Racism, classism, homophobia, oppression…diversity, cultural competency, inclusion, awareness…these are heady topics that have challenged (and frustrated) us as individuals, organizations, and a society for a very long time.  While many in our country could never have imagined they would live to see the day when an African-American man would be President, systems of oppression and marginalization abound.  We have come a long way in so many regards.  But we don’t need to look very far to see that we still have a long way to go. 

The Problem of Invisibility
“A Structural Analysis of Oppression,” a 2006 article by Sandra Hinson and Alexa Bradley, determined that as members of certain social groups, people usually experience oppression as one or more of the following conditions:

1. Exploitation
2. Marginalization
3. Powerlessness
4. Cultural Dominance
5. Violence

The piece, though a few years old, is an interesting, clear and concise way of framing these issues.  You can read it here, and I recommend it for anyone interested in understanding these terms and concepts better.

Unfortunately, the stories of the women (and men) most adversely affected by issues of exploitation discrimination, oppression, and marginalization are buried between the pages of the newspaper, if they are reported at all – invisibility is the insult to this injury.  Yet, there are organizations in our community working to do all they can to catch those that would otherwise fall through the cracks of “the system.” 

Shine a Light On the Solution
This year, the Leadership Awards program wants to identify those organizations working tirelessly to continue moving the needle on these issues, shine a light on the critical work they do, and make these organizations and their work “front page news!”  10 organizations will win $10,000 each!

The 2010 Leadership Awards program invites you to help us shine a light on these champions within our community.  Help us identify innovative or under-recognized  non-profit organizations in Washington, D.C., City of Alexandria, Arlington and Fairfax Counties, VA; or Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties, MD working to positively impact the lives of women and girls from under-resourced, oppressed or marginalized communities (communities of women that all too often fall “through the cracks”), or through innovative work at the intersection of gender, race, class, sexual orientation, ability, etc. in their communities.  If you want to learn more about how to nominate, click here for a copy of the nomination guidelines.  Nomination forms are also available by clicking here.  The deadline for nominations is November 3^rd, so act now!

Between the Cracks & At the Intersections… a seemingly simple expression for very complex and important work.

Nicole Cozier is the Philanthropic Education Officer at Washington Area Women’s Foundation.

Days after the District made the shocking announcement that $20 million had been cut from the homeless services budget for the 2010 fiscal year, advocates and organizations that provide shelter for the homeless are still reeling. One of The Women’s Foundation grantee partners is reaching out for help – as winter approaches and the organizations that assist the homeless face a crisis.

Calvary Women’s Services was notified Monday, September 28, by The Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness (TCP) that contract funding for Calvary would be cut by nearly $75,000 beginning October 1st.  These funds support safe housing and other services for 150 homeless women each year.  TCP is an independent, non-profit corporation that coordinates DC’s Continuum of Care homeless services.

Calvary is one of many social service providers notified of cuts to their existing contracts. Emergency, transitional and supported permanent housing programs were all targeted as the city attempted to close an ever-widening budget gap.  The impact of these cuts on the overall homeless services system is going to be severe, with some housing programs reducing their services and others likely closing programs. 

Although these cuts may provide some immediate relief to the city’s budget problems, the real impact of the cuts will be felt by those in need of safe housing and support services.  Women who have already lost their jobs in this economic crisis will have fewer services and housing options available to them. These cuts will make women who are already at-risk much more likely to end up living on the streets or in unsafe situations.

The women who come to programs like Calvary are survivors of violence, women struggling with mental illness, and women working to overcome addictions.  At Calvary we make sure they have access to all of the services they need to address these challenges – in addition to providing a safe place to live.

We know that programs like ours work.  Every five days a woman moves out of Calvary and into her own home.

We have always relied on the support of both public funding and private donations to make our programs possible.  In the past, supporters have helped us close gaps like this one, and I am hopeful that the community will step up once again.  But I am also concerned that this gap may be too wide for our generous donors to close.

The coming months will be challenging ones for organizations like Calvary, as we try to find ways to continue to provide women in this community with critical, life changing services.  More so, they will be challenging months for women who need services like ours, as they face closed doors and reduced services at programs across the city.

 You can make a difference.  Support Calvary – or another agency facing these cuts – today. 

 Volunteer, donate or learn more at www.calvaryservices.org.

Kris Thompson is the Executive Director of Calvary Women’s Services, recognized as a 2009 Leadership Awardee by The Women’s Foundation.  Learn more about them on their Web site or on Facebook.

Irene, a woman who lives at Calvary Women’s Shelter, recently said, “Calvary’s where you go when you’re serious about making a change.”

Irene credits her own new direction in life to the support she has received at Calvary. “Now, I do what I have to do. I just work on changing from the inside out.”

