February Updates from Impact100 DC | |
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From Ann Vaughn, President
Dear Impact Members and Friends,
As we close out Black History Month, I’d like to talk about a hero of mine who I only met because of Impact100 DC. Carole Mumin was the guest speaker this week at a standing room only Black History Month event organized by the Southwest Neighborhood Assembly. Here is how she closed a snapshot of her career: “I know that nothing we learn in life will ever be wasted. I see the world as our oyster and we are the pearls in it. With faith and belief you open the shell. We are all special and the universe is waiting for us to come on out and strut our gift. Remember every knock is a boost!!!” This is clearly a glass-half-full thinker, something I have always wished to be.
Carole is in her third year as a member of our Board. Another Board member calls her the “heart” of the Board, and I agree. I think she is also the heart of her beloved Shaw neighborhood. As a native Washingtonian who raised her family in Shaw and whose career has so far spanned over five decades, Carole is in no way immune to the history of racism and discrimination in DC or to its continued existence. That’s not the story she wants to tell, though.
And Carole is indeed a storyteller. Her early work as a staffer in three presidential administrations led to another career as an award-winning playwright and producer, enabling her to fulfill a lifelong passion. Her flagship play is “Where Eagles Fly,” which was first performed in 1995 at the Lincoln Theater. It reflects Carole’s view of the world and her sense of how life should be lived. The play tells the story of a local elderly woman who fought the Shaw Urban Redevelopment Project that targeted her home for demolition, seeking to preserve the neighborhood and its history. In conveying to her granddaughter the reasons why the neighborhood must be preserved, she celebrates historic Shaw, where Black Washingtonians created a vibrant artistic, intellectual, close-knit community in the midst of a segregated and discriminatory system.
The Shaw of the grandmother’s experience mirrored Carole’s own. A Washington Post reporter writing about the play in 1995 described the view from the windows of her Victorian house: “Within sight of Carole Mumin's home in the District's Shaw neighborhood are 10 'for sale' signs. Outside her front door, a gust of winter wind rolls empty bread wrappers, discarded cigarette butts and crumpled tin foil along the cracked sidewalk. At the corner liquor store, a couple yells obscenities at each other as a lone drug seller paces the block watching for customers. ‘Grandma! Look at this neighborhood,’ says a character in her play. ‘Houses are boarded up. Pushers selling dope and killing folk with Uzis. Don't see why you want to stay here.’”
But as did the grandmother in the play, Carole stayed. And in her view, a celebration of Shaw’s past was in fact an object lesson of hope for the future. In her play “Eagles,” she reaches back for the vibrant history that made her neighborhood one of the most thriving black enclaves in the country. "So many people felt so good about themselves when the play was over,” said Carole. "Cities go through incredible times and struggles. If we can just get the hope back up. We have to remember we are just a human family, and all together we will try to get to where we are going."
Carole is currently in negotiations with a DC theater for a remount of the play this fall. Let’s keep our fingers crossed and we can all meet there for opening night!
With gratitude,
Ann
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February 5 - March 8: First round review of grant applications
Sunday, March 3, 3:00-4:00pm: We're hosting three (optional) coffee get-togethers for new members! The first two have passed, but there's still one more! Members have received sign-up details separately.
Saturday, March 9, 4-6pm: Member social for all members and friends at the restaurant Supra in DC. RSVP Here.
Tuesday, June 11: Meet the Finalists, details TBA
Tuesday, June 18: The Big Give/Annual Meeting, details TBA
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Report from Open City Advocates, our 2023 $100k Grant Recipient | |
In June 2023, we awarded a $100,000 grant to Open City Advocates, and this is their first grant report on the progress they've made. We're grateful for all of their good work. | |
Additional Reports from Our Grant Recipients
The following 2023 finalists received $20,666 from Impact100 DC in 2023
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From Communities in Schools of the Nation's Capital:
During the academic year 2023-2024, we serve 4,364 students, with case management services reaching 10% across our ten school partners. Notably, 78% of students receiving wraparound services achieve an in-seat attendance rate of 70% or better. Furthermore, 85% of these students successfully passed their grade-level English course, while 86% excelled in their grade-level Math course.
Over the past five years, our case-managed students have demonstrated remarkable progress: 65% improved their attendance, 97% exhibited positive behavior changes, and 78% made academic improvements. Additionally, an impressive 95% of our case-managed students in grades K-11 advanced to the next grade each year, and an outstanding 99% of seniors graduate. These statistics underscore the significant impact that CISNCAP is making in students' lives across the city.
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From ArtStream:
ArtStream is deeply grateful to each and every one of the inspirational women who make Impact100’s impact truly so profound. This past year, ArtStream used the generous funding from Impact100 DC to focus on recruiting and training lead Teaching Artists in a specially tailored curriculum that enforces leadership and mentorship in ArtStreamers with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and autism. This grant buttressed our professional development offerings, teaching artist capacity, and consequently our trainers’ and actors’ drama education experience, to build this program out over the long term as a sustainable model. It is critical to us to keep providing leadership opportunities in the performing arts to adults in the disability and arts communities for many years, even after the grant term is over, and this grant provided us with the solid foundation to do exactly that.
