In a Politico op-ed, “Violence against women is no ‘women’s issue’,” Women Thrive Worldwide co-founder & President Ritu Sharma writes:

This lesson has been learned by longtime activists, who have been battling this scourge that affects one in three women globally. Gender-based violence can take many forms: rape and assault used as weapons of war, domestic violence, acid burnings and female infanticide. The list is long.

But ending this violence has one common element: The men who are political leaders — village elders, pastors and mullahs, fathers, brothers, husbands and boyfriends — need to come forward and say stop. [...]

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Baker plan aims to “bring our neighborhoods back” (Gazette): “Six Prince George’s County communities will get some extra attention from the county government, as officials believe assisting the areas will help cut down on crime and improve economic development. Department leaders from the county executive’s administration will lead Transforming Neighborhoods Initiative in six areas: East Riverdale/Bladensburg, Glassmanor, Hillcrest Heights/Marlow Heights, Kentland/Palmer Park, Langley Park, and Suitland/Coral Hills. CE Rushern L. Baker said that the program “would provide a holistic approach utilizing county services [...] to aid some of the county’s most vulnerable communities.”

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For homeless single dad, nothing’s easy, even when it’s good (Washington Post: Local): “Hours later, after he produced his ID with no fixed address, his Social Security card, his medical records, the paperwork for [daughter] Kai, the letters from readers, two tellers still wouldn’t cash it. Finally, a branch manager took him into her office, closed the door behind them and listened to his story. [...] If this is the process to simply cash a check when you’re without an anchor, imagine how hard it is to find work, housing and child care when your address is a shelter and a 1-year-old is clinging to your neck.” Juan Jordan, who recently received a place at the former DC General Hospital with help from the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, daily faces a specific array of challenges in securing food and shelter for himself and his daughter — precisely because it is just the two of them.

Program That Sends Urban Students to Elite Colleges Comes to Houston This Fall (New York Times via the Texas Tribune): CFP nonprofit the Posse Foundation is now expanding to the Houston Independent School District! “Teachers, principals and community leaders will get to nominate students to become members of the city’s inaugural “posses” — groups of students from large, urban districts organized by the Posse Foundation, which sends them to elite colleges and universities as a unit to serve as a pre-established peer support network.” Since its inception in 1989, Posse has grown “grown tremendously, sending more than 4,000 students from eight of the country?s largest cities to about 40 universities. Those students have netted nearly $500 million in scholarships [...] and have a graduation rate of 90 percent.”

How Do Your Nonprofit’s Online Numbers Compare? (Huffington Post): “The 2012 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study [researched by M+R Strategic Services and NTEN] showed nonprofit online fundraising grew for a second year in a row, driven largely by an increase in gifts to rights-based nonprofits. While the response rates to fundraising email messages stayed fairly consistent for nonprofits in 2011, the average rates of new Facebook fans, mobile subscribers, and people who took action from an advocacy email soared.” Among the notable results? By December 2011, “nonprofits on average had 70 percent more Facebook fans than they did at the start of the year” and “the number of email subscribers responding to calls to action online [... had] increased 28 percent.” M+R principal Bill Wasserman suggests taking similar stock of your own numbers and brainstorming how to improve them in 2012.

What are your plans for the weekend? Consider “meeting up” with a CFP nonprofit, such as …

Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (545 7th Street SE)

Tango dancers of all levels have an opportunity to practice, collaborate, and learn in a collective space at a Free Tango Practica on Friday at 7:00 PM.

District of Columbia Arts Center (2438 18th Street NW)

At DCAC on Friday & Saturday at 7:30 PM, Landless Theatre Company presents a DC premiere: SPIDERMUSICAL: A Second Chance for Awesome. Nab tickets right here.

Rock Creek Conservancy (over 50 locations around the DC area)

Join in the 4th annual Extreme Cleanup on Saturday at 9:00 AM when thousands of volunteers will help keep trash out of Rock Creek, the Potomac River and ultimately the Chesapeake Bay. Click here to register at your local clean-up.

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In DC schools, 59 percent of students get diploma on time (Washington Post): “Less than 60 percent of DC high school students graduated on time in 2011, according to a new and more rigorous calculation of completion rates announced Thursday.” DC officials pointed out that reported graduations rates have dropped, in part, due to the new counting system that “call[s] for schools to track individual ninth-graders and follow them if they move.” The new numbers also revealed a widening gap between the city’s public charter schools and traditional public high schools in the ability to graduate students on time.” The overall graduation rates for charters was 79.7 percent versus 52.9 perfect for traditional schools, a much larger differential than in 2010 (86.6 percent and 75.75). However, in a follow-up piece, Bill Turque noted that “four-year completion improved from 73 percent to 80 percent under the old calculus [so] there is some movement in the right direction.”

Using the Whole Talent Pool: An Interview with Shannon Maynard and Robert Grimm (Nonprofit Quarterly: Management): “Nonprofit Quarterly editor in chief Ruth McCambridge spoke to Shannon Maynard and Robert Grimm of the Corporation for National and Community Service about their work, the latest research on volunteering, and trends in effective nonprofit staffing management.” Grimm pointed out that both the volunteering rate and the voting rate have increased among young people, and that “there was recently a 25-year high in entering college students who believed that it was essential or important to help others.” Discussing the nonprofit contribution to “social capital,” he also explained that “volunteer associations are part of the core, or the building blocks, of the civic tradition of a community. When organizations are doing a good job of engaging the community, you?re going to see high levels of citizen engagement.”

