In Step

Thank you! We Can't do it Without You!

As we start another year, everyone at Samaritan Ministry would like to offer our deepest and most heart-felt thanks to you, our supporters and partners!

Your generous gifts of time and financial resources allowed us to serve a full 149% more active participants facing homelessness and other debilitating challenges in 2023 than we did in 2022, an increase to 733 active participants served in 2023 from 294 active participants in 2022!

And because so many of our participants are mothers, fathers, spouses, aunts, uncles and grandparents, the impact of restored hope and greater income, food and housing security that comes with participation in our Next Step program and STRIVE training was multiplied even further.

What’s more, we were able to achieve the jump in service in 2023 with just a projected 17% increase in income for the year. Thank you again for making this possible!

Next Step Breakfast 2024 on April 6!

We're excited to invite you to join us for Samaritan Ministry’s Next Step Breakfast 2024 on Saturday, April 6 at the National Press Club in downtown DC.

At this inspiring annual event, you'll hear from the talented Laura Barrón-López, White House Correspondent for PBS NewsHour, who has generously agreed to be our emcee.

You'll also hear moving testimonials from Samaritan 

Next Step program participant Sandra Bullock, and dynamic and dedicated volunteer and former board member Isaiah J. L. Poole about how their involvement with Next Step has positively impacted their lives. 

Finally, you'll have a chance to meet or catch up with other Samaritan supporters and our staff and consider how you'd like to support Samaritan in the coming year.

This will be our first in-person Next Step breakfast held on a Saturday, and hence we'll start a bit later than our weekday breakfasts, at 9am, and finish at 10:30am.



To learn more and register free of charge now, click this link. And thank you!

New STRIVE Class Launching

Samaritan and Byte Back are launching a new joint series of four-week STRIVE employment readiness training classes. 

The first of the classes will be held at St. Philip the Evangelist Episcopal Church at 2001 14th SE in DC, starting with an orientation on February 9th. The class will run from February 12th through March 8th, five days a week, from 9am to 3pm. 

Dr. Cheryl Mercer (pictured above, left) who joined Samaritan as our new STRIVE trainer in December with extensive experience teaching job-readiness, life-skills and other topics to returning citizens and other adults, will teach the core STRIVE job-hunting and job-readiness attitudes and skills. A trainer from Byte Back will provide the students with two hours of digital literacy training every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. 

Doris L. McRoy, who began work at Samaritan on January 29th as an Associate Caseworker, (see related story, below), will serve as a part-time onsite Samaritan caseworker to assist the students in achieving their goals. 

A generous Samaritan donor has offered to fund free SMARTRIP cards for the STRIVE students’ use in traveling to class each day. 

Samaritan Casework Team Now Complete 

The Samaritan program team is now staffed with a full complement of caseworkers following the arrival of Doris L. McRoy (picutured at right) on January 29 as an associate caseworker with Samaritan’s STRIVE job-readiness training program and our SE office. 

Doris is the fourth new caseworker hired by Samarian in the last year, ending a period of pandemic-related understaffing. Importantly, the full staff — plus one more office than Samaritan had at the beginning of last year — are positioning us well to meet the increased demand for our services, particularly as the local affordable housing crisis worsens. 

“I think we’re about to explode” says Jane Bishop, a long-time Samaritan lead caseworker who was recently promoted to Program Coordinator, referring to the significant growth in participant numbers that she anticipates Samaritan will experience in 2024. (Already in 2023, our active participant numbers jumped by 149%, moving Samaritan quickly back in the direction of pre-pandemic levels.)

In the new role of program coordinator, Jane is leading the program team until a new program director is installed to replace former Program Director Jennifer Seager, who left Samaritan last year. Once a new program director is in place, Jane will continue in the role, supporting the new program director as well as leading Samaritan’s Arlington program office.

Doris brings significant related experience and passions to her position at Samaritan. 

Following a successful first career in business and project management, Doris obtained a Masters’ in Psychology and Counselling and several related certifications, including a certificate in addiction counselling. Most recently, she worked as a substance use disorder counsellor for CATAADA House and Goshen Health Care, and as a heath, wellness, and life-skills counselor for Kin-Etic Behavioral Health Services, all in DC. 

“It’s aways a pleasure to work with other people who want to help people achieve their goals,” says Doris, who will divide her time between supporting participants served by Samaritan’s Anacostia office and those at STRIVE training locations.

Samaritan Names 2024 Change Agent and Two New Board Members

Samaritan Ministry bestowed its highest honor, the Annual Change Agent Award, on outgoing pro bono legal counsel Jack Orrick at Samaritan’s Annual Partners' Organizational Meeting on January 30. 

In announcing the award, Executive Director Rev. David B. Wolf said Orrick had gone above and beyond the expectations for his role for more than ten years, and in particular, “took on an extraordinary amount of tedious and mind-numbing legal work related to SMGW’s two mergers in just a little over five years.”

Wolf also commended Orrick for his work reviewing leases at new Samaritan sites, providing legal assistance to program participants, supporting the Personnel Committee and Samaritan’s fundraising events over the years, and generally showing an “all-in” attitude as a major donor who cares about the workings of Samaritan “at every level”. 

Also at the Annual meeting, which was hosted by St. Luke's Episcopal, DC, the Samaritan partners elected two new board members, Steven L. Gibson and Moses Grace Talyowe.

Gibson is a retired international trade lawyer and active volunteer with other organizations, including the Episcopal Diocese of Washington’s Finance Committee, which he chaired for the last four years, and Church of the Redeemer, Bethesda, for which he served as treasurer. He will serve on the Samaritan Finance Committee. 

Talyowe, originally from Uganda, works in database administration and has served on the vestry of Church of the Transfiguration in Silver Spring, Md. He joins the Samaritan board Program Committee.

Also at the Annual meeting, the three outgoing board members — Ladi Grey-Coker, the Rev. William B. Lewis, and Isaiah J. L. Poole — were thanked for their service. Poole will remain a volunteer academic tutor with Samaritan’s adult education program and a member of the board Development Committee.

Board President Rasheen Carbin, Vice President Joe Kolar, Treasurer Stephen Brushett and Secretary Emily Sollie will all continue in their roles. The board may add an additional member later this year. 

Above, Samaritan Council Convener Michelle Lewis-Muzzatti (center) recognizes outgoing board members Ladi Grey-Coker (left) and Rev. William B. Lewis, right; Top, Samaritan Executive Director Rev. David Wolf with Change Agent recipient Jack Orrick.