What is our vision for abundance in this city?

The dominant narrative of our current economic and political systems centers on scarcity. As adrienne maree brown noted in YES! Magazine, “We are living in an age of immense interlocking crises, from climate to pandemic to race. Although there are massive opportunities to grow and change — the fight for abolition, the proliferation of mutual aid in response to COVID-19 — erotic power, happiness, and satisfaction are not words I would use to describe our current collective state.”

“In summer, when the boughs are laden, Serviceberry produces an abundance of sugar,” Robin Wall Kimmerer wrote in Emergence Magazine. “Does it hoard that energy for itself? No, it invites the birds to a feast… Isn’t this an economy? A system of distribution of goods and services that meets the needs of the community?”

This summer, the Catalogue for Philanthropy echoes the question Yura Sapi asked in their Community-Centric Fundraising piece, “How do we collectively shift from scarcity to abundance?“

Understanding and valuing abundance as gratitude, reciprocity, and exchange, we’ve invited several of our nonprofit partners to share their visions for abundance in this city. Alongside their words, we also provide more detail on the way in which their missions and work allow our local communities to flourish. As you dive into these visions, we encourage you to see yourself in them and to engage with the efforts of your nonprofit neighbors. What is your own vision for abundance in this city’s present and future? How might you share this with others and be part of a larger ecosystem?

The Power of the Arts

“For Artivate, “abundance” means helping to create a diverse, inspiring array of performances and workshops which enhance education and create connections in ALL communities,” Diana Schenck, Director of Artist and Community Programming at Artivate, told the Catalogue. “It means providing professional artists with a wealth of opportunities to share their skills and traditions, while providing an ever-growing number of schools, libraries, parks, correctional facilities, and other venues with truly inspiring and enriching experiences for their communities.”

Since they were founded in 1995, Artivate has been engaging communities to create interactive arts experiences that inspire learning. Seeing the transformative power of the arts as essential to community life, they have grown from 80 programs serving 25,000 students and teachers to an average of 1,300 programs reaching 200,000+ children, teens, and families at 250+ unique school and community sites each year.

As Miranda Anderson wrote in Psyche, “Artworks both reflect and inspire transformative understandings of our own minds and our encounters with the world, widening and deepening the ways we make sense of our subjective experiences.” The process of engaging with art builds a reciprocal relationship with the work and the artist. Artivate expands this creative opportunity through spaces that allow artists from a diverse range of artistic disciplines and cultural traditions to share their art with children, teens, families, and incarcerated adults and youth — building relationships and creating a collective learning experience.

In the words of one of their participants, “Art not only frees our bodies, it relieves us from the confinement of our minds.” Where creativity has a place to play, grow, and flourish, communities have the room to express their curiosity about the world and each other.

We see this in the work of another nonprofit partner, Friends of Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens (FoKAG), who uses the healing power of nature and art to champion green spaces in the city. A national park site along the Anacostia River, the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens features over 45 ponds filled with water lilies and lotus, along with acres of dynamic tidal marsh, and is the only national park site devoted to cultivated water-loving plants.

“In 2030,” reported the Washington Post based on data from Climate Central, “communities throughout the District will experience extensive and consistent periods of flooding, including the Yards in Ward 8, Kingman Island, Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens in Ward 7, and the entire Anacostia River Trail from Anacostia Park to Bladensburg Waterfront Park in Maryland.” Just as the history of the land is tangled with instances of environmental injustice, “the reality is that (the climate crisis) disproportionately affects communities of color and those populated by low-income residents like the area surrounding Kenilworth.”

In FoKAG’s creative project Down to Earth, a partnership with Caandor Labs and Capital Fringe, artists shine a light on the Gardens and Ward 7′s past, present, and future, with a sharp focus on the climate emergency and its intersectionality with systemic racism. Narrative figurative painter and Down to Earth’s Winter Season Artist, Rik Freedman, painted “Breakfast on the Anacostia,” a scene of the river in roughly 10,000 BC. “While researching the abundance of animal life that once depended on this river,” he reflected on the painting in their season recap, “it struck me as to how many of these animals were no longer here.”

