Grantee Partner

D.C.'s current child care challenges.

Posted on by Parisa B. Norouzi

“DC Doesn’t WORK Without Child Care!” is more than a slogan for Empower DC’s Child Care for All Campaign, it’s the harsh reality facing thousands of low and moderate income working families who rely on child care assistance to ensure their ability to work.

Unfortunately, recent changes by the Fenty Administration and the Mayor’s proposed budget for FY 2010 are only contributing to the challenges already faced by families working to make ends meet.

Empower DC’s grassroots membership base is raising their voices to educate policy makers that child care is not a luxury, but rather a necessity for all working people, and it must be made a priority.

FY 2010 Child Care Budget
The DC City Council is wrapping up budget hearings this week, and getting down to the business of making changes to the city budget, the final version of which is expected to be voted on May 12th.  DC’s budget is made up of $6.25 billion in local dollars collected from taxes and fees, plus federal money bringing the total budget to $8.97 billion. Revenue projections forecast an $800 million decline in revenue from FY 2009, causing the city to raise fees and cut programs to make up for the budget short fall.

Child care is among many social services and community programs that face cuts.

The Mayor’s budget proposes a 4.8 percent reduction in child care funding from FY 2009.  Despite Adrian Fenty’s support for child care funding when chairman of the Council’s Human Services Committee, since becoming Mayor he has proposed cuts to child care in each budget he has submitted to the Council. The child care budget was cut by over $4 million going into FY 2009, and reduced further mid-year. The number of children being served by child care programs declined by 1,300 from FY 2007 to FY 2009. The Administration has not said how many more slots will be lost due to cuts in the FY 2010 budget, but clearly the number will continue to decline under the Mayor’s proposal.

The FY 2010 Early Care and Education Administration totals $89 million, a reduction of $4.5 million from FY 2009, and a reduction of $12 million when compared to the original FY 2009 budget. After adjusting for inflation, the budget for child care has declined by $20 million, or 20 percent, since 2007.

Additionally, the proposed FY 2010 budget for the Pre-K for All Initiative is only $5.1 million, down from $9.5 million at the start of FY 2009, and will not support an expansion as intended in the Pre-K for All legislation passed by the Council in 2008.

More information on the Child Care budget is available here.

Other Child Care Challenges
The child care community is also concerned about other changes affecting DC residents, including:

  • The proposed elimination of child care services at Parks and Recreation sites.  Mayor Fenty abruptly closed four child care programs in December, impacting hundreds of children and workers. The Mayor’s FY 2010 budget proposes to eliminate the remaining 15 programs, displacing more than 100 additional workers and several hundred children. According to Neil Rodgers, staff of Harry Thomas Jr., who chairs the Council Committee on Parks and Recreation, the child care centers proposed to be eliminated are all gold-quality, accredited centers that are funded by federal, not local, dollars. The budget for these programs, $5.1 million, has been directed to cover other child care activities in the Office of the State Superintendent (OSSE) budget.The Administration has not said where they expect impacted families to go to receive this care;
  • The abolishment of the Mayor’s Advisory Committee.  Members of the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Early Childhood Development (MACECD) were notified by letter in March that the commission, originally established in 1979, had been dissolved. MACECD had been an active body, working to bring together early childhood professionals, consumers and advocates to draft policy and budget recommendations on numerous topics including accreditation, setting rates, family child care, before and after school care, professional development, and more. Empower DC submitted a sign-on letter to the Mayor and Council calling for the reinstatement of MACECD. Approximately 200 individuals and organizations endorsed the letter and we await a response from the Administration; and,
  • The Child Care Development Block Grant.  The Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDBG) is the primary source of federal money provided to states for the provision of child care assistance to support low to moderate income working families. D.C. is required to create a CCDBG State Plan every two years outlining how the state will utilize CCDBG funds.