The J. Jill Compassion Fund was created to help women like Irene.  Each year it awards grants to organizations that help low-income and homeless women become self-sufficient. Calvary Women’s Services was selected as one of 28 organizations across the country to receive a $10,000 grant from the Compassion Fund. This grant helps us continue to provide homeless women in Washington, D.C. with “a safe, caring place for tonight; support, hope and change for tomorrow.”

Each year, we support 150 women as they journey from homelessness to self-sufficiency. Many of the women in our programs have experienced both drug addiction and mental health problems.  Many are survivors of domestic violence.

And all of them have known what it’s like to be without a safe, stable place to live.

Our programs work with women as individuals to empower them to take control of their own lives—helping them not only find permanent housing, but also to address some of the reasons they became homeless. Because our programs are small, our staff can provide personalized support to each woman as she works to become self-sufficient.

Each year, 60 percent of the women who come to Calvary move into their own homes. Many others take positive steps to prepare for independent living.

Earlier this year, The Women’s Foundation recognized Calvary’s work with a Leadership Award in recognition of our work with low-income women and their families.  In addition, they have been providing support for our communications and marketing efforts as part of their technical assistance "beyond the check."     

Kris Thompson is the Executive Director of Calvary Women’s Services, recognized as a 2009 Leadership Awardee by The Women’s Foundation.  Learn more about them on their Web site or on Facebook.

The following is an excerpt from the speech Caroline Tower-Morris gave as a representative of Fair Fund, to congratulate the newest Leadership Awardees and welcome them to The Women’s Foundation’s community.

In 2007, Fair Fund was a Leadership Award recipient, and winner of the on-line vote.  I am proud to be here this evening representing FAIR Fund, as well as honored to be able to pass the torch to the new class of award recipients, including Polaris Project, winner of the 2009 on-line vote.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Washington Area Women’s Foundation on behalf of FAIR Fund for everything, and we look forward to a continuing fruitful partnership.

Over the past year, I discovered how truly fortunate FAIR Fund was to have received the 2007 Leadership Award and to have won the online vote. The Leadership Award and online vote meant more to us than $15,000, which, of course, was also extremely helpful.

On a deeper level, the Leadership Award helped to position FAIR Fund’s presence in the women’s and girl’s advocacy and service community.  Prior to the award, FAIR Fund had been working inside D.C. schools and youth centers to reach out to and assist teens, in particular girls, who were at high risk toward sexual violence and even commercial sexual exploitation, but this award helped us to deepen our level of commitment and service.

When my Executive Director, Andrea Powell, told me that up to 70 percent of teens in classes reported knowing another teen involved in some form of commercial sex, I was truly shocked and realized that the need to provide comprehensive community support and outreach was greater than possibly imagined.

With the support and community connectionsThe Women’s Foundation offered to FAIR Fund last year, we were able to reach out to a broader D.C. community.

For example, we were offered a chance to work with The Hatcher Group on our media strategy, resulting in multiple press coverage opportunities, including the Washington Post and Salon.com.

The Women’s Foundation believed in FAIR Fund as we sought to educate the community and build support for young women and men trapped by pimps and traffickers, who often trick their victims by pretending to be a boyfriend or friend, then demand that they have sex with others to keep that relationship, and often even just to keep their own lives.

These young women and men deserve to be heard, and The Women’s Foundation helped strengthen FAIR Fund’s voice.

Starting last year at this very Leadership Awards ceremony, FAIR Fund began to form new partnerships with other Leadership Award recipients in order to deepen our community connections to other women’s programs. We formed special relationships with agencies that are now our partners is assisting exploited and neglected girls. Together, we are addressing the myriad of challenges that small nonprofits face as colleagues.  We are also there to help facilitate outreach in new communities in D.C. and provide assistance to identified exploited girls.

This past fall, the support from The Women’s Foundation continued to strengthen FAIR Fund’s role in the D.C. women’s and girl’s advocacy community when we partnered at our first annual Youth Ally Awards and Pathways event to raise D.C. community awareness of the plight of commercially sexually exploited teens.  During that evening in November, The Women’s Foundation supported FAIR Fund as we shared findings from a two-year federally funded study of 60 teens in D.C. and Boston who have experienced commercial sexual exploitation. Many of our colleagues from The Women’s Foundations were there, as were many of our own partners in the community, including Polaris Project–a Leadership Awardee this year and winner of the online vote!

The resources the award offered to FAIR Fund over the course of the year have helped give a small organization such as ours a leg up in many areas. In this uncertain economic climate, giving to others does not, or cannot, always take precedence, and The Women’s Foundation through their award and numerous priceless resources, has insured that the plight of many women and girls in Washington, DC does not go unnoticed.

FAIR Fund plans to continue the work for which The Women’s Foundation has honored us, and we are inspired to strive for even higher goals.