Echoing this past in the present and future, Summer Season Artist Siobhan Rigg observed in the Washington Post that “Things that go down — like oil and gas — don’t necessarily go down to stay; they come back with the tide. So the damage over time continues to resurface. “What would it be like to reframe the narrative and look at the Anacostia as a potential source of sustenance?” (Emphasis ours)

An Inclusive Approach to Community

“Between its persistently hot housing market and an almost universally unaffordable child care ecosystem,” Conor Williams observed of this city in The 74, “D.C. is muddling towards a future where an upper-middle-class income may become a prerequisite for any family trying to live — and stay — in the city.”

Rents in the DC metro area have increased by 15.7% over the last year. One-third of people across the region experienced some level of food insecurity in 2021, and only three of the 49 full-service grocery stores in DC are located in Wards 7 and 8. Despite DC residents being some of the most politically engaged in the nation, “working to make the world fairer, better, safer, cleaner,” Williams continued, “(we) also (fight) to retain our ability to sustain and transmit our advantages to our kids.”

“As we continue to emerge from the pandemic, we’re focused on renewal,” Diana Schenck shared with us of Artivate’s direction, “reestablishing long-held partnerships and discovering new connections that allow us to continue (our) reach, while making it even more accessible for everyone to learn from, enjoy, and be inspired by the arts.”

This priority — of ensuring that opportunities for creative expression and collaboration are accessible for everyone — is reflected in the work of fellow nonprofit partner, Young Playwrights’ Theater (YPT). “In YPT’s arts education programs,” Brigitte Winter, their Executive Director, told the Catalogue, “we invite our students, whose voices are too often minimized, to take up space, to create and express themselves with abandon, and to know that adults will affirm their ideas, stories, dreams.”

Not only does YPT believe that no person is an island, but they also acknowledge that truly collaborative expression simultaneously requires a respect for people’s autonomy and are therefore committed to both anti-oppressive communication and reducing the harm of oppression through their organizational structure.

From writing individual stories to creating plays as a group to performing original arts activism pieces, students in YPT programs participate in unique experiences that are tailored for the specific needs of each YPT community. Though no two programs look alike, underlying them all is a singular, unifying belief that Winter shared with us: “We hope for a day when every young person in our city knows their brilliance, and that brilliance shines across Washington, DC, and beyond.”

In our last article on redefining citizenship, we mentioned the abundance of love and care that fuel many of our nonprofit partners’ work and inclusive approach to community. We are inspired by YPT, who practices their vision of “an abundance of safety, creativity, and joy for the young people in our community” every day. Our experience of this region we call home — through the work of nonprofits like YPT — is that there is no shortage of love, joy, and energy.

Shepherd’s Table, who addresses food insecurity and homelessness, serving individuals from all walks of life, is another example of this mindset. “No one should have to go hungry or without shelter in a city of such rich abundance,” Holly Harris, their Communications Associate, told us. “Because there are enough resources to meet every need when we live in community with one another, we are working to create a table long enough to make room for every neighbor.”

From providing daily hot nutritious meals and to-go dinners to offering a resource center, clothes closet, and eye clinic, Shepherd’s Table envisions a DMV where lives are transformed with nourishment, empowerment, and care. In its 38-year history, and even through economic hardships and the challenges of the pandemic, they have never missed a single day of meal service.

That alone encapsulates the principle that “How we think ripples out to how we behave.” Here, we want to return to Robin Wall Kimmerer’s essay on abundance and the gift economy, in which she continues to elaborate:

“If we view these berries, or that coal or forest, as an object, as property, it can be exploited as a commodity in a market economy. We know the consequences of that. Why then have we permitted the dominance of economic systems that commoditize everything? That create scarcity instead of abundance, that promote accumulation rather than sharing?”

Healthy Places, Healthy People

“Our hydroponic tower has been exploding with arugula, kale and herbs and is just starting to have cucumbers and tomatoes ready to harvest,” Common Good City Farm wrote in a blog post this month, accompanied by gorgeous photos of greens and ripe strawberries.