Upcoming opportunities for residents to weigh-in on the use of CCDBG funds are as follows:

Wednesday, April 22 6-8 PM
Child Care Development Block Grant Informational Meeting
Office of Unified Communications
2720 Martin Luther King Jr., Ave., S.E.
For more information call Diane Paige:  (202) 727-1839 .

Thursday, April 30th 6-8 PM
Child Care Development Block Grant Informational Meeting
Bell Multicultural School
3101 16th Street, NW, 6-8pm
For more information call Diane Paige  (202) 727-1839 .

Monday, May 4th 6:30-8:30 PM
Child Care for All Campaign Meeting
Preparation for Block Grant Hearing
Child Care Provided – call for address and RSVP
Empower DC –  (202) 234-9119 

Saturday, May 16th Noon-2 PM
Child Care Development Block Grant Hearing
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library
901 G Street, NW, A-5
For more information or to sign up to testify call  (202) 727-1839 .

Parisa Norouzi is the Co-Director/Organizer of Empower DC’s District of Columbia Grassroots Empowerment Project.  Niccola Reed is the Child Care for All Campaign’s Child Care Organizer.

Empower DC is a city-wide, membership based grassroots organizing project whose mission is to enhance, improve and promote the self-advocacy of low and moderate income residents in the District of Columbia in order to bring about sustained improvements in their quality of life. Empower DC is currently engaged in grassroots advocacy campaigns on the issues of affordable housing, preserving public property, and ensuring quality, affordable and accessible child care for all DC families. For more information contact Parisa Norouzi, CoDirector, at  (202) 234-9119  or Parisa@empowerdc.org, or visit www.Empowerdc.org.

Empower DC is a Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation.

For current information on how the issue of child care is being handled in Virginia, click here.

Virginia shows commitment to making the grade in early care and education.

Posted on by Kathy May

The State of Preschool 2008, released by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), ranks all 50 states on the percentage of children served and spending per child for 2007-2008.  It also compares the number of quality benchmarks met.

The Virginia Preschool Initiative (VPI) met seven out of 10 NIEER quality standards benchmarks and recent advances will have a positive impact on the other benchmarks.

For example, during 2008, Voices for Virginia’s Children co-led the campaign to foster public and legislative support for the governor’s expansion of VPI.  In response to effective advocacy, legislators allocated $23 million so that an additional 7,000 low-income four year olds (2,000 in Northern Virginia) now have access to quality preschool.  During the current governor’s administration, the number of slots has increased by 34 percent and state funding has increased by 40 percent.

During the 2009 General Assembly session, officials demonstrated further commitment to the program.  Despite needing to make severe budget cuts, the General Assembly supported the governor’s request to preserve current VPI spending.

Given the strong public and legislative consensus in Virginia that pre-k for low-income four-year-olds is a sound investment, further expansion is likely once the state’s revenue picture improves.

Kathy May is Director of the Northern Virginia Office of Voices for Virginia’s Children, a Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation through the Early Care and Education Funders Collaborative.

Congratulations to Polaris Project, winner of the online vote!

Posted on by Lisa Kays

Last night, The Women’s Foundation hosted what is my favorite event of the year–the Leadership Awards Reception–where we presented each of our 10 amazing awardees this year with their certificates and announced the winner of this year’s online vote.

This year’s vote–the second we’ve done–was incredible.  Last year, we brought in 1,187 votes total. 

This year, the vote’s winner, Polaris Project, brought in 2,715 votes themselves, with a total of 8,538 votes being cast overall.

Polaris Project was selected as a 2009 Leadership Awardee for their DC Trafficking Intervention Program (DC TIP), which has combatted human trafficking in the District of Columbia, Northern Virginia, and Southern Maryland Launched since 2002 by working to create an effective community-based response to curb local human trafficking network activity.  DC TIP provides comprehensive services to foreign national and U.S. citizen victims in the Washington metro area and works towards long-term, systemic change.

At the reception last night, Amb. Mark P. Lagan, Executive Director of Polaris Project, explained that Polaris Project is named after the North Star, otherwise known as Polaris, which guided slaves to freedom along the Underground Railroad.  Today, Polaris Project helps victims of all kinds of trafficking throughout the world to escape and rebuild their lives with dignity and hope. 

