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Category Archives: Human Services

7 Questions – Amanda Andere (FACETS)

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Let’s get to know … Amanda Andere, Executive Director of FACETS in Fairfax, VA. Through emergency and supportive programs to prevent homelessness and assist those who are already homeless, FACETS works to ensure that every area family has a place to call home.

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

In May, over 500 people woke up to make a difference at the FACETS Opening Doors Benefit Breakfast. At this free breakfast, members of the community, current supporters, and elected officials heard directly from the people with whom we work about the impact we’ve had on their lives. The result was over $190,000 raised to help us continue to open doors for people in need and break the cycle of poverty and homelessness.

2. What else are you up to?

FACETS is an active partner in the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness by 2018. It has changed our work dramatically and we are now embarking on our second joint grant with eight other partners that will help people move from homelessness to housing more quickly. On October 22nd, we will hold our annual Taste of Fall with FACETS — a great event with wonderful food, live and silent auctions, and awesome music. Continue reading →

In The News …

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This week’s bundle of non-profit news — most of it national this time around!

The Unemployed Cutting Corners in their Diets (DCentric): “Eating healthy can be a matter of having access to stores, but it’s also about having enough money to buy healthy food and having the time to cook it.” And to quote from the Huffington Post’s article, “Since housing costs tend to be fixed, many underemployed and unemployed people save money by eating cheaper and unhealthy foods.” That latter point is especially striking. Housing rarely comes cheap or simple, but food does. And inexpensive, convenient foods tends to be less healthy. Obviously, fixing the price of food benefits no one — so how can we keep the flexibility, but improve the health?

The Giving Pledge: Bill Gates, Warren Buffett Visit Obama (Huffington Post): “President Obama will host the nation’s two wealthiest private citizens, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, at the White House on Monday to receive an update on the Giving Pledge. […] As the White House and congressional Democrats push for a debt ceiling deal that includes taxes on the wealthiest Americans, the event shines a spotlight on the very people who would bear that burden.” So what should be the topic of chief conversation, the former or latter? Continue reading →

Justice Day

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On July 17, 1998, the Rome Statue took effect, leading to the creation of the International Criminal Court. Yesterday, July 17, marked the 13th annual International Justice Day. As David Tolbert wrote for Al Jazeera English:

As we acknowledge International Justice Day on July 17, calls for accountability for human rights abuses resound across the globe, from Cairo to Washington, from Bogota to Kinshasa, from Srebrenica to Colombo. The demands for justice are today a driving force of social change and popular revolutions, and their reach now extends to those at the highest levels of power. Those leaders have, from time immemorial, been deemed untouchable and often afforded immunity in furtive and shabby deals that shielded them from prosecution “for the sake of peace”. That day is passing.

[ …]

It is essential the past be confronted, the truth be told, victims’ injuries be redressed and steps be taken to ensure institutions that perpetrated crimes — such as the police and military — be reformed. Thus, in addition to the work of international and national courts, broader justice strategies are essential in transitional societies.

It’s a straightforward point, yet a profound challenge: when a crime cannot be prosecuted, or a trial is not enough, how can we assure that injuries are redressed? And moreover, how can we ensure that voices are heard, that stories are told?

7 Questions – Mark E. Robbins (Yellow Ribbon Fund)

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This week, we’re getting to know … Mark E. Robbins, Executive Director of the Yellow Ribbon Fund. The philosophy of the Fund is simple: wounded servicemen and women deserve first-class care as they recover. And their families deserve the same. With the help of over 1,200 volunteers, Yellow Ribbon Fund supplies the personal services that government programs just don’t cover.

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

We are launching a new initiative to stay in touch with the injured service members we helped while they were being treated at Walter Reed and Bethesda Naval Hospital after they return to their hometowns. Many of these young men and women have a good support system at home and have goals of getting a job or going to college. But many do not have this safety net and we are reaching out to see how we can help.

2. What else are you up to?

We are starting to build a network of attorneys who can do pro bono work on behalf of veterans with legal needs. We are getting close to launching this effort and believe that this will be a very important service. Continue reading →

Never Close

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The New York Times and The Nonprofit Quarterly are relaying an uplifting tale from the West Coast:

NPQ: New book shelves and a technology center of the San Jose, CA, Seven Trees library are ready for business. But the city of San Jose doesn’t have the money to pay for librarians, so the brand new center is shut down. But thanks to a group of volunteers, residents will still have books for their summer reading.

The Friends of Seven Trees has set up an informal book loan operation right next to the closed library. The volunteer group organizes donated books, and residents can take them home.

NYT: Instead of just selling the donated books to raise money, as Friends groups usually do, the Friends of Seven Trees Library also decided to set up an informal book-loan operation.

Now Ms. Hashii, a retired library clerk, keeps a mental list of her readers’ needs as she sorts donations. A man with white hair and thick glasses says he is on the lookout for large-print books. Mothers come to read with their children on the one folding chair in the little space, so Ms. Hashii looks for more picture books. A Spanish-speaking woman is teaching herself to read and has asked for easy Spanish books.

