Why We Fight: A Personal Reflection on World AIDS Day
By J. Channing Wickham
Executive Director, Washington AIDS Partnership
Today is World AIDS Day – a time when people in our region and around the world unite in the fight against HIV, show their support for people living with HIV and commemorate people who have died. For many of us, World AIDS Day is a time of reflection. For me, it serves as a reminder of why I started doing the work I do today.
Twenty years ago, I was running a Washington, D.C.-based crisis hotline. One of my closest friends at that time was a man who was well known throughout the region, not only professionally, but for his kind and generous spirit. He was a wonderful friend. We frequently went running together and often enjoyed playing tennis.
I recently came across his Washington Post obituary from 1989. It lists the cause of death as pneumonia. He was 54. My friend took his secret – that he had AIDS – to the grave.
Looking back, it breaks my heart to know how ashamed he was of his diagnosis – so embarrassed he couldn’t even talk about the illness with his closest friends. I was shocked to learn, after he died, that he was afraid that if he revealed that he had AIDS he might lose his business and worried that his employees would be out of jobs.
That was my moment. That was when I decided to turn my attention to the fight against AIDS. At the time, I knew a great deal about running a nonprofit organization. I knew how to raise money and how to manage a staff. But when it came to the world of HIV/AIDS, I was a total novice.
Twenty years later – 17 of which have been spent as Executive Director of the Washington AIDS Partnership – I still have much to learn. But in those two decades I have seen the first glimmers of hope that we can get ahead of this terrible disease if we stay focused and if everyone does his or her part – individuals, foundations, businesses and the government – and we do what science and research tell us we need to do.
Making treatment available to people living with HIV means helping them get medical care if they are too afraid or overwhelmed by the healthcare system. It means providing HIV testing anywhere and everywhere and being honest about sex and sexuality. And it means remaining true to that one person who inspired us to get involved in the first place.
Need Knows No Season…
The table’s been set, the relatives are on their way, let the holidays begin! Along with the cooking, shopping and parties associated with this time of year, many of us feel a strong desire to help those less fortunate. It is, as they say, better to give than to receive.
We saw that community spirit of giving on November 9, when residents of our region participated in the first ever Give to the Max Day, raising $2 million for local nonprofits.
As President of The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region, I am acutely aware of the overwhelming need in our community–every day. We are living in a time of profound economic uncertainty. According to a 2011 report from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, children represent an alarming 27 percent of the region’s homeless population. The Capital Area Food Bank reports more than 641,000 residents of the Washington region are experiencing or at risk of hunger, including more than 100,000 in Fairfax County alone. This is the same Fairfax County that ranks second nationally for highest median household income and yet is facing the same challenges as the rest of the region and the country.
Across the river, one in four homeowners living in Prince George’s County are behind in their mortgage payments. The situation is so dire that housing counselors who work with homeowners recently participated in a suicide-prevention training to deal with the most distraught homeowners.
Our local nonprofits depend on the support that comes during the giving season. And while many donors view the holidays as the time of greatest need for people living in poverty, our neighbors need us all year long. Foreclosures and hunger know no season.
With the first snow storm, we must support hypothermia shelters that shield our homeless brothers and sisters from the harshest winter months. In the spring, let’s remember the region’s free clinics that provide uninsured families with inhalers and allergy medications that can mean the difference between life and death.
While it is particularly awful to face the prospect of eviction in the winter cold, it is equally bad in the brutal heat of a D.C. summer. And let’s not forget about children who receive free or reduced lunches during the school year. Backpacks provided by local nonprofits and filled with healthy food mean our children won’t go to bed hungry winter, spring, summer or fall. Those same children depend on us for warm coats as the days grow shorter and the nights grow colder.
As 2012 approaches, we must renew our commitment to our neighbors in need. Please join The Community Foundation in strengthening the local safety net. This month, next month, throughout 2012 and beyond.
It’s Time to Give to the Max!
10…9…8…7…Yes, it’s countdown until an historic event for our community, Give to the Max: Greater Washington is coming to town on November 9, 2011. Each of us will have the opportunity to participate in this 24-hour long, online giving event that will benefit more than 1,000 area nonprofit organizations. We’ve set a goal of raising $3 million for our local nonprofits, and by now it’s quite likely that you’ve received at least one e-mail from an organization you’ve supported announcing their participation in Give to the Max Day. And it will be important that we respond in kind.