In the Ledroit Park community where the half-acre urban farm is located, one-third of residents live in poverty and nearly one in ten has diabetes. Their aim is to increase food access and nutrition education, and to build community around the farm space, especially for their neighbors who may have less access to those things. “We hold a weekly seasonal produce market — using a pay-what-you-can model — where we offer what we grow as well as bring in food from other farms to make sure our customers have a variety of fruits and vegetables to choose from,” Emily Richardson, their Youth Programs Director, wrote on DC Action. “Our goal is always to positively influence nutrition for everyone in our community.”

This echoes a belief that anchors the Inclusive Healthy Places Framework developed by Gehl and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which guided DC Greens‘ process for creating The Well at Oxon Run, a new urban farm and wellness space in ward 8: “Every neighborhood should provide people what they need to live a healthy life.“

At the Catalogue, we agree that place truly does shape health. We’ve witnessed how structural racism and long-term disinvestments are disproportionately concentrated in communities of color. A case study on The Well states that “While Oxon Run Park is the largest in the District’s park inventory and a major public health asset, Ward 8 has some of the highest health disparities in the District — a product of decades of disinvestment, rooted in structural racism.”

With the opening of The Well, an incredible example of resident-led design, DC Greens has “built a channel for resources to flow into this community… so that neighbors have what they need to define and create wellness on their own terms,” be it a pick-your-own flower garden, an orchard with chickens, or a community gathering space for theater and dance performances, elders and youth. As Absalom Jordan, Chair of the Friends of Oxon Run, said, “I have this in my heart — this idea of preserving and connecting with the land.”

This city is a beautiful place. All of the nonprofit partners we’ve highlighted here, and so many more, are working to — in the words of Omar Hakeem, local artist and architect who created an installation for FoKAG — “transform the legacy of ‘you’re not welcome here’ into ‘all are welcomed here’” so that everyone is free to “play, wonder and dream.” In a time with multiple crises that require our collective attention and action to address, we both need and have hope that we can shift from scarcity to abundance, and from accumulation to sharing.

The What, Why, & How for the DC Budget

Last month, the Catalogue for Philanthropy convened four of our nonprofit partners — the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, Jews United for Justice, the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, and Black Swan Academy — to share about the advocacy work they do around the DC budget, why such advocacy is important for residents to engage in, and where people who are unfamiliar with the budget can get started. This virtual panel was moderated by David Meni, Acting Chief of Staff for Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau, and illuminated much of the city budgeting process and how the budget concretely impacts our lives from year-to-year.

“You maybe only hear about the budget when it’s being formulated or when it’s before the Council,” David observed in his introduction to the event. “But budget season is basically year-round. There’s always something to do on it.“

Though the 2022-23 fiscal year budget was passed in June, not only does budget advocacy transition into other important advocacy as our partners demonstrated with the examples they gave, but the work of setting Councilmembers’ budget priorities also tends to start earlier than most people think. As David mentioned at the end of the panel, “getting your particular issue on a Councilmember’s priority list is something that can happen at any time or happen early and often.”

With this in mind, the Catalogue aims to summarize some of our biggest takeaways from the event about how to contextualize our city’s budget, why exactly advocacy is so important, what each of our nonprofit partners are advocating around and, finally, what you can start to pay attention to for next year’s budget.

Please note that panelist quotes have been edited and condensed for clarity. Visit this link to watch the full event.

Putting the Process into Perspective

“At the federal level, you see the President send down the budget and Congress rips it apart. It looks completely different by the end but it’s a much longer, much more resourced process,” Amber Harding, Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, explained. “In DC, the Mayor puts something out and the Council doesn’t have that much time to work on it. They don’t have the same kind of committee structures and staffing that Congress has to fix it. So, often, even though it’s supposed to be the Council’s budget, the Council has a real hard time (making) major changes to the Mayor’s budget.”

DC is a city where many residents are politically engaged on a national level. While this is important and necessary, we also believe that staying updated on local news and getting involved in local politics is crucial to both understanding the place where we live and making it a better place to live.

