

And, Rupert reminds us, by including these voices–since really, when it comes to child care, health insurance and the other issues that stand out as challenges for working parents–male and female–we’re likely to be forced to think of ways that are really better for all women, men and children, across income brackets.

She writes, "The Mommy Wars can be won when we redefine victory…This will require us to rethink what it means to be a good mother. The concession that good motherhood requires an abundance of time to spend at home with children overemphasizes quantity over quality and presents an incredibly simplistic view of motherhood, one that stacks the deck against lower-income moms.  Additionally, it will require us to abandon the very premise of the discussion, which is that child rearing is naturally the domain of women. We need to rethink fatherhood and seriously question why we still expect mothers to take responsibility for the bulk of child care."

As discussed last week, women are being forced to make impossible choices, ones that serve no one–not them, not their children, not their families, not our communities. 

This piece, and the concepts within, are a great reminder of the importance of looking at issues that impact women and our communities through the voices and perspectives of all involved and affected, and of including the voices of those who may be the least likely to be heard by doing the hard work of seeking them out and raising them up. 

Caution: Lack of affordable child care may result in lack of children.

Posted on by Lisa Kays

A new national poll has found that women are delaying having children because of the high cost of child care and preschool–which can run about $10,000 annually (more than my college tuition not that long ago).

For middle income women ($35-50K), the poll found that one in three said that the cost of child care or preschool made them decide against having a baby or delay having one. Those polled often had to give up buying appliances or other household needs because of the high cost of child care.

Some of the women polled are married and part of dual income households. I can’t help but think then of the burden of child care costs on the women served by The Women’s Foundation, who are primarily single mothers earning less than $35K a year in an economy with a very high cost of living.

i wonder what choices and decisions then face a woman with less earning power, less help and a greater financial burden to assume alone.

Here in Washington, D.C., according to our Portrait Project, 2002 market rates for childcare for a family with an infant and a preschooler was around $22,900 per year–or one third of the salary of a couple earning $77,000.

Now, imagine paying my college tuition four times over each year as a single woman earning less than $35,000 per year–which is what a lot of women in our region are trying to do (as I recall, doing it once over for my single mom wasn’t exactly a cake walk). For a single woman in our region earning $26K per year (not atypical), childcare would consume 70 percent of her earnings.

Forget not buying an allowance at that point. What about food, and clothing?

And it’s not just D.C. Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties have the highest estimated childcare costs of all counties in Maryland, at $15,329 and $11,495 respectively for families with an infant and preschooler.

If you’re earning less than $35K, or even less than $50 or $75, and raising kids, that doesn’t leave a lot of budgetary wiggle room.

As Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham said regarding the poll, “The high cost of child care and preschool are causing women to make agonizing decisions. We need to invest more to ensure access to quality child care and preschool for all American families and cut crime in the process.”

Cutting crime isn’t the only thing that would be reduced were child care to be made more affordable and available in our area–and the nation. Without childcare, people–and particularly single mothers–can’t hold down their jobs.

Our Portrait Project found that there is an estimated 62 percent shortfall in the supply of regulated childcare to meet the potential demand in Washington, D.C.

Affordable child care is such a win-win on so many fronts. It may seem like a women’s issue, but really, it’s everyone’s issue, because it touches every facet of our lives, at pretty much every level of the economic spectrum.

This is why it’s one of the four focal points of Stepping Stones. Because women’s economic security, and the strength of our community, depends on access to such key basic services and needs.

Friends of Guest House: Writing a second chance into women's lives.

Posted on by Lisa Kays

Sometimes a handshake is returned with a hug. Not always, but sometimes.

This was my experience walking into Friends of Guest House–one of our Grantee Partners–for the first time this past weekend. When the director introduced me to a young woman–a fifth grader who was there visiting her mom–my outstretched hand was summarily discarded in favor of a hug.

This greeting of unconditional acceptance was symbolic of the work of Friends of Guest House, a transitional house that empowers former female prisoners in Alexandria and Arlington to kick addictions and secure employment.

Women apply to the program from prison, where they write an autobiography about themselves and request admittance into the program upon their release. In some cases, women are admitted to the guest house in lieu of jail time.