The Women’s Foundation congratulations Polaris Project for their outstanding work mobilizing support for the vote, and all of our 2009 Leadership Awardees for their awards and for the outstanding work they did to mobilize support for the vote and awareness of the transformational work they’re doing throughout our community to change the lives of women and girls. 

Lisa Kays is The Women’s Foundation’s Director of Communications.

WJLA article highlights impact of local women's construction program.

Posted on by Lisa Kays

Many of our readers and community members remember the powerful story of Laceiy and Sharan, and how their lives were changed by a construction job training program, Washington Area Women in the Trades (WAWIT), that is supported by The Women’s Foundation’s Stepping Stones Initiative.

Now, you can learn even more about the program through a WJLA story, "Local Program Expands Career Choices for Women."  The article discusses the success stories of some recent graduates now with exciting careers in construction and other nontraditional fields.

Check it out and learn more about how nontraditional job training for women not only changes the lives of women and their families, but also our community as a whole!

View the WJLA article.
View the video about Laceiy and Sharan’s WAWIT success stories.
Learn more about WAWIT.
Learn more about Stepping Stones.
Learn more about Wider Opportunities for Women and the YWCA of the National Capital Area, two Grantee Partners of The Women’s Foundation who partner to implement WAWIT.

Lisa Kays is The Women’s Foundation’s Director of Communications.

New Leadership Awardee, Family PASS, cited as CNN Hero!

Posted on by Lisa Kays

Here at The Women’s Foundation, we consider all of our Grantee Partners heroes.

But it’s still exciting to see one formally recognized for it!  Like when we learned that one of our new 2009 Leadership Awardees, Family Preservation and Strengthening Services (Family PASS), and its founder, Suezette Steinhardt, has just been named as a CNN Hero!

You can check out the article, and a video of Suezette discussing her work, here.

Congrats, Suezette, on this honor from all of us at The Women’s Foundation.  We’re proud to have you as part of our community of outstanding Grantee Partners working every day to change the lives of our region’s women and girls. 

And thank you for all that you do for low-income families in Virginia!

Learn more about Family PASS here.

Lisa Kays is The Women’s Foundation’s Director of Communications. 

DCWA: Empowering DC residents to cope with a rough economy.

Posted on by Carrie Shepard

Times are tough. We’ve all seen the headlines and heard the news reports, and most of us even have personal anecdotes that illustrate just how tough times have gotten.

The economic climate has people worried, but is there anything we, as advocates and stakeholders, can do about it?  That was the topic of the DC Women’s Agenda’s most recent Lunch and Learn forum for member organizations and interested parties.

Attendees met at Catholic Charities to hear from guest speakers Linda Stoman and Meg Newman from Capital Area Asset Builders (CAAB) on the organization’s educational outreach programs and the Earned Income Tax Credit Coalition.

The presentations empowered participants to feel that they can do something about the effects of the economy by educating and advising the public on ways to control their personal finances and become financially proactive and literate.  Some of the main points included:

  • Look at your expenses through the critical eye of “need” versus “want.”  Do you really need a texting plan on your phone or the sports package for cable or can you survive without it?
  • Guard your personal and financial information vigilantly—don’t share social security numbers or account information if you can avoid it. Identity theft is on the rise, and the victims usually know the thief.
  • More and more employers are running credit checks on potential employees to determine their character. If there is a significant life change that adversely affected your finances and credit, add a notation to your credit report explaining what happened.
  • While a lot of these tips are good sense, they need to become common sense. Organizations across the District have built curriculums and programs to encourage financial literacy amongst teens and adults. Some of the recommended resources highlighted at the event were Lady Legacy for teen girls, the Institution for Financial Literacy for adults, as well as the DC Saves Campaign, a program that provides savings matches to encourage D.C. residents to save money towards their education or home ownership. The flagship of finances itself, the FDIC, is also playing a key role in the field of financial education.

