Partnership During a Pandemic
If there is one thing that we have been continuously reminded of during these unprecedented times is that superheroes are very real, and they live among us. Today, we are highlighting one of those superheroes–Capitol Hill Community Foundation.
Capitol Hill residents and businesses joined together 30 years ago to build a community foundation that directly supports neighborhood schools and organizations through seasonal and emergency grants. Everyone Home DC has benefited from our Community Foundation’s generosity and commitment to ending homelessness in our city over its many years of existence.
As life in our city quickly shifted in response to the novel coronavirus, so did the Capitol Hill Community Foundation, announcing emergency grants for Capitol Hill organizations helping to mitigate the effects of the pandemic in our community. We were honored (and felt great relief) to learn that Everyone Home DC would receive $15,000 to support our COVID-19 response efforts.
Mark Weinheimer, Secretary of the Foundation’s Board of Directors, recently shared:
“The Foundation believes that the whole community is in this pandemic situation together. While many of us can cope in our homes, others cannot. Everyone Home DC is doing so much to help that portion of our population, and we wanted to enable them to extend that help even more.”
Everyone Home DC put the Capitol Hill Community Foundation funds right to work. The emergency grant will support critical efforts to build and sustain our stock of personal protective equipment for staff and clients. It will also support the weekly distribution of essential item kits by our Street Outreach team during health and wellness check-ins with people sleeping outside who have limited access to laundry and shower services. The kits include undergarments, body wipes, hand sanitizer, water, snacks, and a mask.
Karen Cunningham, Everyone Home DC Executive Director, reflects:
The Foundation’s pandemic response grant could not have come at a better time. In the days just before Mark called to tell me about the award, I had just completed a budget re-write, revising down all our revenue projections for the year and cutting all non-essential expenses even while knowing our clients’ needs would be at an all-time high. When Mark told me the Foundation was giving us $15,000, I was overcome with gratitude.”
And all of this follows on the heels of learning Everyone Home DC was selected to receive the Capitol Hill Community Foundation’s 2020 Arnold F. Keller, Jr. Grant, which comes with the Foundation’s largest monetary annual gift of $20,000. At the start of the year, we were looking forward to celebrating this milestone moment at the Capitol Hill Community Achievement Awards at the end of April. Unfortunately social distancing forced the annual Dinner to cancel, although we were excited to learn that we will celebrate this honor officially with ALL the Honorees at the 2021 Dinner. Be on the lookout for another blog post in the future, sharing more about this honor and the grant’s namesake, Arnold F. Keller.
Learn more about the Foundation and ways to get involved by visiting their website CapitolHillCommunityFoundation.org.
