Local Nonprofit Bulletin

07.22.22

Read on for shoutouts to small nonprofits in the DMV, upcoming events, and ways to volunteer or get involved locally! Have questions or something you’d like featured? Reach out to Amanda, Communications and Marketing Coordinator, to collaborate!

Staying Safe in the Heat

Thanks to our nonprofit partner, the Juanita C. Grant Foundation, for sharing some safety tips that older adults and everyone can follow as we hit higher than normal temperatures this summer:

• Drink plenty of water before and while you’re out in the sun. You can set reminders to drink water on your smartwatch or phone.
• Keep your home cool with air conditioning if you can. Research available assistance for summer air conditioning bills from local government programs. Strategically placed fans are another quick method to keep the home cool.
• Consume sports drinks before starting any strenuous exercise, dress in comfortable clothes, and take a shower after a lengthy outdoor workout to avoid getting heatstroke!
• Remember to apply sunscreen of SPF 30 or more at least 15-30 minutes before going outside.

Shoutouts

“Immigrants and refugees are always seen as poor people who need help,” Vanda Berninger, Co-Founder of One Journey Festival, told Street Sense Media. “They are people with families. They are people with friends. This identity gets lost in the transition.” This year’s festival took place on June 25 and featured music, storytelling, a global marketplace, and many organizations supporting refugees, such as fellow nonprofit partner Homes Not Borders.

A coalition of 32+ civil rights, faith-based, consumer protection, and justice advocacy groups — including many of our nonprofit partners like Tzedek DC, the DC Volunteer Lawyers Project, Building Bridges Across the River, and many more — pushed to pass the Clean Hands Amendment Act to end debt-based license denials, and it passed! Read DCist’s update and Tzedek DC’s report on why DC’s “Clean Hands” law provision on driver’s licenses undermines racial equity.

You can now watch the National Philharmonic wherever you are through their brand-new online streaming platform, NatPhil Digital Stage! You can choose to buy or rent individual performances, or subscribe to the digital season for $9.99/month or $99/year.

The Montgomery County Forest Coalition, which includes our nonprofit partners like Rock Creek Conservancy, Montgomery Countryside Alliance, and coalition co-founder Potomac Conservancy, is urging the Montgomery County Council to strengthen forest regulations this year to protect public health, community well-being, homes, and businesses. Reforestation is among the best ways to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change. Yet, “Montgomery County’s Forest Conservation Law has remained largely the same since it was put in place in 1992,” the coalition wrote in Bethesda Magazine, only requiring developers in most cases to “preserve or replant about one-fourth of the trees they cut down.” Learn more about what they’re asking the Council to adopt this year.

The Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens and surrounding Kenilworth Park and nearby Anacostia Park are rare green areas in a largely paved area of DC. “In this historically Black area, people can find a place of solace in this backyard oasis,” Zerline Hughes Spruill, community engagement manager at Friends of Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, told Smithsonian Magazine. Spruill is one of the local community members featured in the National Museum of Natural History’s new exhibition, “Our Places: Connecting People and Nature,” which explores how peoples’ experiences with nature inspires them to make a difference outside!

Story District has a new monthly column in District Fray! “When I listened to everyone’s stories, I was inspired by how certain events in their lives made them into who they are but didn’t define them,” Willette Oden, poet, writer, musical artist, and DC native, shared about her first-time experience with storytelling in their first column. “I thought maybe there could be someone in the audience who would relate to or take from my experience and feel empowered by how I was able to control my narrative.” Read more and stay tuned for their next column!

Kindness, dignity, and community engagement — come into Main Street Connect‘s Soulfull Cafe in Rockville and experience all this and more! Soulfull employs people of all abilities and recently relaunched with a new menu. In addition to this warm, inviting, and friendly restaurant, Main Street Connect also runs the affordable housing development above it and, like a recreational center, offers tiered membership programs so that anybody can access their space, classes, and social events. “Everyone deserves to walk into their home and feel safe and be in a light, bright, vibrant community,” founder Jillian Copeland told DCist.

Environmentalist and Upper Potomac Riverkeeper with the Potomac Riverkeeper Network Brent Walls is leading the Waterkeeper movement in using drone technology to investigate and collect evidence of pollution in rivers and streams. Learn more about how they’ve been able to use drone images to catch polluters in places where wrongdoing is difficult to see or expensive to find.

Events

July 23 – 24, July 30 – 31 | Peak blooms at the Lotus and Water Lily Festival at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens! Catch live animal shows, ranger talks, and more on the July 23 weekend and yoga classes, a fashion show, cultural dance presentations, and more on the July 30 weekend

July 25, 7:00 – 9:00 PM | Monkeypox Town Hall presented by DC Health & Washington Blade, including community partners like SMYAL, the Wanda Alston Foundation, and The DC Center for the LGBT Community

July 26, 6:00 PM | Harm Reduction 101 virtual training with #DecrimPovertyDC and the Baltimore Harm Reduction Coalition

July 26, 6:00 – 7:30 PM | Join YNPNdc for Everything You Ever Wanted to Know on Reinventing Yourself with Tony Pickett, CEO of the Grounded Solutions Network