“Budget advocacy is extremely important for anyone who’s doing policy work or community work, knowing that the decisions that are made impact our day-to-day experiences, particularly when we’re talking about marginalized populations,” Samantha Davis, Founder and Executive Director of Black Swan Academy, noted. “The budget has a huge role to play in terms of what resources are trickling down to us.“

In addition to being a document that reflects the values of elected officials in its choices, the budget is also the biggest piece of legislation the City Council passes. “What’s the city focusing on? Is it spending more money on police or on affordable housing? Are developers getting giant tax breaks — the same developers who are contributing money to elected officials?” Amber asked. “It’s probably the most impactful thing the city does every year because the budget is a demonstration of the priorities of elected leaders… It’s insight into how the city is run and (whether) the people you vote for are doing what they said they’d do when you elected them.”

Though the budget process is complex and can be difficult to understand, our panelists helped to demystify some of the ways in which the DC government operates. For instance, if bills have a fiscal impact, even if they are passed and signed by the Mayor, they still need to be funded in the subsequent budget. “You can’t find the money within passing a bill,” David mentioned. “If you don’t get legislation funded within something like three years, it basically lapses and gets repealed.”

This makes advocating for changes within the budget even more critical, since funding a bill is the way to make sure it’s implemented. “When we’re talking about creating these new systems, addressing various disparities that we might be experiencing, we can’t have really effective policy and legislation without having the dollars to support it, and vice versa,” Samantha said. “Engaging in budget advocacy alone is also something that I critique often, because we can’t continue to pour money into failing systems, so it does work hand-in-hand.”

What Does a Victory Look Like?

One example of how budget advocacy transitions into year-round advocacy is in the Legal Clinic’s fight to end homelessness. “The budget is very clear — when you fund permanent housing vouchers for people who are homeless, you are ending that person’s homelessness permanently,” Amber emphasized.

This year, they ran a campaign to reform rapid rehousing, a time-limited housing program in the city that nearly everyone who goes into an emergency shelter is placed into. While the time limit was extended during the pandemic, the Mayor instructed the agency to start terminating families in the program once the public health emergency ended, resulting in hundreds of families who are going to be evicted because only 3% of them can afford rent when their subsidies are terminated. 97% of these families are Black and most are extremely low-income. Many of them end up being displaced entirely from the city because they can’t find places that they can afford to rent.

Through the budget, the Legal Clinic was able to get 400 slots of housing for families to transition from rapid rehousing into a permanent program. The Council also recently introduced permanent legislation to stop the time limits and make it a program that transitions people into housing that meets their needs instead of dropping them off a cliff. However, even if this legislation is passed, it must still be funded. “So, next year, when we’re talking about the budget, we’ll be talking about how the only way to end that cliff is to fund the bill,” Amber said. “We continue to do the work to solve the bigger problems.”

Similarly, Jews United for Justice advocates around the budget with a multi-year plan in mind. “The big goal is making childcare more affordable and possible, particularly for families with lower incomes,” Sarah Novick, DC Director at Jews United for Justice, shared. “We know that’s not going to be possible until we are making sure that early childhood educators are getting enough money to sustain their families and lives, (so that we can) create a childcare system that will be able to accept more children into it.

Jews United for Justice partners with the Under 3 DC campaign and works to implement the Birth-to-Three law, a robust and far-reaching law made up of many programs to support families with young children ages 0-3 around health supports, behavioral health supports, education, and childcare. “It’ll cost hundreds of millions of dollars when it’s fully funded,” Sarah continued, “and we’re inching our way there. Every year, our advocacy to get it funded is very important… Even the small asks are important.”

A big part of their advocacy work is rooted in organizing with coalitions. “We work together to craft what our yearly campaign goals are, what we think is possible to win from year-to-year, what an ambitious win would be, and (we) make those calculated decisions as we go along,” Sarah elaborated. For them, this advocacy looks like making asks of Councilmembers, getting Councilmembers and staff to work together to find the funds, mobilizing their base to make calls and testify at hearings — all of which help to ensure that elected officials know that many people are making these requests, which emphasizes how badly the requests are needed.

“We wanted full implementation of Birth-to-Three to happen within ten years,” Sarah said. “We’re a handful of years in and, unfortunately, it hasn’t been fully funded every year.”

