"'Thank you' is the best prayer that anyone could say. I say that one a lot. Thank you expresses extreme gratitude, humility, understanding." - Alice Walker
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From Ann Vaughn, President
As we approach the close of our founding year and the beginning of a new one, the word at the forefront of my mind is gratitude. For an incredible community of women, a group that includes 109 founding members and a number of women who have already joined up for next year. For the work of so many to see us successfully through the grant review process and to support the work of this organization in a myriad of other ways. For the Impact DC Board, a group of committed, smart, hard-working women whose company I enjoy tremendously. For the opportunity to become more educated this year with regard to the brilliant work being done by so many nonprofit organizations in metropolitan Washington. For our nonmember supporters who strengthen the fabric of this organization. Thank you to all who support Impact100 DC!!!
And finally I am grateful that as we move into our second year, we are poised to expand our membership and increase the number of grants we are able to offer going forward. I'm truly convinced that we can double our membership and double our impact in 2022!
This newsletter is jam-packed, and more information for members will be forthcoming as we head into the final month of our founding year. Members, please stay alert for finalists' executive summaries and fuller details on September 23rd.
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August Member Profile - Carole Mumin
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Impact100 DC Member Joan de Pontet recently spoke with Carole Mumin, Impact100 DC founding member and our newest Board member. Here is Joan's recap of that conversation.
Carole Mumin feels her life has been blessed…by a family providing strong values and moral guidance… by opportunities to serve in the White House under three administrations…by an ability to share empowering knowledge with others…by a husband, deeply involved in the Shaw community…by benefactors who made the staging of her play Where Eagles Fly and other productions possible. Carole wants this interview to be more about Impact100 DC than her, because Impact100 DC offers a way to continue the work of helping people in need; getting the word out about critical community-based services; and, the opportunity to work with an incredible group of diverse women who just want to get the job done and better the world. “It’s who I am, a producer.”
Carole came to playwriting and production through several paths, or as she says, “Life puts you where you need to be.” Having served as an aide in the Johnson White House, Carole had returned to her job at the Department of Justice when Ramsey Clarke tapped her to represent the Department during the Nixon Transition. Assigned to Herbert Klein in the new Communications Office, Carole stayed on and as the only African American felt a special responsibility for the Press and African American community to know about the work of ACTION which oversaw the many government volunteer agencies. This translated to her public service television series which launched her production career, “The Prime of My Life,” which was picked up nationally.
Carole moved to Shaw when she married Ibrahim Mumin, a community activist and leader in the advancement of the historic Shaw neighborhood. Shaw in the early 80s was in deep decline. Carole was coming from her “heady” White House staff position to “the ghetto” and had incredible contacts. He was the Executive Director of Shaw Project Area Committee (PAC) and loved the area and its rich history…Duke Ellington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes… and was planning an oral history of the neighborhood. Carole immersed herself in the project which was the inspiration for her critically acclaimed play, Where Eagles Fly. When she met Ambassador Walter Annenberg at an event at Howard, her two worlds came together. Annenberg, taken with Mumin’s idea of educating the Shaw community about its rich history using song and dance as an engaging element, pledged $100,000 as a challenge grant to catalyze the production.
Carole is a founding member of The Interfaith Conference and the Organization for Training Others in Need. She has received numerous awards and several of her plays have been produced, including The Lemonade Stand at the Kennedy Center and I Just Want to Tell Somebody at Woolly Mammoth.
Carole knows first-hand the power of a transformational grant of $100,000! She knows the important role that Impact100 DC can play not only with its grants but also with its ability to shine light on other worthy organizations making a tremendous difference in their communities. She has always seen herself as a “servant leader” and is exhilarated by the camaraderie of superbly qualified women with shared vision.
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The BIG GIVE - SEPTEMBER 23!
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Voting Kick-off Meeting
12:00 Noon by Zoom on 9/23
- Members will receive two-page Executive Summaries for each finalist organization by email within the next two weeks in preparation for voting.
- The meeting will feature pre-taped short video messages from representatives of each nonprofit finalist.
- Voting is all online through any device where you can receive email, begins immediately following the meeting, and continues online through the afternoon.
- An option for absentee voting will be made available for those who cannot vote during the 4 hour window on September 23rd.
Awards Reception and 2021 Membership Kick-off
5:30pm to 7:30pm, in-person on 9/23
- Members and Friends will receive an invitation to the event, which will include an outdoor cocktail reception, weather permitting, and short indoor presentation.
