The mission of City Gate is to engage and empower at-risk youth and families impacted by poverty to access the resources and opportunities of the larger community. Since 2000, it has provided after-school and summer day-camp opportunities for students in grades K-12 in academics, social-emotional learning, life skills development, and off-site expeditionary learning. City Gate is expanding their “Gateway to Growth” program with the support of Impact100 DC funds. Gateway to Growth is a high-impact, out-of-school time, literacy intervention program targeting elementary school-aged students in DC’s Ward 8; all of the students attend Title I schools and come from families well below the average median income.
The mission of Nature Forward is to inspire residents of the greater Washington, DC region to appreciate, understand, and protect their natural environment through outdoor experiences, education and advocacy. Their vision is to create a larger and more diverse community of people who treasure the natural world and work to preserve it.
The mission of the Urban Studio is to advance design thinking for equitable and sustainable urbanism, with a commitment to building climate resilient communities for everyone. Their team of landscape architects, designers and industry experts collaborate with diverse communities to improve urban greenspaces and revitalize the neighborhoods around them. The Urban Studio supports community-led ideas and initiatives to tackle environmental and health issues while strengthening community resilience for the long-t
GALA Hispanic Theatre has been in existence as a center for Latino performing arts in Washington, DC since 1977. In developing and producing works that explore the breadth of Latino performing arts, Gala provides opportunities for Latino artists, youth education, and community engagement. Its programs for youth include Paso Neuvo, a bilingual, inclusive theater education program for high school students that incorporates acting, training, playwriting, and mentorship; GALita, bilingual children’s theater for children ages 4-12; and a matinee program of offerings for elementary middle, and high school students.
TWU’s mission is to organize low-income communities of color, build power, and help people become change agents who transform systems, advance social justice, and improve the quality of life across Northern Virginia.
TWU first organized in the mid-1980s in response to the scheduled evictions of thousands of renters in the Arlandria/Chirilagua neighborhood of Alexandria. Developers assumed residents would simply make way for gentrification but instead, they stayed, studied, and organized. A nearly ten-year-long campaign succeeded: the limited-equity Arlandria-Chirilagua Housing Cooperative is owned and democratically controlled by residents, most with low incomes. Organizing work includes housing justice, health equity (increasing access to culturally sensitive healthcare), education justice (ending the school-to-prison pipeline), immigrants’ rights (ending local collaboration with authorities), and police accountability. The goal is to advance social and racial justice through community power building. When the pandemic hit, TWU worked overtime to meet the dire needs of its community, and in partnership with others expanded its work to include direct services that will continue long after the pandemic’s end.
Northern Virginia harbors pockets of profound poverty, and these are the places that TWU works. For example, in the neighborhood of Alexandria known as “Arlandria,” close to 70% of families surveyed by TWU earn less than 30% of the average median income. A large percentage of residents are immigrants; 61% of households speak Spanish. Northern Virginia currently has the highest rate of severe housing burden among low-income households of any similar metropolitan area in the country. Eviction rates are very high as a result.
Systemic change is needed to address these disparities.
Edu Futuro works to empower Latino and immigrant youth and families throughout Northern Virginia, mentorship, education, leadership development, family support programs, and workforce development. Founded in 1988, Edu-Futuro has grown steadily each year to its current support of well over 3,000 individuals. Edu Futuro provides programs that empower under-resourced youth in grades 3-12 through an array of academic support and leadership development programs. Rising seniors receive year-long support navigating the college education process. In a two-generation approach, families are supported as well, through a variety of programs – from workforce development programs to parenting classes – that help them achieve financial security and advocate for themselves and their children.
Access Youth’s mission is to empower vulnerable youth with the tools they need to stay in school, graduate on time and avoid the justice system, through mediation and restorative justice. More than 7000 students have participated in their school-based programs at Anacostia, Ballou, and Eastern and HD Woodson high schools and Kramer and Johnson Middle Schools. Two program managers per school build trusting relationships with students, enrolling them in 6th and 9th grade and continuing through graduation. These students statistically have higher rates of attendance, GPA and promotion rates than their peers. A truancy prevention program provides encouragement, motivation, and support for attending school, while a restorative justice program works on relationship building, goal setting, progress monitoring, and life skills development.