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Tag Archives: Women

Lessons Learned

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From last week’s “Leading women offer lessons for work in philanthropy” in The Atlantic:

Katie Couric, special correspondent for ABC News and cancer advocate: “To really pour yourself into something, you have to be moved by it.”

Laurie Tisch, president of the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund: “The lesson I learned is about patience and about agreed upon measures of success … You’ve got to be flexible with grantees. They also have to be honest with you.”

Ann Friedman, board chair of the SEED Foundation: “I would make a plea, if you are on a board and you have a passion and you want to fund something … please also give unrestricted donations to that non-profit. It’s how they turn the lightbulbs on.”

What do you have to add, both for nonprofits and for those that support them?

Life Stories

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Last night, at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, The Theatre Lab School of the Dramatic Arts presented a unique new work, My Soul Look Back and Wonder: Life Stories from Women in Recovery — a production of its acclaimed Life Stories program. After the performance, R. Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, took part in a panel discussion about the play and the critical issues of substance abuse and homelessness.

According to the Theatre Lab, “The program began in early February on-site at the N Street Village facility, a recovery center for homeless and low-income women. Theatre Lab instructor Thomas Workman led a group of ten women in recovery for substance abuse through acting, storytelling, and drama therapy exercises. Participants shared details of their personal lives, including family issues, struggles with drugs, and homelessness. The stories were then crafted into theatre piece by Helen Hayes Award-winning playwright Jennifer L. Nelson. The women — none of whom are professionally trained actors — performed the play themselves under the direction of Theatre Lab founder and co-executive director Deb Gottesman.”

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Come Forward

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In a Politico op-ed, “Violence against women is no ‘women’s issue’,” Women Thrive Worldwide co-founder & President Ritu Sharma writes:

This lesson has been learned by longtime activists, who have been battling this scourge that affects one in three women globally. Gender-based violence can take many forms: rape and assault used as weapons of war, domestic violence, acid burnings and female infanticide. The list is long.

But ending this violence has one common element: The men who are political leaders — village elders, pastors and mullahs, fathers, brothers, husbands and boyfriends — need to come forward and say stop. […]

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In The News …

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Objections to Reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act (WAMU: Diane Rehm Show): “The widely praised Violence Against Women Act faces a tough reauthorization battle. Though introduced in a bipartisan way, it passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote with all the Democrats voting to move it to the full Senate and all the Republicans voting against.” Terry O’Neill, president of the National Organization for Women, explains that the bill “as passed out of the Senate committee, recognizes the LGBT community immigrant women who are particularly vulnerable to exploitation and abuse;” but the bill does not include a “mandate for holding batterers accountable” or a reparations provision. 17 Catalogue nonprofits, including the DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence, focus particularly on girls and women and women; learn more right here.

President Obama’s Budget Request for the NEA: The Fine Print (Americans for the Arts blog): “We learned early that morning that President Obama is proposing an increase of $8 million (from $146M to $154M) for the NEA, which was a very positive start. In the past two years, NEA funding has dropped almost $22M and has yet to recover from the enormous cuts from its high of $176M in 1992. In particular, the budget of the Our Town program, which rewarded over half of its grants to communities of less than 200,000 in 2011, would increase from $5 million to $10 million. Two months ago, the NEA also announced Operation Homecoming, a partnership with the Department of Defense that will host “a new series of writing workshops for returning troops at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.”

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Esperanza

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She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow. I wonder if she made the best with what she got or was she sorry because she couldn’t be all the things she wanted to be. Esperanza. I have inherited her name, but I don’t want to inherit her place by the window.

Because the way you grow old is kind of like an onion or like the rings inside a tree trunk or like my little wooden dolls that fit one inside the other, each year inside the next one. That’s how being eleven years old is. You don’t feel eleven. Not right away. It takes a few days, weeks even, sometimes even months before you say Eleven when they ask you. And you don’t feel smart eleven, not until you’re almost twelve. That’s the way it is.

— The House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, born today in 1954

And in this spirit, learn more about our literacy charities right here.