Especially when it comes to programs that have a big price tag, like the Birth-to-Three law or the Vision Zero plan that the Washington Area Bicyclist Association is driving toward, finding funding sources to implement these programs on a smaller scale is often challenging, let alone funding them on the larger level of systemic change, which many residents know is needed.

“(We actually want) to phase out traffic fines because we want to fix the roads, we want to change the infrastructure,” Jeremiah Lowery, Advocacy Director at the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, stressed when elaborating on the omnibus bill they’re pushing that will move DC closer to achieving its Vision Zero goals around transportation safety. Though they didn’t get funding for this bill the year before, in this last budget cycle, they were able to secure a funding source — getting dollars from new traffic cameras to fund the bill, as well as moving future dollars into bike repair and bus projects.

“That’s significant because, oftentimes, money from these traffic cameras usually go to the general funds,” Jeremiah explained, “and they’re not actually going to sustainable solutions that lead to preventing traffic deaths. Now… funding from (traffic cameras) will be used to prevent traffic fatalities and deaths, and will be used to fix roads, which is the purpose.”

Part of the complexity around securing funding is, as Amber mentioned, because “the Council, as a whole, is not great in coming together and saying, “here are our top priorities as a Council.” One of the biggest flaws in the way that this city budgets lies in the committee structure, where Councilmembers serve on certain issue-area committees that can surface competing priorities, including ward-level priorities. “We try to be very careful. What do you tell human services to cut when you’re asking them to increase a program?” Amber asked. This is why coalitions can be powerful when engaging in advocacy. The Fair Budget Coalition, for example, which the Legal Clinic, Jews United for Justice, and the Washington Area Bicyclist Association are members of, “came together to say, “you can’t cut housing to fund healthcare.”

Black Swan Academy has also found some leverage within the current structure. “We do push Councilmembers and staff to talk to each other and to other committees, and (we) leverage that and say, this is the connection between police-free schools and mental health. Don’t you care about mental health?” Samantha explained. Analyzing members of each committee and what other committees these Councilmembers also sit on is an important aspect of their advocacy.

For Black Swan Academy, whose work is primarily guided by their Black Youth Agenda, a win can look like making sure the voices of young Black people are part of the conversation. When they supported larger efforts around the rapid rehousing crisis, which was one of the issues named by young folk on this year’s agenda, they signed onto letters, testified, and shared stories to show how young Black people in the community are impacted when families are terminated out of their housing after their rapid rehousing lapses.

On a multi-year level, Black Swan Academy has been fighting for police-free schools — removing armed police officers from school buildings and investing in resources and people who would create care-based, healthy, and equitable learning environments. In 2020, they were able to reduce a $23 million contract held by the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and move it to DC Public Schools (DCPS) so that instead of having MPD be in control of the training and hiring of security officers, it would be guided by people with backgrounds in education and who are working with school faculty. DCPS was also able to create a pilot initiative where schools should shift from hiring security officers to hiring restorative justice practitioners, additional mental health clinicians, and community members to do safe passage.

This year, however, the Mayor dedicated a lot of resources in her portion of the budget to cancel a planned phase-out of school police officers in the next five years, which the Council had previously passed. “We spent the past year organizing, again, to get the Committee (on the Judiciary and Public Safety) to say that we are actually committed to this phase-out and want to make sure the budget reflects it,” Samantha continued. The Council did vote again, recommitting to having fewer police officers in schools and investing in alternatives to policing in schools. “All the investments around school-based mental health, violence interruption, and safe passage (are) happening within the budget process.”

So, You Want to Advocate Around the Budget

“If it were easy, if everyone agreed, we wouldn’t have to do advocacy on it,” Amber said. “We’re doing advocacy because people aren’t automatically or naturally prioritizing the needs or wants of the groups we’re advocating for, and that’s why we’re down there.”

Having shared more context around the city budget, our panelists then gave some advice on getting started.