You know, our region is really a tale of two regions – one very wealthy, affluent, well educated and highly professional. The other experiences generational poverty is under-educated and has an incredibly high unemployment rate. These families are fighting high foreclosure rates, limited housing affordability, and growing food insecurity. But thankfully, we have a nonprofit community that works diligently to reach those residents, to provide them with a hand-up to get them moving in the right direction, or a hand out, when absolutely necessary.
But the good work in our community isn’t just about safety net services. Our community is “rich” because of the vibrant arts and cultural community that exists throughout the region. And the dedication of our environmental nonprofits is evident in the improvement that has taken place over the years in our area waterways – the Potomac and Anacostia rivers among them and in the growing recognition that “smart growth” is the best approach for our economy and our community. Whatever your passion–education, animals or health, Give To The Max Day is your chance to get involved in positive change. You give to the organization(s) of your choice and challenge your family, friends and colleagues to support their causes through your Facebook, Twitter or other social media networks. Throughout the day on November 9, you will be able to track the progress of fundraising for your nonprofit. (www.give2max.org). You will be able to learn about the people they work with and lives they touch through stories, videos and pictures that will be posted on their web pages.
And when the clock strikes “12 midnight” on November 9, we will be able to look back and know that we contributed to making this region the best it can be. We will be assured that a local artist will go on to create a work for all of us to share one more time. Or that a mother will go to work knowing that her child is safe at pre-school. Or experience the smile of a developmentally challenged person whose life is given purpose through the daily opportunities they are able to learn. Or know that a senior did not have to choose between food and their prescription medications.
So Greater Washington, step up and Give to the Max!
When place matters: Race and community wellness in Port Towns
by Caroline Wanjiku Kihato, PhD, Visitin Scholar,
Institute for the Study of International Migration, Georgetown University
Does where you live determine how long you live, or how you die?
This was one of the questions that formed the backdrop of the tour of Port Towns organized by The Community Foundation for the Northern Capital Region on October 12 2011. The Port Towns comprise of four towns in Prince George’s County, Maryland: Bladensburg, Colmar Manor, Cottage City and Edmonston. Brought together by the need to develop sustainable solutions to the challenges facing their communities, the Port Towns Community Development Corporation firmly believes that place can and does matter in determining health outcomes.
Prince George’s County is the most diverse in Maryland with 80% of the population belonging to minority groups. Despite its rich diversity, the 2010 census put 8% of households as living below the poverty line. The average poverty level for Prince George’s County however masks the deep inequalities that exist within the four Port Towns. Cottage city, for example, has more than 21% of its population living below the poverty line. Bladensburg has a poverty level of 12%, while Colmar Manor and Edmonston have poverty levels of 2% and 9% respectively. With the exception of Colmar Manor, the Port Towns communities are amongst the poorest in Prince George’s County and Maryland state.
These statistics have a bearing on health and wellness in the community. In a panel discussion, Adam Ortiz, the Acting Director of Community Relations for Prince George’s County explained that although incidences of diseases like cancer are lower amongst minorities, their mortality levels are higher. Prince George’s County is also one of the most obese jurisdictions in Maryland and has high rates of asthma, HIV, and infant mortality. The problem is compounded by the inaccessibility to health services. With a population of over 800,000, between 80,000 and 150,000 people are uninsured and an additional 150,000 to 200,000 are underinsured in Prince George’s County. Under these conditions, saving lives through early diagnosis and preventative treatment is a significant challenge.
According to Natalie S. Burke, President and Co-Founder of CommonHealth Action, contrary to popular perceptions, only 10% of our health is influenced by our genes, and 40% by our behaviour. Our social, economic, and physical environments determine 50% of our health outcomes. Factors like community cohesion, stress, communal amenities like parks, sidewalks, health services, technology, business and public investment, make all the difference in enhancing health and wellness in an area. And this has been a significant challenge for the Port Towns authorities. When our tour guide Ms. Sadara Barrow, ED for the Port Towns CDC, moved into the area in 1983, there were no shops or businesses in her neighborhood. People had to travel miles to get groceries, banking services, and other basic amenities.