- All who attend must be vaccinated and wear a mask.
- Members, we invite you to bring two guests who are interested in membership.
A huge thank you to our event sponsors:
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld LLP
Washington Gas
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Shining a Light
In June, we convened to meet our five finalists.
Learn about them below!
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Just in case you missed our Meet the Finalists event in June, the following five finalist organizations will be up for a vote on September 23rd for Impact100 DC's founding year grant of $105,000.
Members please note: These are not the Finalist Executive Summaries, which are longer and which will be send to members via separate email.
Free Minds Book Club is described by its Director as “a comprehensive, holistic program that uses the tools of reading and writing to bring communities together to end racism in the incarceration system.” Established in 2002 as a book club and poetry workshop for young people in the prison system, it has grown to include incarcerated and formerly incarcerated youths and adults — showing them the life-changing power of books, creative writing, and community support.
FMBC engages people from the time of their arrest, during their terms in local and federal prison, and after they are released. Through reading and writing, members learn to imagine a different future for themselves and build the skills they will need to be productive members of their communities when they return. In an incredible testament to their success, the recidivism rate for FMBC members hovers around 10 percent. The national rate is between 70 and 90 percent.
After incarceration, members bring their new skills and love of literature into classrooms and the community, conducting workshops to address issues like youth violence and find “healing through the powerful medium of creative writing” (from the FMBC website).
Access Youth was founded in 2009 because its founders saw too many youth of color thrust into the juvenile justice system—often for low-level, first-time offenses. Since then, Access Youth has served over 2,000 youth and their family and community members through mediation, coaching, life skills education and other interventions focused on empowering young people to make choices to improve their lives and avoid the types of actions that would push them off course and keep them trapped in cycles of poverty and violence.
Their My Attitude Determines Everything (MADE) program uses restorative justice principles to support Black girls in some of DC's most under-served communities. The wards in which these girls live are plagued by gangs and a general mistrust across neighborhoods; living in these communities takes a toll on the mental health of the residents. MADE has been proven to flip the script for its participants; they report that over 90% of their students improved their GPAs and In-Seat Attendance rates as a result of the program. Further, the girls report increased self-confidence and communication skills and a deep community of support, encouragement, and sisterhood.
The innovative partnership between the Audubon Naturalist Society (ANS), an older, at-one-time more traditional conservation organization, and the Urban Studio, a newer, environmental justice-focused nonprofit, ensures that their project takes into account a racial equity lens. Their partnership was formed after ANS developed two new conferences to reach more diverse audiences: "Taking Nature Black" and "Naturally Latinos." Maisie Hughes of the Urban Studio presented at one of these conferences about her program's vision of seeing more people of color, who have been left out of or ignored in traditional urban planning processes, engaged in these processes and embarking on careers that will ultimately lead to equitable policies and development in our cities. Their proposed project focuses on youth from the communities surrounding degraded parts of the Oxon Run watershed. These youngsters already know what’s wrong, they just don’t know they have the power or ability to fix things. Together, the Urban Studio and ANS will teach the participants about land use design and watershed restoration principles that will allow them to envision and generate proposals and projects that contribute to transformational change in their own communities.
(Note: ANS is a separate entity from, and should not be confused with, the National Audubon Society or its local chapters.)
Nicole Lynn Lewis started Generation Hope in 2010. Ms. Lewis, a former teen parent, understood the challenges that face young mothers who want to earn a college degree. She knew that a college degree would be transformational for both the young parent and their child. She was one of the fewer than 2% of teen mothers who earned a college degree before age 30.
Generation Hope is helping families who have been the subject of systemic racism and other systemic injustices achieve economic mobility and thrive. Their innovative two-generation programming has been intentionally built over the last ten years based on feedback from their teen parent participants. The Scholar program provides young parents with a mentor, a case manager, and support services for food, housing, school, mental health counseling and tutoring. The Next Generation Academy helps ensure that the children of teen parents are ready for success in kindergarten and beyond. With these support services, 92% of Scholars are living above the poverty line within six months of graduation.