The Lunch and Learn was a tremendous success and characterized the benefits of bringing together D.C.- based organizations.  As a result, there is now a major partnership underway between the FDIC and D.C. public schools to integrate a financial literacy program into the city’s schools this summer.

Carrie Shepard is an intern at Wider Opportunities for Women, a Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation.

The DC Women’s Agenda is a broad-based coalition that promotes women and girls’ equality, advancement, safety, and well-being through advocacy, education, and community input. DC Women’s Agenda is a project of Wider Opportunities for Women.  For more information, please contact Debbie Billet-Roumell, Coordinator, DC Women’s Agenda at DBRoumell@wowonline.org or 202-464-1596.

CAAB is also a Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation.

Why I voted for the Washington Middle School for Girls…

Posted on by Patricia Roland

I watched Sister Mary Bourdon begin the Washington Middle School for Girls a little over 10 years ago, first as an after school study hall with 12 girls in a basement apartment, then into a two campus school, serving almost 100 students in grades 4-8.

And when I say serving, I mean:

  • Offering them an exemplary education in core subjects;
  • An Extended Day Program from 3:30 until 5:30 p.m., featuring student clubs such as yoga, poetry, chess, photography, and arts classes with The Washington Ballet, Levine School of Music, and The Corcoran Art Gallery;
  • A summer camp that features remedial work, arts activities, field trips, and welcoming of visitors that expands their world like nothing else; and,
  • A Graduate Support Program that assists in getting their students accepted into some of the best high schools in the Washington area and beyond.

Right now, 97 percent of the Washington Middle School for Girls’ graduates are either still in high school, or have graduated and gone on to higher learning of their choice!  An incredible statistic for young girls living in the most under-served neighborhood of Washington, D.C.!

When I think about making an investment in the future, I can look no further than Washington Middle School for Girls – and I’m betting on a great future for those girls who are fortunate enough to have Sister Mary and her dedicated staff on their side!

We will all be better because of this school!  Please, vote for them today!

Patricia Roland is a donor and supporter of The Washington Middle School for Girls.

Vote against slavery: why you should vote for Polaris Project!

Posted on by Katherine Chon

“Good friend forgive me if I offend, I know I am not the only one with problems. I also understand that there are many people with greater problems than mines. But for you to take the time to consider mines, that I am most grateful. It is good that when one has climbed the ladder of success to the top, that he or she reaches down and help those that are not able to.” 
— YK

These are the opening lines of a letter I received earlier this week from a young women whose story is not unlike many of our own.  She came to Washington, DC seeking a better life with plans to get an advanced degree so that she could work with the poor and the oppressed, as she explained later in her letter.  She was excited to receive a job as a domestic worker, which would enable her to work towards her dreams.

What makes YK’s story different was that she was enslaved within the household, beaten, sexually assaulted, and prevented from leaving. 

YK is a survivor of human trafficking.

She was able to escape her situation through community support and currently is part of Polaris Project’s DC Trafficking Intervention Program (DC TIP).

Like YK, Janice* also had dreams that were exploited by a human trafficker.  When Janice was 12 years old, she should have been going to school and living the carefree life of other teenagers. However, after an older man offered to take care of her, Janice was forced into prostitution for five years and beaten each time she tried to leave.

Polaris Project was called in after a police investigation and began to provide Janice with food, clothing, and emotional support.  We also worked to reunite Janice with her family and she is enrolled in school.  Her trafficker was sentenced to prison and now Janice dreams of one day working in the criminal justice field.

While it is shocking that slavery can still exist in the 21st century, it is sobering to know that it is the third largest and fastest growing criminal industry in the world.  The United Nations recently projected that human trafficking will only worsen with the state of the global economy.  Stories like YK’s and Janice’s show us that the face of human trafficking is often very personal and local, occurring in our own backyards. 

In fact, the FBI considers Washington, DC one of the top 14 sites in the country for the sex trafficking of American children.

