Last night, at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, The Theatre Lab School of the Dramatic Arts presented a unique new work, My Soul Look Back and Wonder: Life Stories from Women in Recovery — a production of its acclaimed Life Stories program. After the performance, R. Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, took part in a panel discussion about the play and the critical issues of substance abuse and homelessness.

According to the Theatre Lab, “The program began in early February on-site at the N Street Village facility, a recovery center for homeless and low-income women. Theatre Lab instructor Thomas Workman led a group of ten women in recovery for substance abuse through acting, storytelling, and drama therapy exercises. Participants shared details of their personal lives, including family issues, struggles with drugs, and homelessness. The stories were then crafted into theatre piece by Helen Hayes Award-winning playwright Jennifer L. Nelson. The women — none of whom are professionally trained actors — performed the play themselves under the direction of Theatre Lab founder and co-executive director Deb Gottesman.”

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So what might strike your fancy this weekend?

RUNNING FAR …

The 2nd annual Fairfax CASA Run for the Children 10K Race & 3K Run/Walk is coming up on Saturday at 8 AM — prizes, food, and entertainment all included. Sign up right here. And in running-related events, Girls on the Run founder Molly Barker will share words of wisdom at a brunch to benefit the GOTR of MoCo scholarship fund on Saturday at 8 AM. Admission tickets are sold out, but you can still buy raffle tickets here!

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By Marie LeBlanc, CFP Community Partnerships Coordinator

Earlier this week, the Nonprofit Quarterly published an article by Joe Waters on the importance of nonprofit publishing — not advertising, not promoting, but publishing. In today’s whirlwind world of social media, the re-tweet and “like” often take precedence over extended, printed content creation. Waters points out a couple of reasons why nonprofits benefit from quality publications (branding, differentiation, publicity), but I would argue that the community at large stands to gain from quality nonprofit publications as well.

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The cost of a nation of incarceration (CBS News): “Nationwide, the numbers are staggering: Nearly 2.4 million people behind bars, even though over the last 20 years the crime rate has actually dropped by more than 40%.” Michael Jacobson, director of the Vera Institute of Justice, points out that the US has “about 5% of the world’s population, but we have 25% of the world’s prisoners.” A report from Vera, “The Price of Prisons, finds that the cost of incarcerating one inmate runs up to $60,000 per year in some states. Says Walter McNeil, president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, “… the vast majority of the people in prison are going to return to prison unless we do something different.”

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And here are some great DC-area destinations for the weekend …

Happy Hour Fundraiser with Art Enables (at Lace, 2214 Rhode Island Ave NE)

On Friday at 4:00 PM, join Art Enables for cocktail and food specials at Lace — while having a fun time for a good cause.

Latino Youth: Reach for the Stars! with Educacion Para Nuestro Futuro (at NRECA Conference Center, 4301 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington)

Edu-Futuro honors the talents & spirit of Latino youth on Friday at 6:30 PM in their first-ever talent show — which will also support grassroots education and leadership development.

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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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