The first phase of the program is a stay at the house to help the women get on their feet–to get the counseling they need to avoid returning to previous behaviors, secure jobs and save the money necessary to start a new life. The women then leave the house and move into the after-care program, where they remain under the care of the guest house, receiving follow-up visits, group counseling sessions and other supports to ensure that they stay on the pathway to achieving their goals and ambitions.

This weekend, regardless of where they were on this pathway, it was clear that the 11 graduates of the after-care program were leaving completely transformed.

“The women look totally different. I didn’t recognize them. Look at you, after the work is done. All those smiles. Look at you,” said one of their counselors who had known them as prisoners, and then as women doing the hard work of recovery and rebuilding.

Every speaker echoes this sentiment. No one seems to be able to believe their eyes. Are these the same women they had known before?

But the transformation isn’t only in their faces.

As an alumni of the program explained, Friends of Guest House provided a turning point in her life. “It’s an honor to be invited here today,” she said, “because before the only message I received was ‘get out, stay out.”

This was at the height of her addiction to cocaine, when she was homeless and hopeless, and had had her children taken from her.

Until she wrote a 20 page autobiography and was accepted by Friends of Guest House, she says.

Today, she has her children back, has had a job for three years, is in school studying to be a dental assistant and, in October, she and her children will be moving into their own place.

“My name will be on something else other than a warrant!” she said proudly.

A board member explained that she hears the transformation in the women through their speech. First, no one talks, she said, while they’re getting the lay of the land. Then, she hears a lot of “I” statements. Then “we” statements. Then it’s, “I’m gonna try, I’m going to do…”

This, she says, is when she knows the transformation is complete, and it’s a process she believes in. She serves on the board even though she lives in Maryland. “I come across the Wilson Bridge to help at Friends of Guest House,” she said, “because I believe in the power of women. I believe in the spirit of women.”

Involvement like hers is crucial, explains Friends of Guest House’s director, Kari Galloway. “It truly takes a whole community to do this work,” she said, and it is done with the collective hope that the women would continue to fulfill their goals, by moving from renters to homeowners, going from employees to employers (one graduate already has!) and giving to others.

This seems to be the final stage of transformation expected, of going from receiver to giver. From their counselor came the words, “What was freely given to you—give back. Help those behind you. We need your help. Some people come in and don’t believe us. We need them to see you. We need you to talk to them. We need them to see your experience, strength and hope.”

The graduates were rich with all three.

As they shared pieces of their stories–including months of hard-won sobriety, the establishment of a successful family business and even the relocation of the graduation ceremony to city hall–it was clear that their lives had been transformed through the second chance they received at Friends of Guest House.

And that by writing down their stories to ask for a new beginning in their lives, they wrote their ways to an exciting, hopeful new ending as well.

It does take a community to do this work, which is why The Women’s Foundation supports Friends of Guest House and other nonprofits throughout the Washington metropolitan region investing in women and girls. Join us in supporting work that transforms women’s lives. Get connected at our 2007 Leadership Luncheon. We’d love to see you there.

Walking the city in women’s shoes.

Posted on by Lisa Kays

Wanna lose weight or get healthy in the cheapest, most easily accessible way possible?

Many sources will tell you to walk.  Roads are free, after all.  (Minus a small taxpayer contribution.)

But what if can’t walk in your neighborhood because the streets aren’t safe from harassment, or worse forms of violence?  What if they’re deteriorated or don’t have maintained sidewalks?

Then your best, low-cost avenue to a more active lifestyle just disappeared faster than you can say “speedwalk.”

I hadn’t thought much about this concrete correlation between neighborhood safety and women’s (or indeed, anyone’s) health until a recent conference call for Leadership Awards volunteers on women’s health in our region, where the speakers explained that a woman’s health (her ability to keep in shape and her weight down) can be greatly impacted by the safety of her streets.

The good news is that some of the greatest health risks for women in our area–diabetes, obesity and heart disease–are all diminished by a more active lifestyle.

The bad news?  That many of the women most at risk for these conditions are low-income women without access to safe streets on which to walk–the most economical form of exercise out there.  They’re also the least likely to be able to afford access to gyms or other types of sports or exercise that will enable them to maintain healthy hearts, weight and other benefits of being active.

This is what came to mind when I read an interesting post on Half Changed World, on Google’s latest attempt to tell us about our lives by measuring how walkable a neighborhood is.

According to WalkScore, the site “shows you a map of what’s nearby and calculates a Walk Score for any property. Buying a house in a walkable neighborhood is good for your health and good for the environment.”