July 27, 12:00 PM | Can I Ask for That? Navigating ADA Requests in a Post-COVID World virtual Q&A webinar with The Arc of Northern Virginia

July 28, 2:00 – 3:30 PM | Insight Memory Care Center hosts a virtual Community Caregiver Support Group for families and friends of those with Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, or other memory impairments

July 29, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM | Know Your Rights: Mediation with Community Family Life Services Legal Department and Community Mediation DC

July 30, 7:30 PM | Juleps in July virtual cocktail class benefiting Good Shepherd Housing and Family Services

August 5, 10:00 AM | Part Two of a two-part series on forward-thinking housing solutions for all with The Arc of Northern Virginia will explore quality housing options for individuals with disabilities and engage in problem-solving with participants

August 5, 5:00 – 8:00 PM | City Blossoms presents Basil Bonanza, a family-friendly and basil-themed community potluck

August 5, 8:00 PM | A Very Special Variety Show for HIPS

August 5 – 7 | OutWrite 2022, DC’s annual LGBTQ+ literary festival

August 6, 5:30 PM | A string and vocal quartet with the Washington Bach Consort will present Baroque pieces at The Parks at Walter Reed

August 6 – 7 | Reserve your timed tickets for the Children’s Science Center this weekend as they celebrate the success of the James Webb Space Telescope!

August 13, 3:00 – 6:00 PM | Back to School Community Event with PWCCF with free school supplies, food, and snack boxes, along with food trucks, games, and live music. If you can donate school supplies, email info@pwccfoundation.org to learn about donation needs

August 13, 6:00 – 8:00 PM | “Emergence” art exhibition reception with Justice Arts Coalition at the Workhouse Arts Center, featuring works by artists previously and currently confined to carceral institutions across the United States

August 24, 12:00 – 1:00 PM | What Does Overturning Roe Mean for IPV Survivors? with JCADA

August 28, 12:00 – 3:00 PM | Carpenter’s Cook-Off Pop-Up 2022, a signature tasting event on the Alexandria waterfront with live music from the Jones Point Band

Get Involved

The DC Queer Theatre Festival will present a series of new play readings in the fall and is looking for unproduced and unpublished one-act plays with themes relating to the LGBTQIA2S+ communities that are no longer than 90 minutes. There is a small stipend for this project. Submit by 11:59 PM by July 30!

Like pro tennis? Volunteer with So What Else at the Citi Open from July 30 – August 7 and help them raise funds for youth & hunger programs! Volunteers will have free access to the tournament where they can enjoy matches before and after their service shift (8:00 AM – 1:00 PM, 12:00 – 5:00 PM, 3:00 – 8:00 PM). Volunteers ages 14 and older are welcome and younger volunteers can serve with a parent or adult guardian! Email Peter at swevolunteer@gmail.com with your date(s) and shift(s), full name, age, contact number, and school affiliation (if applicable). More info here!

Support kids in the fall with Laurel Advocacy & Referral Services, Inc‘s Backpack/School Supply Drive! They’ve created a toolkit for individual donors and organizations to host their own supply drives and collect supplies on LARS’ behalf. You can also help purchase items directly from Amazon to be shipped to the LARS office by August 5 at 2:00 PM.

Have you attended a Washington Improv Theater show or taken a class with them? Tell them your story so you can help them share their impact! They’re looking for students, teachers, performers, and audience members to share anecdotes, testimonials, and other stories from the past year by August 5.

Help Sunflower Bakery, which prepares young adults with learning differences for employment in the baking and hospitality industries, be recognized as one of the best of Jewish Washington! Nominate and vote for them for best coffee, best bakery, best nonprofit, and best special needs programming by August 12.

Community Family Life Services is seeking applications for its Fall 2022 Speakers Bureau. The CFLS Speakers Bureau is a place where women who are survivors of trauma such as victimization, homelessness, and incarceration learn to speak publicly and educate the community about the issues closest to them. Those selected for this program are offered a paid 35-hour training in public speaking and participants will learn about how to communicate their lived experiences in compelling testimony for lawmakers, nonprofits, and criminal justice and community stakeholders. The application is open until August 26!

Serve with DC127 as a long-term Community for Families program volunteer or babysitter, and help them reverse the foster care list in DC! A long-term volunteer walks with a family providing emotional, psychological, and practical support as they work through the program, which is designed to serve under-resourced families vulnerable to instability. Babysitting is a direct service where volunteers would spend 1-4 hours babysitting for a family in their program. Fill out their form if you’re interested!

The Arc of Northern Virginia is bringing back virtual Summer Legislator Meetings, a simple way to make huge changes without leaving your home. Let them know what issues you’d like to talk about and when, and they’ll find your legislators, set up a meeting, prep you, and attend and facilitate while you talk about your life. They’ll then make the “ask” for policy and funding changes. This is a great way to help make Virginia a better place for everyone with a disability. Fill out their quick interest form to get started!

Help close the digital divide and volunteer with Byte Back, which provides under-resourced communities an equitable pathway into the digital economy through digital advocacy, digital literacy, and tech certification training. They’re recruiting for one-time, shorter, and longer-term volunteer positions, including career assistants, workshop presenters, tutors, and success coaches/mentors. Learn more and apply to volunteer.