When we started Polaris Project seven years ago, our mission was simple: find the victims, shape policy, and build a movement.

Interestingly, we began with a $5,000 seed grant from a local social entrepreneurship program and built an organization that has worked with more than 300 victims of human trafficking; testified before Congress four times to help pass landmark federal legislation (twice!); worked with legislators in D.C., VA, and MD to strengthen protections for victims; and, co-founded the DC Task Force on Human Trafficking in partnership with the D.C. U.S. Attorneys Office and D.C. Police with more than 30 other organizational members coordinating on cases and victim services.

Imagine what another $5,000 from winning this vote can do!  Click here to vote against slavery before 5 p.m. on Monday, March 30th!

*Names and details have been changed to protect the identity and anonymity of our clients.

Katherine Chon is the President and Co-founder of Polaris Project in Washington, D.C., a Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation.

Why you should vote for Calvary Women's Services!

Posted on by Kristine Thompson

Your vote can empower women to move out of homelessness

Recently, Connie, a woman who lives at Calvary Women’s Shelter, wrote the following:

“What I mostly appreciate about Calvary is that they allow you to grow, attend meetings to keep you on the right path, teach you how to be responsible with daily, everyday living such as money management…Calvary has taught me responsibility, promptness, respect for myself and others, and how to be a team player.”

Connie is one of more than 1,300 homeless women in the District of Columbia.  In the current economic crisis, that number is growing, and it does not include all of the women who are doubled up with family or sleeping on a friend’s couch.

Women like Connie often have histories of violence and trauma.  They may be unemployed or working hard at low wage jobs.  They may live with mental illnesses, addictions, or chronic health problems.  Overcoming these challenges while living on the streets or in a large shelter with over 100 other women is nearly impossible.

Calvary Women’s Shelter serves 25 women each night.  Though the women who come to Calvary face great challenges, we believe that every woman has gifts and strengths she can build on to be successful.  We meet each woman as an individual, support her as she works to achieve her goals, and empower her to take control of her own life.

Each year, 60 percent of the women who come to Calvary move into their own homes.  Many others take positive steps to prepare for independent living.

We are honored and excited that the Washington Area Women’s Foundation has recognized our work with a Leadership Award.  An additional grant of $5,000, which we can win if we get the most votes in the 2009 Leadership Awards online vote, will make a big difference.

At Calvary, $5,000 can:

  • Purchase 6 months worth of food for our dinner and breakfast programs;
  • Support 2 months of life skills education programs; or,
  • Provide 22 women with a year’s worth of mental health services.

These services make a real difference in women’s lives.

Since moving to Calvary, Connie has worked hard to overcome the reasons she became homeless, completed her GED, secured employment, and begun her search for housing.

Addressing Calvary’s supporters, she wrote: “Let’s all come together as one and continue to help women like me with a new beginning.”

Your vote will do just that.  Vote now!

Kristine Thompson is the Executive Director of Calvary Women’s Services.

Why you should vote for the Washington Middle School for Girls!

Posted on by Lisa Kays

This online voting for the Washington Middle School For Girls has been the most incredible experience.

In response to my blanket email to everyone in my address book, I am hearing from people I haven’t heard from in years.  None has been more poignant than the response from a distant cousin who was brought back to a conversation she had with her aunt when she was 10 years old.

Her aunt told her that no matter what advice anyone was to give her, the best thing she could tell her was to grow up to be a strong woman.

So, when she started looking at The Women’s Foundation and Washington Middle School for Girls‘ Web sites, her aunt’s advice all came rushing back. It was a conversation she hadn’t had in a while.

Sometimes, we forget that the work we do everyday with girls and women is not front and center with everyone.  To us, when you change the life of a girl, you change the life of a woman.

It’s that simple.

So yes, I’ve loved spreading the good news and getting people to vote for the school.  And I love the added bonus of wonderful feedback.

Vote now!

Colette Breen works in the development office at the Washington Middle School for Girls.