Day of Giving

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Happy Thanksgiving, Greater Washington! If you’re looking to support or volunteer with an organization in your neighborhood on this coming holiday weekend, we have the list for you. Check out what’s needed and what you can do at some of Catalogue’s human service nonprofits. (And we’ll be back to our regular GoodWorks programming on Monday)

Carpenter’s Shelter: Alexandria, VA

Each family, more than 100 in total, in the Aftercare program receives a basket full of essential ingredients for Thanksgiving dinner. Items needed range from boxes of stuffing to mashed potatoes to ziploc bags. Full list right here:

Doorways for Women and Families: Arlington, VA

Doorways, which strives to end domestic violence and homelessness, offers 6 ways to help out throughout this holiday season, including sponsoring a family and purchasing cards drawn by a child in the housing program.

FACETS Cares: Fairfax, VA

Seeking cooks for Turkeys and side dishes (ingredients provided) on November 22-24, volunteers to assemble and deliver food on Thanksgiving, AND food drive assistants that weekend! All info is right here.

Food for Others: Fairfax, VA

A full calendar of volunteer opportunities from 9 AM to 5 PM today and tomorrow includes directing truck traffic, sorting food, and distributing it to clients. Interested? Read the full schedule here or email nclifford@foodforothers.org.

Lorton Community Action Center: Lorton, VA

In serving clients of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds, LCAC is not seeking the traditional American Thanksgiving provisions. A complete list is right here. The drop-off date was last Sunday, but give LCAC a call (contact info below) to see if they have everything that they need.

Manna Food Center: Gaithersburg, MD

Check out Channel 9’s report on Manna’s “need for turkeys” (and other protein items) from earlier this month. You can drop off food donations from 8 AM to 4 PM today and tomorrow, but locations are closed on Thursday.

Miriam’s Kitchen: Washington, DC

All volunteer spots are booked for Thanksgiving, but do check out the coverage of Miriam’s Kitchen on USA Today. This holiday, Miriam’s will be serving 150 homeless people its first all-organic or local Thanksgiving dinner (turkey included).

Our Daily Bread: Fairfax, VA

Every Saturday, November 5 through December 10, Our Daily Bread and Combined Properties host a fall food drive; full list of locations here. You also can sponsor a family through the holiday season.

More In The News …

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(We’re doubling up on the news-front this week. Comment away with any additions.)

Soaring Poverty Casts Spotlight on ‘Lost Decade’ (New York Times): “Another 2.6 million people slipped into poverty in the United States last year […] and the number of Americans living below the official poverty line, 46.2 million people, was the highest number in the 52 years the bureau has been publishing figures on it […] Joblessness was the main culprit pushing more Americans into poverty, economists said. Last year, about 48 million people ages 18 to 64 did not work even one week out of the year, up from 45 million in 2009.” And when it comes to the jobs bill, could these bleak figures make a case for or against it? Continue reading →

In The News …

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Good morning! It’s Wednesday news day …

A pattern of HUD projects stalled or abandoned — Many have likely read this already (check out the 1300+ comments), but just in case: the Post recently released the results of an investigation into over 5,1000 housing construction projects across the country, 700 of which have “have languished for a decade or longer even as much of the country struggles with record-high foreclosures and a dramatic loss of affordable housing.” And at a time when demand far outpaces supply, “early one in seven projects shows signs of significant delay.” What is your take? (Do check out the reaction on DCentric too)

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Women’s History Month

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We are nearly to end of March — and thus, near to the conclusion of Women’s History Month. And in visiting the National Park Service exhibit on Eleanor Roosevelt, this particular quotation caught my attention:

Champion of domestic social reform, economic justice, and human rights, Eleanor believed citizenship demanded participation, saying “We will be the sufferers if we let great wrongs occur without exerting ourselves to correct them.”

This month does indeed focus on women’s history, but in remembering and honoring great women leaders of the past, we must strive to give women and girls the resources to become great leaders in the future. Since the successful passage of the 19th Amendment, and since Roosevelt’s tenure in the White House and the United Nations, this country has made incredible progress: in education for women, in representation, in leadership. Yet countless women still need and deserve the resources to make their own personal progress — which is why non-profits focused on women and girls are such vital parts of our community:

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