This all seems to be measured by how close your home is to grocery stores, shopping, parks, etc.

I can’t help but do a little experiment.

I calculate the WalkScore for the office of The Women’s Foundation, downtown in northwest D.C.  We get a 98 out of 100.

This is good news, since I walk to work everyday.  Except today, when it’s a million degrees outside, but that’s besides the point.  I don’t think Google accounts for weather.  (Yet.)

Next, I try an address of one of our Grantee Partners, Ascensions, serving families southeast Washington, D.C., in Ward 7 and 8, a target area for Stepping Stones.

Their walk score?  46.  A pretty vast difference, even when you consider that Google isn’t measuring for safe streets, the condition of sidewalks or traffic flow, and that they’re just considering access to stuff.

I consider that not only are families in this area most likely not able to incorporate walking into their daily errands and lifestyle (the easiest way), but also how much harder it could be to access the services provided by Ascensions than it would be for me to find a similar service for myself in my neighborhood in northwest D.C.

Meaning that walkability could be impacting not only physical health, but mental health as well.  Or financial health.  Or any number of other aspects of one’s life that are improved through the involvement of practitioners and specialists to advise, examine and assist.

I can’t help but think that this situation would probably be repeated over and over if I tried WalkScores on our various Grantee Partners serving low-income areas, women and their families.

And how much lower they would be if Google incorporated factors like safety and sidewalks into their calculations.  (Well, it wouldn’t be the first time I was disappointed by Google Map’s accounting for economics.)

It definitely gives me perspective about my daily walks to work in the morning–which I will now stop taking for granted, even when crazy D.C. drivers almost kill me–and a new way of viewing our region and its development in terms of the perspective of the women who are–or aren’t–able to safely take a stroll on its streets.

And the potential for changes made in an effort to improve the walkability and safety of our region and its streets–in all neighborhoods–to improve the lives and health, not only of women and their children, but all of us.

After all, we should all be able to take Bono’s advice and, “Walk on.”

Ascensions: Talking families towards hope.

Posted on by Lisa Kays

Imagine that you are are a single mother raising a little girl. Joy is what everyone wantshands you to feel, but you are depressed at best, angry most of the time. You know this situation has grown beyond your control and that you have to do something, but even if you had insurance for a doctor, everyone around you would call you weak or even crazy if you admitted to what you were feeling and fearing.

So you spin into increasing despair and hopelessness, until you learn of a parenting class that just might be of help.

In that parenting class you meet a psychologist who encourages you, and other women like you, to share your mutual experiences. With them, you find common ground and the strength to explore your own situation and how the adversity in your life—childhood sexual abuse, rape, teenage pregnancy or emotional abuse—can be used as the very turning point towards growth, rather than as a dead end.

Continuing in these sessions, and working individually with a therapist, you start to feel less depressed, gain control over your emotions and outlook and develop the motivation and resources to plan for—and eventually attain—higher paying, steady employment that enables you to care for your child in a more stable manner.

Your life no longer feels like a dead end. It feels like a beginning.

This is the work of Ascensions Community Services, Inc. in Washington, D.C.—a new Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation receiving the largest grant—$50,000—in the history of the African American Women’s Giving Circle.

Sandra Jibrell, a member of The Women’s Foundation’s board of directors and the African American Women’s Giving Circle, explains why the circle chose to invest so much in Ascensions. “It was the opportunity to make a grant that would really make a difference. Ascensions was started and run by a young African American woman with a deep commitment to delivering mental health services east of the Anacostia River, to women whose emotional and mental health needs have been overlooked as they struggle to keep their families safe and financially stable.”

Dr. Satira S. Streeter, licensed clinical psychologist and founder and Executive/Clinical Director of Ascensions, explains, “We’re dealing with families in Ward 7 and 8, and family is typically comprised of a mother and her children. About 85 percent of those we serve are women.”

The need for such services is well documented—particularly for women—who tend to experience mental health challenges such as depression and anxiety with far greater frequency than men, according to The Women’s Foundation’s Portrait Project. The report found that in Washington, D.C., 43 percent of women reported poor mental health days. Nationally, one-third of young women report feeling sad or hopeless. Further, depression tends to impact African American women at a rate almost 50 percent higher than it impacts white women.