A Novel Idea: Arlington Plans To Add To Library Budget (WAMU 88.5): “As government leaders across Northern Virginia prepare their budgets for fiscal year 2013, many are considering another round of cuts to libraries. One jurisdiction, at least, has chosen to buck the trend. Arlington County is considering a plan that would add $605,000 and eight employees to the library system at a time when other jurisdictions are considering cutbacks. The [library] budget debate comes at a time when libraries across the region are experiencing a steady increase in demand.” County Board member Chris Zimmerman attests that libraries and their free services” are one of the great levelers in American society that give everybody a fair shot.” On a related note, you can learn more about teaching (and learning) literacy in the area through the Literacy Council of Northern Virginia.

From “Older workers face challenges in DC job market” in the Washington Post (Local):

Elected in 2010, DC Mayor Vincent C. Gray campaigned on a pledge to reduce the District’s high unemployment rate. His One City One Hire initiative, announced in September, is intended to link 10,000 D.C. residents with jobs within a year.

So far, though, the program has struggled to reach older workers, who often lose out to younger workers in a city where the jobless rate is 9.9 percent and competition for work can be stiff. [...]

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Reporting on the National Low Income Housing Coalition‘s 2012 rankings, Elahe Izadi of DCentric writes that “the DC-metro area is an expensive place to live, but it isn’t the priciest of places.” San Francisco tops the list, followed by the Stamford-Norwalk metro area in Connecticut and Honolulu, Hawaii; the greater Washington area is in the 10th spot.

In order to afford a “a fair market, two-bedroom apartment in DC” ($1,506/month), and thus spend only 30% of his or her income on rent, the renter would need to earn $60,240 annually or $28.96 per hour for a 40-hour week. But as Izadi points out, the median income for DC renters is less than two-thirds of that.

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Affordable housing means financial incentives, experts tell MontCo (Washington Examiner): “Yet 44 percent of renters in the county spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing, said Michael Bodaken, president of the National Housing Trust. A minimum-wage earner would need to work four full-time jobs to afford a “modest” two-bedroom apartment in the county. The most realistic solution is to try to preserve some of the existing housing where rents are in danger of climbing, because working with existing structures costs one-third as much as building new housing, Bodaken said.” According to Roger Lewis, professor emeritus at the University of Maryland, “it is going to take some public-sector financing, which then gets into the political briar patch.” (We also touched upon the high housing costs in Arlington in yesterday’s In The News)

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An awesome range of events coming up this weekend …

Reading: A Family Affair with Literacy Council of Northern Virginia (James Lee Community Center, 2855 Annandale Road, Falls Church)

A free, five-hour event, this family literacy day brings books alive through a variety of venues: visitors can see, hear, become, read & write, and even click (through computer activities) great books on Saturday from 9:30 AM to 2:30 PM. Learn more right here!

Tree Planting! with Anacostia Watershed Society (Waterfront Park, 4601 Annapolis Road, Bladensburg)

Come roll up your sleeves and help to restore the health and natural beauty of the watershed on Saturday from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM; simply zip an email to hbailey@anacostiaws.org to sign up.

“All Mozart” at National Philharmonic (The Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda)

Assistant Conductor Victoria Gau makes her National Philharmonic debut in an all-Mozart concert that opens with the joyful and beloved Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (“A Little Night Music”) on Saturday at 8:00 PM. Tickets right here!

Red Shoe 5K Run & Walk with Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Washington, DC (2303 Dulles Station Boulevard, Herndon)

Calling all runners and walkers! The Red Shoes 5K, coming up on Sunday at 9:00 AM, features a scenic fast, flat course and a special kids fun run. Sign up online and help in the fight for children’s health.

“The Art of the Fugue” at Washington Bach Consort (National Presbyterian Church, 4101 Nebraska Avenue NW)

In this rare performance of the complete Die Kunst der Fugue, experienceit in different ensemble groupings including string ensemble, harpsichord, and organ on Sunday at 3:00 PM. Tickets this way!

Scrabble Scramble at Literacy Council of Montgomery County (Manor Country Club, 14901 Carrolton Road, Rockville)

On Sunday at 6:00 PM, four-player teams will compete to achieve the highest total score and raise money for the organization’s adult literacy programs. Dinner is included, along with a cash bar. For more info, call (301) 610-0030 x202.

Investing in Education, Workforce Development and the Safety Net Will Close the Income Gap (Huffington Post): “In other words, while our region’s economy has led to economic growth and prosperity for many on the middle and higher rungs of the ladder, residents on the bottom of the income scale largely are being left behind,” writes Terri Lee Freeman, president of The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region. “While philanthropy alone cannot address income inequality, it can make a difference. We believe economic security can be achieved by investing in three key areas: education, workforce development and the safety net.” Do you agree that these are the three key areas? What would you add?

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