Few people contemplate what it means to have no grocery store close to where they live. Businesses provide the households they serve much needed employment and services. They invest in infrastructure and pay taxes which go into improving the community. Businesses signal confidence in a neighborhood. Their investments “crowd in” other investors, attracting other businesses that contribute to building the community.
Yet while businesses are important, it is the commitment of ordinary people to their community that struck me most throughout the tour. It is the inspiring story of students’ demands for a better education that led to the transformation of Bladensburg High School, into the premier learning environment that it is now. It is the vision of the founders of the Anacostia Watershed Society to reclaim the Anacostia river and turn it into a recreational, clean and sustainable asset for present and future generations. It is the dream of the volunteers of ECO City Farms to provide fresh organic fruit and vegetables to Port Towns’ grocers and residents all year round. It is the commitment of Port Towns’ leaders, businesses and large corporations like Kaiser Permanente that is transforming the community one day at a time.
Yes, place does matter, and what makes the difference is when people believe in it too.
Putting Race on the Table: The Community Foundation explores race and neighborhood revitalization on H Street
Article originally posted on Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 9:43 am by the Washington Grantmakers Daily; giving.wordpress.com.
By Rebekah Seder, Program Coordinator, Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers
Earlier this month, the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region launched its Putting Race on the Table Community Tours series by examining the issues of race and neighborhood revitalization as they are playing out on the H Street NE corridor in the District. H Street, once called the “Georgetown for African Americans” and later neglected after the 1968 riots devastated many of the neighborhood businesses, has become a nightlife hot spot with restaurants and bars that attract people from all over the city. This influx has created a dynamic between residents and newcomers that is receiving much attention lately, as long-time residents experience the impact of major changes in their neighborhood.
Tour attendees, among them several local funders, spoke with H Street residents about the impact of rising property taxes, visited Mason’s Barbershop, a decades-old family business, and heard from Jane Lang and Sam Sweet, respectively the founder and executive director of the Atlas Performing Arts Center. While the challenges resulting from the changing character of H Street were a major focus of the day, the group also saw the positive impact that these changes have had.
Although some small businesses have disappeared due to the disruption caused by the streetscape and streetcar projects, others, such as Mason’s, have continued to thrive with a more diverse clientele. Jane Lang, who refurbished the long-abandoned Atlas Theater into a state-of-the-art performing arts center, made community engagement an integral part of re-opening the theater. Thanks to these efforts, Atlas has become the hub of H Street development, allowing people from all over the city, as well as neighborhood residents, to enjoy and benefit from the arts.
In a panel discussion, Derrick Woody, formerly of the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, and Anwar Saleem, head of the nonprofit H Street Main Street, talked about the great potential for H Street to once again become the vital and inclusive residential and business district that it once was, particularly with the opening of the streetcar from Union Station to Minnesota Avenue in 2013.
Critical to the success of inclusive development, however, is ensuring that housing remains affordable through strong inclusionary zoning practices and progressive tax policies, and that government, local businesses, and nonprofits partner to create equitable opportunities for all by helping the corridor attract diverse new businesses – beyond restaurants and bars – that serve and employ neighborhood residents, old and new.
What’s Past is Prologue
by Jane Freundel Levey
Director of Heritage Programs, Cultural Tourism DC
Today H Street NE is at the epicenter of the city’s ongoing struggle with change. Within living memory, H Street was an African American business district, a burned-out, post-riot, crime-ridden corridor, and now a gentrifying arts and entertainment district interspersed with small, everyday businesses. To our grandparents, H Street NE offered opportunities for immigrants to establish businesses, work for the government or the railroad, care for the sick, raise and educate families. In addition to African Americans migrating from the South or displaced by economic change in other areas of DC, immigrants from Lebanon, Ireland, and Eastern Europe all lived here together, despite the social practices of this southern city. Their experiences both confirm and challenge our views on the intractability of racial inequity.
A good 30 years after H Street was nearly destroyed in the riot following the assassination of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., new investments, beginning with the Atlas Performing Arts Center, became the catalyst for the current revitalization efforts.
Long-time residents and business owners of the neighborhood have wondered what all the new investments and opportunities, such as the new streetcar system, will bring. One shop owner has watched as many of his friend’s business have closed due to a lack of business caused in part by the construction and lack of parking. Others, despite suffering slowdown in business, say they have benefited from infrastructure improvements with new streetscaping and building facades.