As you can see from the photos provided, the positive engagement of every participant blossoms forth and shines in the rehearsal room, in the classroom, on stage... and even sitting in the hallways!
The results of your generous funding are palpable in the joy and dedication that emanate from the performances onstage. We hope to see many Impact100 DC members at one of our upcoming inclusive theatre company shows in March, May, and June.
- March 8 (7:30pm), March 9 (2:30pm), and March 10 (2:30pm) – Lee Center, Alexandria VA
- May 9, 10, 11 – all at 7:30 pm – BlackRock Center for the Arts, Germantown MD
- June 7 (7:30pm), June 8 (2:30pm), and June 9 (2:30pm) – Silver Spring Black Box Theatre
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From Joseph's House:
On behalf of all of us at Joseph’s House, we would like to again thank Impact100 DC for its generous grant of $20,666, which we received in July 2023. The Impact100 grant has been used to fund our SupportIve Services Program over the last six months.
Between July 1, 2023 – December 31, 2023, our SupportIve Services staff provided critical case management for our residents over the last six months, screening all individuals for behavioral health or substance use concerns and connectIng them with resources like food stamps, vital documents, and Medicaid. Additionally, we continued to educate our community members about their health and their rights and prepared residents to live vibrant lives outside of Joseph’s House. Of the 33 residents and community members we worked with over the last six months, we have assisted over 90% of these clients with securing housing or maintaining a housing opportunity outside of Joseph’s House.
Also, part of this funding award has been allocated to purchase a new van for Joseph’s House, since the van we currently use is costing us too much in repairs. A van is integral to the many activities we carry out for our SupportIve Services Program. We expect to have it purchased in the next couple of months, and Joseph’s House will update Impact100 about the vehicle as soon as we acquire it.
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Member Profile: Ritozeh Saingbe | |
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Profile by Impact100 DC Founding Member Joan de Pontet
Ritozeh Saingbe says it simply and well, “People need a leg up…that’s what equity is all about.” Her life and her career choices have been deeply influenced by her vision of advocacy, and she sees Impact100 DC as a community of women who want to set others up for success.
Ritozeh’s parents migrated to the United States through the USIS Diversity Lottery VISA in 1996, just a couple years prior to her birth. Her father had been in legal practice back home in Nigeria but recredentialing was not possible, and “he had to go back to the drawing board.” The family first settled in New Jersey where Ritozeh was born and then later moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut where she attended several inner-city schools. In her 6th grade year, with the help of her mother, a teacher who had always instilled the value of education, Ritozeh was able to apply to the Horizon’s Initiative at Greens Farms Academy in Greens Farms, CT. She was accepted into Horizon’s weekend literacy and mathematics program, and participated wholeheartedly, for her middle school years. A dedicated and passionate student, Horizons awarded her a tuition scholarship for high school at Green Farms Academy. Put simply, that experience was “life changing,” and Ritozeh credits it with, “transforming the trajectory of my entire life.”
Ritozeh had always been interested in medicine as a way to make a difference. While at Syracuse University and in a post-graduate program at Fordham, she focused on neuroscience and a pre-med curriculum. However, in a clinical placement while at Fordham, she noted that’s when “it started to become real”. Ritozeh found medicine did not offer the type of up-lifting advocacy she had originally envisioned for her life’s work and began reevaluating her options.
Law had always been of interest, so she took the LSATs and attended law school at the University of Baltimore, where she graduated magna cum laude in May 2023. During law school, Ritozeh flourished both in and out of the classroom, and was able to take advantage of many different legal experiences. One of the most notable opportunities was the Montgomery County Summer Scholar Pipeline Program which seeks to diversify the legal community in the County and provide law students with a broad range of experiences. In her second year, Ritozeh applied to the Pipeline Program and was chosen by the J. Franklyn Bourne Bar Association to participate in round-robin interviews with several law firms in Montgomery County. This process resulted in her being offered a summer associate position at Stein Sperling Bennett De Jong Driscoll, PC, in Rockville, MD. In July 2023, she passed the Bar and later that fall, she joined that firm as an Associate Attorney within the Firm’s Commercial Litigation Department.
Stein Sperling has been a stimulating and supportive setting for Ritozeh and connected her to Impact100 DC at Impact’s 2022 Grant Award Ceremony. There, Ritozeh was able to connect with Ann Vaughn about her personal experience with Horizons and share her love for similar programs within the Greater Washington D.C. area. While mingling with current members, Ritozeh was reminded of her personal commitment to never forget her unostentatious beginnings and to always remember to “reach back and give a hand to those who need that additional leg up in life.”
As a member of Impact’s Fellowship Committee, Ritozeh hopes to help us become more diverse and intentional in our outreach to both prospective members and grantees. Indeed, she feels this is an area Impact’s Fellowship class could prove extremely useful. Ultimately, she would like to see the Fellowship Class begin to help with challenges such as growing our social media presence and membership rates. Most importantly, Ritozeh wants to see Impact100 DC grow exponentially, but also maintain its warm woman-to-woman culture without becoming bureaucratic.
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Impact100 DC
PO Box 40121
Washington, DC 20016
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Contact:
www.impact100dc.org
Phone: 202-379-4773
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