“It’s something the community really seems to be taking to,” Ms. Hashii said.

A community without a nearby library seems difficult to comprehend — which might explain why so many volunteers have stepped up to preserve Seven Trees’ service. And at this stage, no one can say for sure whether the organization will ever return to provide that service again. But either way, community volunteers’ repossession of the library’s work is both uplifting and fascinating. Is it a sign that a supply of books is an indispensable community resource? Were this library (or any organization) not to re-open, would this local and volunteer-driven model be something new to consider? Not for all cases, but for some?

Who’s Wired?

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So who is “connected” — digitally, that is– and who is less so? According to a new report from the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University:

People who live in the Washington, DC, region are pretty well connected when it comes to high-speed Internet service — but there are still large swaths of the population that are unwilling or too financially strapped to plug in.

Having a low income is the most consistent trait among non-adopters, while Hispanics and rural residents are also less likely to be broadband subscribers, according to a four-month study of government data by the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University.

The data show that in the DC region and elsewhere, the debate over the “digital divide” has become less about access to broadband and more about the far-stickier issue of affordability. The District ranks 17th out of 29 counties and cities in the region for residential broadband adoption. The most connected areas, like Fairfax County, VA, are also among the wealthiest. Continue reading →

7 Questions – Sarah Leavitt (Lambi Fund of Haiti)

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This week, let’s meet … Sarah Leavitt, Digital Outreach Manager of the Lambi Fund of Haiti! Based on the premise that Haitians themselves understand how development is best achieved in their own communities, Lambi Fund supports small-scale economic development projects that are conceived, implemented, and evaluated by community-based organizations.

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

The Lambi Fund of Haiti just launched an exciting new partnership with a coffee cooperative in Northwestern Haiti. I find this to be an incredibly promising program because we are working with 51 coffee farming groups (with 805 members in all), who are working together to increase coffee production and sales in their region. For the duration of this project, Lambi Fund will work with these coffee producers to modernize their processing plant and to increase outputs during harvests.

In the first phase, Lambi Fund will fund the purchase of a coffee pulper and help the co-op build a glasi (drying surface) which will help improve the efficiency and quality of the co-op’s coffee processing methods. In the second phase, Lambi Fund will fund the purchase of 20,000 lbs. of coffee. Coffee purchased from growers will be processed and placed in a storage facility (to be built) and then sent to sell in international markets. Lambi Fund will also provide 25,000 coffee seedlings and 6,000 shade trees along with the funding and supplies needed to build a tree nursery. This will significantly increase the amount of coffee being grown by farmers in the region.

Throughout the entire duration of this project, we will also be providing training on technical and managerial aspects to co-op members that will ensure program success. Training on modernized coffee processing methods along with project management, and tree nursery care and maintenance will be provided. Its programs like these that really excite me — we are working hand-in-hand with communities to improve their means for agricultural production, increasing the value of goods and strengthening economic opportunities for entire regions in Haiti. Continue reading →

In The News …

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Preview: 2011 Capital Fringe Festival (DCist): “The Capital Fringe Festival starts its sixth year this Thursday with over one hundred productions being performed at venues all over the city. Fringe is an opportunity for actors and production companies to get a moment in the limelight — whether they’re unknowns or big players doing some experimenting — and for arts-goers to see lots of theater for relatively little money.” Not sure where to start with your arts-going? Capital Fringe’s website has a great tool for searching all shows by location, date, time, and genre. (Among others, Catalogue-nonprofits CHAW and Woolly Mammoth are serving as Fringe venues these next few weeks!)

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7 Questions – Juliana Ratner (Free Minds Book Club)

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Welcome to “7 Questions” … Juliana Ratner, Program Director of Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop. The club meets weekly at the DC Jail, exploring literature and creative writing and empowering young inmates to transform their lives. Learn more!

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

Every day is an interesting project with this job! On Friday, however, we hosted guest writer Michael Mattocks, co-author of the memoir Unlikely Brothers, in book club. That day book club met on the unit itself, where the acoustics are bad and it’s hard to hear, and all the book club members were so focused and attentive. Michael talked about his journey from drug dealing and incarceration to being an involved and responsible father of five boys, and what writing a book had taught him — and they were full of questions and eager to read their own writing aloud. Afterwards Michael said that it had been one of the most powerful moments of his life, to have the opportunity to share his story with them, and to hear their poetry.

2. What else are you up to?

We’re in the process of producing a literary journal of our member’s work. We do a book every year, but this year we’re taking it to the next level. The journal has an editorial board of four Free Minds members, three of whom are in prison and one of whom is home. They have been in charge of every aspect of the book, from selecting the themes for each section to doing the final pick of poems, and it has been amazing to watch. They are committed and insightful editors and so deeply pleased to be able to give back in a positive way, especially if it can influence other people’s lives and choices.

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