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Category Archives: Human Services

Around Town: October 15-16

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Happy mid-October! We have plenty of cool places to spend your weekend, including …

Multicultural Career Intern Program (Columbia Heights Education Campus, 3101 16th Street NW)

Between 10:00 AM and 3:00 PM on Saturday, head over to MCIP’s 3rd Annual Booksale in support of the middle school and high school libraries at the CHEC — thousands of books in all genres at very reasonable prices.

Earth Sangha (at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, 13950 Dawson Beach Road, Woodbridge, VA)

Help out with invasive plant removal, clearing invasive vines and grasses from Earth Sangha’s grassland site, from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM on Saturday. Directions right here.

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Moving Outward

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From “The Suburbanization of Housing Choice Voucher Recipients,” published by The Brookings Institution on October 11, 2011:

Just as the suburbanization of poverty has gathered momentum, Americans who use housing choice vouchers (HCV) to help pay for their housing have increasingly moved into suburban areas as well.

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In The News …

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Go Big on Education: Five Big Ideas for the Senate to Put in Federal Education Law (Center for American Progress): “Next week the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee is scheduled to vote on a bill to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act” and CAP here outlines “five big policy ideas the Senate should put in its bill to ensure the next ESEA is big and bold enough to improve the education system, and thus our nation’s economy.” The fifth and final recommendation? Encourage and reward bold thinking by educators, authorizing “competitive programs such as Race to the Top, the Investing in Innovation Fund, or the Teacher Incentive Fund, to spur states and districts to innovation.” Do you agree?

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Around Town: October 7-9

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Enjoy the weekend, Greater Washington! And consider spending it with …

Dance Place (3225 8th Street NE)

Precise, positive, and powerful. Join the Dance Place Step Team for “Step It Up DC,” an afternoon of workshops followed by an informal performance starting at 5:30 PM on Friday.

Habitat for Humanity of Montgomery County (9110 Gaither Road, Gaithersburg, MD)

Do you need to gain control of your energy expenses? If you attended the first session of “Watt Watchers,” stop by for your second FREE energy saving class on Saturday from 10:00 AM to noon.

Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (545 7th Street SE)

Starting on Saturday at 5:00 PM, the Capitol Hill Art League (CHAL) proudly presents an all-media juried exhibit entitled “The Art of Craft.” The juror of the show is Steve Fleming, artist and instructor at The Art League.

And in this coming week … Earth Sangha will be planting sumac, wingstem, and various goldenrods at Meadwood Recreation Area on Wednesday from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM; the Mautner Project‘s Raffle for a Reason begins on Wednesday too!

In The News …

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DC-Area Apartment Rents Rise, Vacancy Second Lowest in the Country (Urban Turf via DCentric): “… rents in the DC area for Class A and B apartments have risen 3.6 percent over the past twelve months while vacancy rates sit at 2.8 percent, the lowest for any metro area in the country except for New York City.” For Class A apartments (primarily large buildings constructed after 1991), the vacancy rate is just 1.6% and rental rates “averaged $2,582/month, up from $2,448/month in September 2010.” So not only is affordable rental housing difficult to locate in the city, any rental housing is not easy to come by — and the search alone can require both funds and time.

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Doctors Wanted?

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DC has many resources in abundance. But apparently, doctors are not one of them. A new report from the DC Board of Medicine reveals that, while nearly 9,000 doctors are licensed to work here, fewer than half actually practice in the District. Of that, 72% do not live in the District and and less than 75% spend more than 20 hours per week with patients. According to the Washington Post:

The numbers drop even further among actively practicing primary-care doctors: 382 in internal medicine, 307 in pediatrics, 119 in obstetrics and gynecology, and 110 in family practice. […]

The report found that actively practicing doctors are clustered in Wards 1, 2, 3 and 5, near hospitals. Health-care experts said any shortages that might be perceived in the District depend very heavily on where a person lives.

In Ward 3, for example, there is an abundance of physicians, with “literally hundreds of doctors to choose from,” said Michael Williams, chief of health-care operations for the nonprofit DC Primary Care Association. But he said only 90 doctors list a business address east of the Anacostia River. Continue reading →

Not Just About Books

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Updated (9.30.11): “Sunday Hours at MLK Library Restored at Last Minute” (DCist)

From “Downtown library shutting its doors on Sundays” in this past Sunday’s Post:

This Sunday, parents read picture books aloud in the children’s room, teens lined up to use a mini-recording studio, and anxious Internet seekers checked a waiting list for computer access that was maxed out at 50 names.

It was a busy scene but, for many, a sad one: It marked the end of Sunday hours at the District?s main library. MLK was the last branch in the city, and one of the last libraries in the region, to stay open on a day when so much is closed. Continuing budget cuts mean an end to this Sunday refuge for families, teens and the homeless. Continue reading →

Around Town: September 10-11

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DC Youth Orchestra (at Eastern Senior High School, 1700 East Capitol Street NE)

A full day of rehearsals, masterclasses, and sectionals for advanced students on Saturday at 8:30 AM. You can sign up right here. Musicians will perform a free concert for the public at 7:00 PM the same day.

New to music? From 9:00 to noon, visit the Open House & Petting Zoo — meet the instruments and try them out.

The Posse Foundation (at Southeast Tennis and Learning Center, 701 Mississippi Avenue SE)

The Posse Foundation identifies, recruits, and trains incredible young leaders from urban public high schools and sends them in “posses” to top colleges. Volunteer to help out with Posse’s first stage of Dynamic Assessment Process (DAP) and identify young people who have outstanding leadership qualities on Saturday at 8:30 AM. Call Andres Maldonado at (202 ) 347-7071 x221 for more info.

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7 Questions – Marti Worshtil (Prince George’s Child Resource Center)

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Catalogue welcomes … Marti Worshtil, Executive Director of Prince George’s Child Resource Center, which offers a wide variety of services that foster stable child care programs, help working families, and nurture home environments where children can thrive. The Family Support Center is the hub, where family-friendly programs reach over 18,000 people a year.

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

The Resource Center celebrated our 20th anniversary with a Family Festival at FedEx field. Even with torrential rain and thunder one hour before the event and horrendous heat and humidity after the storm … we had a blast! Almost 1,300 attend and danced the Cha Cha slide with the County Executive, climbed Calleva’s rock wall, skated, painted, broadcast news on CTV and learned all about County services.

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Pictures for the Day

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Let’s catch a glimpse into this past summer at … The Reading Connection, which opens up the world of books to at-risk families by bringing literacy services and programs into emergency shelters, domestic violence safe houses, long-term shelters, and transitional housing.

TRC’s We Are Readers aims to conquer “summer slump,” the well documented phenomenon wherein low-income children lose as much as 2.6 months of reading skill over the summer. High school soccer players, a zookeeper from the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, author Mary Quattlebaum, firefighters, a chef and police officers all visited during the summer and read aloud with the kids.

The awesome results? 46 children read a total of 13,775 minutes, or about 300 minutes per child. Check it out!