Ascensions meets these needs by providing psychological and community interventions that assist clients to improve their self-concept, interpersonal relationships and make positive contributions to their communities. Services infuse psychological theories and research with culture, history, and spirituality to offer each client an individualized plan for growth.

Ascensions emerged from Streeter’s work in a school providing psychological services to students. “We would scratch our heads as to why the kids weren’t getting better,” she says. “It was because we were sending them back into a dysfunctional household that unraveled our work. The kids would come to Virginia from Southeast and Northeast D.C., and I wanted to do this in a way that would include the whole family and do so in the community.”

Ascensions’ clients—which number approximately 75 families—come for services voluntarily through walk-ins, referrals from community schools and outreach efforts such as parenting classes and groups for young women.

Streeter currently counsels eight families per day during the week, and 10 more on weekends, a full-time job that she has been doing without a salary for three years to get Ascensions off the ground.

The grant from The Women’s Foundation’s African American Women’s Giving Circle will play a significant role in that journey. The grant will enable Ascensions to increase the number of clients they serve by paying for greater staffing. Ascensions will expand their three part-time therapists’ hours so they can do more counseling, enabling Streeter to focus on group work and outreach. She also hopes to offer more training for her clinicians and for other budding clinicians to build the base of African American psychologists in Washington, D.C.

“It’s one thing to have the heart to do this work,” Streeter says. “But it’s another to be able to develop the fiscal systems, the program evaluations and the development work that will allow us to continue to work with these women and families on a daily basis.”

This is precisely what the members of the African American Women’s Giving Circle had in mind when they elected to support Ascensions. “It is our hope that our support and interactions with Ascensions will enable its young director to build and sustain the service organization that she envisions—addressing the unmet needs for therapeutic mental health services for the women, strengthening collective self help and support group activities and increasing their organizational capacity and partnerships,” Jibrell says.

The community outreach Streeter will focus on is crucial to Ascensions’ ability to provide services. It provides an entryway into psychological services that may not otherwise be available due to the stigma that often surrounds it. People are far more likely to attend a parenting class, Streeter says, than to make an appointment for counseling.

family

Her approach is working. As the community begins to understand the value of the services Ascensions offers, the related stigma is decreasing and people feel more comfortable seeking the help they need.

Streeter says clients are less guarded when they come in and that she frequently hears things like, “A couple of years ago, I would never have come to see a psychologist, but now that I know what you do, and I know that it’s not that I’m crazy…”

Just as so much of Ascensions’ work depends on strong community ties and outreach, so too does the African American Women’s Giving Circle define its success by the connections it makes to the organizations—and communities—it supports.

“This Grantee Partner provided the opportunity for the giving circle sisters to realize critical goals of their grant making,” Jibrell says, including, “helping stabilize a very promising, but under-resourced African American woman-led organization through significant grantmaking, but also through its connections to the resources, talents and networks of the giving circle members.”

Streeter is emboldened and optimistic about the power of this new partnership. “We haven’t had the challenge of getting people in and wanting services,” Streeter says. “It’s really been a challenge of getting the staff to support the need. You don’t know how huge this is, and how it takes Ascensions to a whole different level of what we’re trying to do. So many good things are going to come because of this.”

Ready to make more good things come as a result of working, together, to making our community stronger by investing in women and girls?  Get involved in the power of giving together.  Join us for our annual Leadership Luncheon on October 10!

Stepping Stones Research Update: August 2007

Posted on by Lisa Kays

As part of our ongoing commitment–in partnership with The Urban Institute–to providing information and resources related to the goals of Stepping Stones, please find below summary of recent research on issues of economic security and financial independence for women and their families.

This research is summarized and compiled for The Women’s Foundation by Kerstin Gentsch of The Urban Institute, NeighborhoodInfo DC.

Financial Education and Wealth Creation News

District of Columbia Housing Monitor: Spring 2007
By Peter A. Tatian
Urban Institute
June 28, 2007

Looks at the Washington, D.C., housing market, tracking home prices, real estate listings, new construction, and affordable housing; examines mortgage lending trends through 2005; and highlights the declining share of low income home buyers in neighborhoods throughout the city.

