At Everyone Home DC, we know housing is the solution to ending homelessness AND we understand it is not sufficient for long-term success. Families transitioning out of homelessness need resources beyond decent affordable housing to thrive: food, education, employment, parenting supports, children’s services, transportation, health and mental health care.

Families just like Mary and Tracy’s.

Mary grew up in Mississippi, where she experienced the trauma of parental abuse and lacked strong family attachments. When she was a young adult, an aunt moved Mary to the D.C. region hoping that she would find solace and success in a new environment.

With limited education and work experience, Mary was dependent on her aunt. When her aunt passed away, Mary found herself struggling to care for her family alone. She moved her family into emergency shelter after exhausting all other options. Stressed by her circumstances, Mary experienced depression and anxiety and used substances to self-medicate. Her addiction resulted in Tracy being removed from her care. Mary was tired and longed for change.

For Mary, it was intensive substance abuse treatment and connection to Everyone Home DC that allowed her to make lasting change. After getting clean and sober, Mary regained custody of Tracy and learned her family was eligible for housing through Everyone Home DC’s Permanent Supportive Housing program. She signed a lease for an apartment of her own and began receiving supportive services to ensure housing stabilization, maximum
levels of self-sufficiency, and a better quality of life. Everyone Home DC was there to help Mary and Tracy thrive in their new lives.

With stable housing and caring support from Everyone Home DC, Mary and Tracy were able to move beyond the past and focus on their future. Members of their Everyone Home DC support team have served as coordinators and advocates for Mary with landlords, service providers, and school administrators, and as motivators and cheerleaders for Mary and Tracy as they took on new challenges. Mary started attending Everyone Home DC’s parenting classes, finding comfort in the routine, while having a space to address parenting questions and creating meaningful friendships with other mothers in the program. Over the years, she rarely missed a class and grew into a leadership role, reminding her friends when meetings were scheduled and offering suggestions for how the group could evolve. Today, Mary is focused on improving her literacy skills and is looking for a consistent employment or volunteer opportunity.

Children experiencing homelessness tend to score lower on standardized tests and have lower graduation rates. It’s difficult to concentrate in class when you’re worried about your housing or don’t sleep well in shelter, and it’s hard to prepare for tests when you don’t have a home, let alone a quiet room where you can study. This was true for Tracy when she was homeless, but with her new stability in our housing program, Tracy enjoyed going to school and was able to focus on her homework, creating meaningful relationships with her friends, and pursuing her interest in fashion. Along the way, Everyone Home DC was there to help with navigating the education system, and with school enrichment fees, school supplies, and uniform costs. Tracy attended Washington Mathematics Science Technology Public Charter School all four years of high school. She excelled there and even took AP classes. This past spring, Tracy attended the school’s prom and shortly after, graduated from high school!

Thanks to her hard work and your support, Tracy’s story is just beginning. Tracy now has her sights set on attending university. She toured several campuses and has decided to stay in Washington, DC to attend Trinity University in the Spring. Tracy plans to be the first person in her family to graduate from university.

You are a part of Mary and Tracy’s story. Your continued support will make ongoing healing and progress possible for them and families like theirs. Everyone Home DC envisions the District of Columbia as a thriving and diverse community where all people can obtain and remain in safe, affordable, and comfortable homes. In the spirit of the season, please make an urgently needed contribution today. We need YOU to make this vision of opportunity possible. [LINK TO DONATE PAGE]

Celebrate Everyone Home DC’s 50th Anniversary with a $50 Donation and Provide An Emergency Package for a Family in Need. Today is #GivingTuesday, an international day of giving that introduces the charitable season. This #GivingTuesday, Everyone Home DC is asking its generous community to support families in crisis by ensuring each new family who walks through our door receives an Emergency Package. Your gift of $50 or more can provide a family with a supply of resources unique to their needs such as food, toiletries, diapers, wipes, formula, air mattresses, and cleaning supplies. Will you be there for the next family in crisis who comes to Everyone Home DC? Families who come to us for help each day are often living temporarily with relatives and friends, moving frequently. They find themselves on the verge of homelessness and are seeking assistance to stabilize their housing. An Emergency Package offers respite, in that moment, as they begin the work with our Family Homelessness Prevention Program team to develop a plan, identify resources, and set goals that will allow them to remain stably housed in their community and connected to their natural systems of support, rather than having to enter the shelter system.

GIFT A FAMILY EMERGENCY PACKAGE FOR $50 TODAY!

Last night, we collectively raised $85,000 with more than 450 registered participants! We were excited to see so many new and old friends and sincerely hope you are inspired to stay engaged with Everyone Home DC by donating your time, talent, or treasure. Your support means our city’s most vulnerable individuals and families have access to safe, affordable, and comfortable homes.

THANK YOU!

It is the responsibility of each of us to end homelessness is Washington, D.C. and to build the welcoming and inclusive community our founders believed is possible. If you’re interested in taking action today, consider doing one, two, three, or ALL of the following below. We look forward to staying in touch with you!

• FOLLOW Everyone Home DC on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Be on the lookout, photos on Facebook coming soon!
• JOIN our Sip and Savor Host Committee and help create an even better 2019 Sip and Savor event.
• VOLUNTEER at Shirley’s Place (our drop-in day center) or join our Homeless Assistance Response Team (HART).
• COORDINATE an in-kind donation drive to and collect essential items for our programs and families.

To learn more contact Kate Akalonu at akalonu@everyonehomedc.org.

P.S. Each year, you provide us with post-event feedback that supports us in growing the success of Sip and Savor. Please consider taking this short survey (estimated completion time is 5 minutes) so we can continue in our success. Thank you!

For more information about HART, email volunteer@everyonehomedc.org.

Quote: “It gives us volunteers a chance to break down barriers to communicate with community members we may not normally interact with, breaking down biases and understanding that everyone rightly deserves to enjoy all that our wonderful Capitol Hill community offers.”

Dr. Tobie Smith is one of our longest serving and most active volunteers with Everyone Home DC’s Homeless Assistance Response Team (HART). She brings an incredible amount of knowledge, experience, and passion to this work because, when she is not volunteering with HART, she serves as the Medical Director at Health Care for the Homeless, Baltimore County. We are so grateful that Tobie chooses to spend her time outside of work with Everyone Home DC and are excited to highlight her work with our team!

Everyone Home DC’s HART volunteers are an extension of our Street Outreach Team. We train members of the community to check in on our unhoused neighbors at night, offer them snacks and shelter on hypothermia alert nights, and in extreme circumstances, call for emergency services.

Tobie became a HART volunteer because she realized that, while she is very active in homeless services in Baltimore, she wasn’t engaged in issues related to homelessness in her own community here in DC. Tobie’s professional background makes her an extra special HART volunteer. While out on shift, she is able to flag common health conditions for our outreach staff who are then able to follow-up and ensure our homeless neighbors receive the care they need.

For Tobie, one of the highlights of volunteering with Everyone Home DC is the “opportunity to work with other volunteers who are learning about homelessness.” Volunteering with HART also helps her to “better address the concerns of the rest of our community and to know how to encourage others to advocate and alleviate the issues facing the homeless population.”