Participants in the upcoming Putting Race on the Table Community Tour on September 14 will learn about how opportunities are changing the look and feel of H Street. They will hear from long-time community member Marqui Lyons, a co-chair of the Greater H Street NE Heritage Trail Working Group, as well as from Jane Freundel Levey, the Cultural Tourism DC historian responsible for the city’s Neighborhood Heritage Trails system.
In addition next spring “Hub, Heart, Home: Greater H Street NE Heritage Trail,” will be installed in the neighborhood. The Heritage Trail presents the history of the area, from its origins to recent redevelopment, with compelling historical photographs and text. This Heritage Trail will be the 13th in the city-wide system. Like the others, it began with community discussions to answer the question: what do you want to tell a visitor to your neighborhood? H Street’s new businesses make creative use of nostalgia, such as the restaurant named Granville Moore’s.
The new Heritage Trail will bring to the streets the remembered and researched context for what we do today, and explain how Dr. Granville Moore was a neighborhood hero. It will illuminate the distinctive buildings of H Street. It will trace the neighborhood’s development as a commercial center for working class people in response to transportation innovations—streetcars, commuter trains, long-distance rail travel and shipping, automobiles.
Supporting Our Troops, In More Ways Than One
by Jacqueline Ogg
Commissioner, Montgomery County Commission on Veterans Affairs
I clearly recall the crisp fall day in 2006 when, in downtown Silver Spring, MD, I saw for the first time a young man walking gingerly on an artificial leg. Next to him was a young woman – a wife or girlfriend, I presumed — both of them focused, but smiling and enjoying the day’s outing. Both had on U.S. Army t-shirts.
In the weeks, months and years to come, I would see more and more soldiers – both men and women – getting out into the community and rebuilding their lives after sustaining severe wounds in Iraq and Afghanistan. I came to learn that many were receiving care and services at Walter Reed Amy Medical Center in Washington, DC, a short distance from downtown Silver Spring.
I live close to Walter Reed, but the only thing I knew about it was what I read in the newspapers. The needs, and strengths, of soldiers and families being treated at the hospital — let alone the realities of families engaged in the wars — seemed a world away. I felt moved to help, but had no connections to help me find the best way.
As it turns out, I was not alone in feeling so disconnected. In 2007 and 2008, a number of civic leaders, philanthropists and nonprofit executives came together to explore ways in which the local community could become more supportive of our military neighbors. As Deputy Director of The Community Foundation for Montgomery County, I was fortunate to a part of this process.
With the help of a needs-assessment study funded by The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region and Montgomery County Government, we began to get a better picture of how to bridge these two worlds. We knew that the U.S. military offered many effective programs and that, even during the worst of the economic downturn, initiatives were launched, including employment programs and respite services as well as information and referral resources. But we also recognized that, despite its many efforts, the U.S. Military simply could not do it all. To his credit, Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett, himself a veteran, created the region’s first Commission on Veterans Affairs to give the issue sustained attention.
What we learned is that, while many programs supporting troops, veterans, and military families exist, coordination between these agencies and delivery of services were ongoing challenges, leaving our troops and their families both frustrated and in chronic need. The situation was exacerbated by alarming factors largely brought on by the Iraq and Afghanistan wars — rising rates of unemployment, mental illness, domestic violence, homelessness and even suicide affecting service members and military families.
Now with a four-year matching grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Mental Health Association of Montgomery County, in collaboration with military, public and nonprofit partners including The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region, has launched Serving Together: Troops, Veterans and Family Care Project. The project will help active-duty soldiers and their families in Montgomery County — including soldiers receiving medical care, soldiers transitioning out of the military and into civilian life, and veterans already separated from the Armed Forces — better access community-based services focused on health, mental health, and other supports. Serving Together also will reach the more than 700 wounded warriors and their families/caregivers from across the United States who are residing in Montgomery County and receiving care at military medical facilities.
Serving Together promises to be this region’s conduit for leveraging the goodwill of many, like myself, looking for strategic and effective ways to serve those who have served us.
To learn more and get involved with the Serving Together Project, visit http://www.mhamc.org or contact Kensei Phillips, The Community Foundation’s Director of Philanthropic Advisory Services, at (202) 263-4769 or kphillips@cfncr.org.