FAIR Fund is proud to stand alongside The Women’s Foundation today as we recognize the 2009 Leadership Awardees and the winner of the public online vote, Polaris Project.

FAIR Fund and the Polaris Project are strong partners in building a D.C. that is safer for young women and girls. 

Recently, FAIR Fund and Polaris Project staff worked together to rescue a young woman who was a victim of human trafficking.  As our two agencies worked tirelessly through the night, it reinforced the idea that no one agency can do everything.  However, this one night and the following days of assisting this young woman proved that together we were able to help her escape her abuser and begin to access services and shelter, and finally to re-build her life.

Caroline Tower-Morris is co-founder and chair of the board of directors of Fair Fund, a 2007 Leadership Awardee of The Women’s Foundation.  This post is an excerpt of the speech she gave on April 7, 2009, at the ceremony to honor the 2009 Leadership Awardees and to welcome them to The Women’s Foundation’s community.

Last night, The Women’s Foundation hosted what is my favorite event of the year–the Leadership Awards Reception–where we presented each of our 10 amazing awardees this year with their certificates and announced the winner of this year’s online vote.

This year’s vote–the second we’ve done–was incredible.  Last year, we brought in 1,187 votes total. 

This year, the vote’s winner, Polaris Project, brought in 2,715 votes themselves, with a total of 8,538 votes being cast overall.

Polaris Project was selected as a 2009 Leadership Awardee for their DC Trafficking Intervention Program (DC TIP), which has combatted human trafficking in the District of Columbia, Northern Virginia, and Southern Maryland Launched since 2002 by working to create an effective community-based response to curb local human trafficking network activity.  DC TIP provides comprehensive services to foreign national and U.S. citizen victims in the Washington metro area and works towards long-term, systemic change.

At the reception last night, Amb. Mark P. Lagan, Executive Director of Polaris Project, explained that Polaris Project is named after the North Star, otherwise known as Polaris, which guided slaves to freedom along the Underground Railroad.  Today, Polaris Project helps victims of all kinds of trafficking throughout the world to escape and rebuild their lives with dignity and hope. 

The Women’s Foundation congratulations Polaris Project for their outstanding work mobilizing support for the vote, and all of our 2009 Leadership Awardees for their awards and for the outstanding work they did to mobilize support for the vote and awareness of the transformational work they’re doing throughout our community to change the lives of women and girls. 

Lisa Kays is The Women’s Foundation’s Director of Communications.

Here at The Women’s Foundation, we consider all of our Grantee Partners heroes.

But it’s still exciting to see one formally recognized for it!  Like when we learned that one of our new 2009 Leadership Awardees, Family Preservation and Strengthening Services (Family PASS), and its founder, Suezette Steinhardt, has just been named as a CNN Hero!

You can check out the article, and a video of Suezette discussing her work, here.

Congrats, Suezette, on this honor from all of us at The Women’s Foundation.  We’re proud to have you as part of our community of outstanding Grantee Partners working every day to change the lives of our region’s women and girls. 

And thank you for all that you do for low-income families in Virginia!

Learn more about Family PASS here.

Lisa Kays is The Women’s Foundation’s Director of Communications. 

If you haven’t yet voted in the 2009 Leadership Awards online vote, please do so today.  Polls close at 5 p.m. today and your vote will definitely make a difference!

Currently, the top two leaders are literally within 15 votes of one another!  A few minutes ago it was three!  They’ve been bouncing back and forth all day, so there is absolutely no way to know how this will turn out!

So, if you haven’t yet, please visit this link, learn about our 10 outstanding Leadership Awardees for 2009 and the work they’re doing for our region’s women and girls, and then vote for the one that you think is having the greatest impact on women and girls in the Washington metropolitan area!

Lisa Kays is The Women’s Foundation’s Director of Communications.

I watched Sister Mary Bourdon begin the Washington Middle School for Girls a little over 10 years ago, first as an after school study hall with 12 girls in a basement apartment, then into a two campus school, serving almost 100 students in grades 4-8.

And when I say serving, I mean:

• Offering them an exemplary education in core subjects;
• An Extended Day Program from 3:30 until 5:30 p.m., featuring student clubs such as yoga, poetry, chess, photography, and arts classes with The Washington Ballet, Levine School of Music, and The Corcoran Art Gallery;
• A summer camp that features remedial work, arts activities, field trips, and welcoming of visitors that expands their world like nothing else; and,
• A Graduate Support Program that assists in getting their students accepted into some of the best high schools in the Washington area and beyond.

Right now, 97 percent of the Washington Middle School for Girls’ graduates are either still in high school, or have graduated and gone on to higher learning of their choice!  An incredible statistic for young girls living in the most under-served neighborhood of Washington, D.C.!

When I think about making an investment in the future, I can look no further than Washington Middle School for Girls – and I’m betting on a great future for those girls who are fortunate enough to have Sister Mary and her dedicated staff on their side!