Key findings:

  • Housing demand continues to slow; median third quarter sales prices for single-family homes and condominiums are down from one year earlier.
  • Real estate listings of single-family homes and condominiums decreased between the third and fourth quarters of 2006, but the time houses spend on the market continued to increase.
  • Prices show definite signs of declining or flattening in all wards except Wards 7 and 8.
  • Home building slowed in the fourth quarter of 2006, and housing permits for the entire year were down for the first time since 2003.
  • Denial rates for home purchase loan applications rose again in 2005; almost one quarter of all loan applications in Wards 7 and 8 were denied.
  • Home buyers in Wards 5, 7, and 8 were more than 12 times more likely to take out a high interest rate loan than were buyers in Ward 3.
  • The share of home purchase loans for second home and investment properties continues to increase.
  • As housing prices have increased, the share of home purchasers who are very low income has dropped dramatically.

Abstract, introduction and key findings. 
Full issue.
 
How Have Asset Policies for Cash Welfare and Food Stamps Changed since the 1990s?
By Signe-Mary McKernan and William Margrabe
Urban Institute
July 2007

Examines allowance changes for restricted and unrestricted accounts at the federal and state level and tracks the different allowances for IDAs, food stamps, and welfare programs from 1992 to 2003.

Cash welfare and food stamps are means tested: assets and income must fall below set limits for families to qualify. While this ensures that benefits go to the neediest families, asset limits may also discourage asset building. States can exempt all assets (unrestricted assets), or they can exempt assets held for a specific purpose, such as education, a home, or a business (restricted assets); a car; or an individual development account (IDA).

Since 1992, states have increasingly supported IDAs and have allowed specific classes of assets. States allowing IDAs went from none in 1992 to 26 in 2003. Similarly, states exempting restricted assets in their welfare programs went from none in 1992 to 30 in 2003.

Prior to 2002, the Food Stamp Program provided no exemptions for restricted accounts. But the 2002 Farm Bill provides states the option of exempting restricted assets, if doing so aligns their food stamp policy with their welfare or Medicaid policies.

In 1992, federal policy for cash welfare allowed families to exempt $1,500 in vehicle value from the asset limit. By 2003, 29 states allowed exemption for at least one vehicle. Only 3 states exempted the entire value of a vehicle from Food Stamp eligibility during the late 1990s, but by 2003, 34 did.

The growth in allowances for restricted assets contrasts with the erosion in limits on assets not set aside for a particular purpose. Average TANF unrestricted asset limits rose in real terms from $1,138 in 1993 to $2,779 in 1998 but have since been eroded by inflation, falling to $2,592 in 2003. The Food Stamp asset limit has eroded in real terms from $2,398 in 1991 to $1,895 in 2003.

It remains unclear how much disregarding certain assets from eligibility determinations will affect decisions to save.

Text-only version.
Full paper.

Jobs and Business Ownership News

Economic Mobility: Is the American Dream Alive and Well?
By John Morton and Isabel Sawhill
The Brookings Institution
May 2007

Intends to provoke rigorous discussion about the role and strength of economic mobility in American society.

For more than two centuries, economic opportunity and the prospect of upward mobility have formed the bedrock upon which the American story has been anchored — inspiring people in distant lands to seek our shores and sustaining the unwavering optimism of Americans at home. From the hopes of the earliest settlers to the aspirations of today’s diverse population, the American Dream unites us in a common quest for individual and national success. But new data suggest that this once solid ground may well be shifting. This raises provocative questions about the continuing ability of all Americans to move up the economic ladder and calls into question whether the American economic meritocracy is still alive and well.

Summary.
Full report. 

Child Care and Early Education News

Early Care and Education for Children in Low-Income Families: Patterns of Use, Quality, and Potential Policy Implications
By Gina Adams, Kathryn Tout, and Martha Zaslow
Urban Institute
May 2007

Assesses the patterns of early care and education (ECE) utilization by low-income families, the implications for children’s development of the extent and quality of ECE participation, the evidence on the quality of ECE that low-income children receive, and the policy context that shapes ECE.