Bridges to Independence
Bridges to Independence (Bridges) was founded in 1985, as the Arlington-Alexandria Coalition for the Homeless (AACH). In the 1990’s, AACH grew from a 20-bed shelter to a 50-bed shelter, called Sullivan House, which still still operates today in Clarendon. Through the years, the nonprofit merged with other vital community-based organizations to provide strong programming in workforce development and youth development in addition to shelter services. Renamed Bridges to Independence in 2015, Bridges offers programs to lead individuals and families out of homelessness and into stable, independent futures, and break the cycle of intergenerational poverty.
Bridges’ vision is carried out through three core programs: Sullivan House, Arlington County’s largest emergency family shelter; Rapid Rehousing; and providing community empowerment programming to the Green Valley neighborhood of Arlington County, one of the most underserved communities in the County. Within these programs, current and “alumni” beneficiaries have access to supportive services including workforce development, financial empowerment, youth development, referral and emergency services, and individualized case management.
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Shining a Light
Get to know our IMPACT100 DC 2021 semifinalists
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Our grant review committee members were inspired by each of the organizations to which they paid site visits. Get to know these fine semi-finalists that inspired us.
This national organization has a DC chapter that is addressing food insecurity and reducing food waste through a direct transfer model that identifies excess food (including perishable items) and transfers it immediately to a social service agency via a corps of volunteer food rescuers. The program utilizes an innovative technology platform to make matches of food to need. Further, their work reduces the amount of food transferred to landfills, which tend to be located adjacent to low-income communities, thus helping the environment.
This innovative program serves over 100 youth of color per year, ages 11-21, free of cost. City Kids’ programming connects the youth to parks and natural spaces that they otherwise would not have access to; in doing so, the youth learn how to set and achieve goals, appreciate the natural world, and build leadership skills. Twenty new carefully screened sixth grade students start as a cohort each year in the Ranger program; the youth continue through higher skill levels until they reach the last level (Job Experience Trainee or JET) focusing on college readiness. The program boasts a 95% high school graduation rate for program participants. Through its programming, City Kids is growing a new cadre of environmental advocates.
Friends of Guesthouse, founded by a federal parolee, has been serving women since 1974. It is the only prison-to-community re-entry program in Northern Virginia. Wrap-around services are provided for women to help them successfully reenter their communities and overcome some of their biggest obstacles (like housing, employment, education, healthcare and family reconnection). The six-month residential program offers a stable, supportive environment with core classes including budgeting, financial literacy, computer skills, writing, and legal issues. After completion of the Residential program, participants have the option of moving to the Aftercare program for continued case management and support services. Guesthouse serves female, non-violent offenders over the age of 18.
The Healthy Babies Project (HPB) was founded in 1990 with the mission of helping the poorest DC youth build stable lives. Their work includes combating infant mortality and focusing on the medical needs of young mothers. In addition, they work to meet clients’ basic needs such as food and housing security as well as addressing substance abuse. Currently, HPB is focused on education and has incorporated a holistic approach to meeting clients’ needs by providing sex education, basic living skills, job skills, yoga, and meditation. Perennial Transitional House provides short-term housing for young parents and their newborns. The hope is to provide childcare within this residential program.
MCAEL provides an entry point for English Language learners from various countries. They help build coalitions in various neighborhoods through schools, colleges, religious organizations and nonprofit organizations. Immigrants who receive high-quality ESOL classes lead to learner gains and are better able to access employment, earn family-sustaining wages, help their children with homework and benefit the community at large. MCAEL is not a one size fits all organization: they understand that considerations must be made for work schedules, home life responsibilities, available transportation and more. Through relationship building and allocating resources to concentrated areas of need, MCAEL endeavors to build new pipelines for services in communities that heretofore have had limited access. By addressing specific barriers to learning, immigrant learners can succeed and participate in building new, self-sustaining systems and advocacy for their communities.
Beacon House provides after-school academic mentoring and enrichment programs to just over 400 children and youth ages 5-18 in the Edgewood Commons affordable housing community. Residents in this community have experienced systemic racism and have an annual family income of $12,000. Beacon House will celebrate its 30th anniversary this year and is proud of its 90% high school graduation rates of its participants and a 93% rate of those graduates going on to college or trade schools. Programs like their one-on-one and group tutoring, award winning athletic program and summer camp programs fueled the success of their students. Beacon House hopes through their Roadmap to the Future project to be able to provide sophisticated technology programs and opportunities for additional STEM education.