We will all be better because of this school!  Please, vote for them today!

Patricia Roland is a donor and supporter of The Washington Middle School for Girls.

“Good friend forgive me if I offend, I know I am not the only one with problems. I also understand that there are many people with greater problems than mines. But for you to take the time to consider mines, that I am most grateful. It is good that when one has climbed the ladder of success to the top, that he or she reaches down and help those that are not able to.” 
– YK

These are the opening lines of a letter I received earlier this week from a young women whose story is not unlike many of our own.  She came to Washington, DC seeking a better life with plans to get an advanced degree so that she could work with the poor and the oppressed, as she explained later in her letter.  She was excited to receive a job as a domestic worker, which would enable her to work towards her dreams.

What makes YK’s story different was that she was enslaved within the household, beaten, sexually assaulted, and prevented from leaving. 

YK is a survivor of human trafficking.

She was able to escape her situation through community support and currently is part of Polaris Project’s DC Trafficking Intervention Program (DC TIP).

Like YK, Janice* also had dreams that were exploited by a human trafficker.  When Janice was 12 years old, she should have been going to school and living the carefree life of other teenagers. However, after an older man offered to take care of her, Janice was forced into prostitution for five years and beaten each time she tried to leave.

Polaris Project was called in after a police investigation and began to provide Janice with food, clothing, and emotional support.  We also worked to reunite Janice with her family and she is enrolled in school.  Her trafficker was sentenced to prison and now Janice dreams of one day working in the criminal justice field.

While it is shocking that slavery can still exist in the 21st century, it is sobering to know that it is the third largest and fastest growing criminal industry in the world.  The United Nations recently projected that human trafficking will only worsen with the state of the global economy.  Stories like YK’s and Janice’s show us that the face of human trafficking is often very personal and local, occurring in our own backyards. 

In fact, the FBI considers Washington, DC one of the top 14 sites in the country for the sex trafficking of American children.

When we started Polaris Project seven years ago, our mission was simple: find the victims, shape policy, and build a movement.

Interestingly, we began with a $5,000 seed grant from a local social entrepreneurship program and built an organization that has worked with more than 300 victims of human trafficking; testified before Congress four times to help pass landmark federal legislation (twice!); worked with legislators in D.C., VA, and MD to strengthen protections for victims; and, co-founded the DC Task Force on Human Trafficking in partnership with the D.C. U.S. Attorneys Office and D.C. Police with more than 30 other organizational members coordinating on cases and victim services.

Imagine what another $5,000 from winning this vote can do!  Click here to vote against slavery before 5 p.m. on Monday, March 30th!

*Names and details have been changed to protect the identity and anonymity of our clients.

Katherine Chon is the President and Co-founder of Polaris Project in Washington, D.C., a Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation.

Your vote can empower women to move out of homelessness

Recently, Connie, a woman who lives at Calvary Women’s Shelter, wrote the following:

“What I mostly appreciate about Calvary is that they allow you to grow, attend meetings to keep you on the right path, teach you how to be responsible with daily, everyday living such as money management…Calvary has taught me responsibility, promptness, respect for myself and others, and how to be a team player.”

Connie is one of more than 1,300 homeless women in the District of Columbia.  In the current economic crisis, that number is growing, and it does not include all of the women who are doubled up with family or sleeping on a friend’s couch.

Women like Connie often have histories of violence and trauma.  They may be unemployed or working hard at low wage jobs.  They may live with mental illnesses, addictions, or chronic health problems.  Overcoming these challenges while living on the streets or in a large shelter with over 100 other women is nearly impossible.

Calvary Women’s Shelter serves 25 women each night.  Though the women who come to Calvary face great challenges, we believe that every woman has gifts and strengths she can build on to be successful.  We meet each woman as an individual, support her as she works to achieve her goals, and empower her to take control of her own life.

Each year, 60 percent of the women who come to Calvary move into their own homes.  Many others take positive steps to prepare for independent living.

We are honored and excited that the Washington Area Women’s Foundation has recognized our work with a Leadership Award.  An additional grant of $5,000, which we can win if we get the most votes in the 2009 Leadership Awards online vote, will make a big difference.

At Calvary, $5,000 can:

• Purchase 6 months worth of food for our dinner and breakfast programs;
• Support 2 months of life skills education programs; or,
• Provide 22 women with a year’s worth of mental health services.

These services make a real difference in women’s lives.

Since moving to Calvary, Connie has worked hard to overcome the reasons she became homeless, completed her GED, secured employment, and begun her search for housing.

Addressing Calvary’s supporters, she wrote: “Let’s all come together as one and continue to help women like me with a new beginning.”

Your vote will do just that.  Vote now!

Kristine Thompson is the Executive Director of Calvary Women’s Services.