Key findings include:

  • Patterns of early care and education differ for families with higher and lower incomes. Participation in early care and education settings is common for children from low income families.
  • The use of particular early care and education arrangements reflects access to different arrangements as well as family preferences and constraints. 
  • There is consistent evidence of a link between the quality of early care and education and children’s development. Recent studies find that the type of care and extent of care also are important for children’s development even after controlling for quality. 
  • While we lack nationally representative data on child care quality, large-scale studies in differing geographical regions suggest that overall (setting aside the issue of family income), much of the care in the United States falls below a rating of “good” on widely used observational measures.
  • We also lack a national picture of the quality of the market-based child care that children from low-income families receive.
  • Studies indicate that the quality of program-based early care and education settings such as Head Start and state pre kindergarten differs by program type.
  • Children from low-income families may be more likely to experience changes in early care and education arrangements.
  • Public policies that affect the quality of early care and education tend to focus primarily on one of three goals—supporting parental work, supporting children’s development through access to early care and education programs with specific quality standards, or supporting the quality or supply of market-based settings.

Abstract, summary, and key findings.
For full report. 

Health and Safety News

Food Insecurity and Overweight among Infants and Toddlers: New Insights into a Troubling Linkage
By Jacinta Bronte-Tinkew, Martha Zaslow, Randolph Capps, and Allison Horowitz
Child Trends
July 2007

Examines data on food insecurity, defined as limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, and links food insecurity with maternal depression, poor parenting, and—paradoxically—overweight toddlers.

  • One in eight U.S. households with infants (12.5 percent) reports being “food insecure”.
  • Among households with low-birthweight infants—infants born weighing less than 5.5 pounds—about one in seven (14.4 percent) is food insecure.
  • Among poor households with infants, nearly three in 10 (28.9 percent) report food insecurity.
  • Young children living in households with very low food security are 61 percent more likely to be overweight than are young children living in food-secure households.
  • Mothers living in food-insecure households are significantly more likely to report symptoms of depression than are mothers living in food-secure households.
  • Parents in food-insecure households have less positive interactions with their infant children, such as less responsiveness to infant distress and less behavior directed at fostering their babies’ social and emotional growth.

Press release.
Full brief. 

Survey Spotlight on Uninsured Parents: How a Lack of Coverage Affects Parents and Their Families
By Karyn Schwartz
Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation
June 2007

Spotlights how being uninsured affects not just a parent’s health, but also the well-being of the entire family.

Health insurance for low-income parents influences both their own health and access to care, as well as the well-being of their families. Without health insurance for parents, families are more likely to incur debt and cut back on other basic needs to pay for care. Uninsured parents face real health consequences when they delay care, and the entire family is affected when those delays cause a parent to remain ill or be unable to participate in daily activities.

Medicaid coverage for parents is limited, and many low-income parents are not eligible. Uninsured low-income parents who are working have very limited access to employer coverage, with about half working for firms with less than 25 employees and over 40% working in industries with the lowest rates of employer coverage. About 60% of uninsured low-income parents say that they are very concerned that they do not have enough savings to cover financial obligations. Without savings, they are unlikely to be able to pay for medical treatments out-of-pocket.

As documented earlier, when parents have insurance, children are more likely to be covered and have access to health care. Some states have taken steps to improve access to public coverage for parents recognizing the importance of making coverage available for the whole family.11 Children in homes where everyone has coverage also gain financial stability and other positive benefits when their parents are able to access care. As policy makers look to decrease the number of uninsured children, children’s health coverage may be more broadly and effectively addressed if their parents’ access to coverage and care is also improved.

Full brief.  

Other News and Research

Nonprofit Governance in the United States: Findings on Performance and Accountability from the First National Representative Study
By Francie Ostrower
June 25, 2007
Urban Institute

Presents survey findings from the first ever national representative survey of nonprofit governance.

  • Discusses relationships between public policy and governance, factors that promote or impede boards’ performance of basic stewardship responsibilities, board composition and factors associated with board diversity, and recruitment processes, including the difficulty experienced by many nonprofits in finding members.
  • Includes some data on the representation of women on nonprofit boards.
  • Our representative sample of organizations results in a radically different picture of representation by women.
  • Almost all nonprofit boards include women (94 percent) and as a whole they are almost equally balanced with respect to gender. On average, boards are composed of 46 percent women (the median is a close 44 percent).
  • The percentage of women on boards, however, is inversely related to organizational size. The average percentage of women is 50 percent among nonprofits with expenses under $100,000, but drops to a low of 29 percent among the largest nonprofits (over $40 million in expenses).
  • Conclusions about gender composition based on larger nonprofits will be quite different than those that include smaller ones. These findings are consistent with the contention that women are less likely to serve on boards of large and prestigious nonprofits.

Abstract and introduction. 
Full paper.