Community Youth Advance (founded in 2005 as Mentoring to Manhood) was established to provide support and mentoring to young men of color in Prince George’s communities. CYA is the result of a merger between Mentoring to Manhood (M2M) and Community Tutoring, Inc. (CTI). Over its 15-year history, M2M was one of very few groups addressing the needs of young black males in Prince George’s County. Starting with a Saturday mentoring program, it steadily grew over the years, adding tutoring, after-school programming and family support services.
Today CYA works year-round to provide academic enrichment, mentoring, and college and career readiness assistance activities that promote academic excellence, build character and prepare youth to meet life’s challenges. Since 2017, CYA has served some 600 youth annually in eight community and school-based locations in PG County. In one recent school year, students who participated in CYA programs saw their math scores increase by 25 percentage points and their reading scores by 27 percentage points, supporting their philosophy that, “with good, solid instruction from qualified teachers ALL students can achieve."
In the face of systemic racism that impacts every aspect of Black boys’ lives, LPTM provides a safe place for boys and young men in Washington DC’s most underserved neighborhoods, working to change the way they see themselves and how the world sees them. LPTM provides four core programs: a daily after school program, Saturday program, summer program and a junior mentor program for teenagers - many of whom are alumni. They use a curriculum heavily steeped in art to create: “Gentlemen, scholars, artists and athletes ...develop character and leadership, unlock potential and prepare Black boys and young men to transform their lives and communities."
LPTM serves their entire community, through a parent program that enhances parental engagement in their children’s lives and provides support and guidance for the parents themselves, and “Color Me Community” workshops for all ages where issues of race and divisiveness are explored through the power of art. LPTM believes that creating art changes lives and that: “With love, security, and expression, each of us can become a masterpiece.”
Fihankra Akoma Ntoaso (FAN)
FAN is an organization that works with youth participants to break the cycle of poverty created by systems designed to keep people of color disenfranchised. FAN began as a safe space for fostered youth, but since then has branched out to service the entire community with a focus on youth who have been or may be impacted by the child welfare system.
FAN’s mission is to cultivate a focus on youth well-being and positive development in an environment infused with safety, security, and love. They operate several programs, including a trauma-informed after-school program, an alumni program for young adults who have aged out of the system but still need support, and a caregiver program focused on case management for families of current youth participants. FAN supports families in the community by assisting with their basic needs while also working with them to plan the steps necessary to enhance future opportunities. By working with other community organizations and linking individuals to services, FAN hopes to break cycles of poverty.
Tenants and Workers United (TWU)
TWU began in the mid 1980s when low-income renters of color organized to fight against the scheduled mass eviction of families in the Arlandria community in Alexandria City. They won and established a renter-owned housing cooperative that still operates today, with affordable rent prices frozen at 1990s rates. Since then, TWU has been organizing directly impacted low-income communities of color -- immigrants, low-wage workers, women, and youth -- to build power so people become change agents in their own lives by addressing the issues they care about.
TWU’s goal is to advance housing justice, health equity, immigrants’ rights, education justice, and police accountability. They do this through deep grassroots organizing and power-building among historically marginalized communities, which is long-term work that builds sustainable power and transformative results. Additionally, they began organizing resources to meet people’s basic needs during the COVID-19 crisis. They expect this balance of organizing and direct service to continue for the foreseeable future out of sheer necessity, given the dire circumstances.
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Walking tours with author Briana Thomas!
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Many of you attended our fascinating Zoom book talk with acclaimed author Briana Thomas (Black Broadway in Washington DC) earlier this summer.
This fall she will be giving three walking tours of the historic U Street area in a special series offered by Off the Mall Tours. Join her for this special opportunity!
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If you have not yet filled out your form to opt in or out of a member directory, please do so asap! Please click here.
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Are you interested in being more actively involved in Impact DC? We are looking for volunteers in almost every area, but especially communications and marketing, for both discrete tasks and leadership roles. Contact: [email protected]
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At Impact100 DC, we are working hard to build an inclusive and diverse community. To measure our progress towards this important goal, we have created a demographic survey to learn more about our members.
Please help us by taking 60 seconds to complete the survey. The information we receive will help us plan strategically with regard to membership development efforts that need to reach into every corner of the DC metro region. Rest assured your answers will never be shared. (The information we receive will help us be more effective in our outreach and recruiting efforts.) Thanks in advance for your help! Click here to get started.
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Impact100 DC
PO Box 40121
Washington, DC 20016
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Contact:
Phone: 202 379-4773
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