1. First, decide on the issue area(s) you’re most interested in to help narrow your focus.

When budget season rolls around, there are so many ways you can engage with it that the best place to start is by focusing on the issue area(s) you’re most interested in to avoid getting overwhelmed. “Look for those flashpoints,” Amber said. Because the budget is where the Council can step in to do some checks and balances, those flashpoints “are the places where you’re actually going to lift up where those conversations are happening, (and) where there are differences in opinion.”

From there, Jeremiah recommends building relationships with committee chairs for the areas you’re working on, which the Washington Area Bicyclist Association has found more success with. Samantha and Sarah also suggest attending both agency and budget oversight hearings.

“(The) agency oversight hearing process is useful for folks who are not connected to an organization as (they provide) an opportunity for anyone to come and talk about their own personal experiences with the agency,” Sarah mentioned. Doing so provides data for Councilmembers to later go back to the agency and ask follow-up questions, which will lead to conversations about how much money each of these agencies should have in the budget.

These hearings are then followed by budget oversight hearings, where directors of agencies present the budget, as well as give people time to testify and the Council to ask questions. “Most of the agencies have their own hearings or forums that are open to folks,” Samantha said, “and I’ve found those to be more helpful.”

2. Do your research outside of the Mayor’s resources.

Though the Mayor’s budget forum is often advertised, David explained that “it might be a good way of understanding the different components of the DC government, but not a great way of understanding what’s actually in the budget.”

Similarly, Amber recommended approaching the Mayor’s Powerpoint with care. “It’s often high-level, but sometimes pretty misleading,” she chimed in. “There’s federal money in there that was pre-existing or other things that don’t have anything to do with what she devoted this year (with) very little context.”

Sarah and Jeremiah advised signing up for the DC Council website’s newsletter, as well as individual Councilmember newsletters, especially for members who are chairing committees on the issue area(s) you care about. Staying updated on local news, such as through the Washington City Paper’s daily news digest, is also helpful.

The DC Fiscal Policy Institute shares a trove of resources about the budget, such as ‘A Resident’s Guide to the DC Budget‘ and their recent reflection on ‘What’s In the Fiscal Year 2023 Budget?‘ Be on the lookout, too, for events like budget briefings with agencies or agency heads that the community can attend and ask questions at.

Another great resource is to follow the organizations or coalitions doing advocacy in the issue area(s) you care about, such as these four nonprofit partners who spoke on our panel or the 400+ other local nonprofits in our network.

3. Don’t be afraid to talk to Council staff.

“You don’t need to go directly to members, especially around budget time,” David suggested. “Staff in the committees are the ones keeping track of moment-to-moment changes, (so) don’t be intimidated about talking to staff.”

Ask questions of the staffers on the committees relevant to your issue area(s). Most importantly, make sure that your ask is stated in more than one Councilmember’s priorities.

4. Sharing your story is important.

A common misperception around budget advocacy is that it is necessary to understand all the jargon and details in the budget. While being familiar with them can be helpful, as David shared, “it’s more about tone-setting.” When testifying — as all of our panelists have organized significant groups of people to do — people will show up and speak to the same theme about why they think ‘x’ is an important priority and why the Council should pull money from ‘y’ to fund this. “(Say) things in simple terms and put the onus on the committee to see how important that is,” David continued, “and then paid advocates and experts can follow up on the details of that work.”

In this vein, remember that you don’t have to be an expert! As Samantha added in the chat during the event, “We are not experts on the budget and that is okay. You don’t have to be and many are not.” Echoing this, Amber said, “I’ve been doing this work for 20 years and I still… have to ask a bunch of people, is this actually what this means?” Given that the budget is not a transparent document, it is absolutely okay to ask those follow-up questions.

Our Partners

The Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless uses the law to bring justice to low-income, homeless, and people experiencing poverty in DC through direct legal services, community education, and policy and advocacy around housing, homelessness, and civil rights. You can learn more about their budget work this year through this article.

Jews United for Justice educates and mobilizes local Jewish communities and allies to take action on issue campaigns that pursue and promote social, racial, and economic justice. You can read their reflections on this year’s budget campaign at this article and learn more about their work in Montgomery County, Baltimore, and statewide in Maryland.

The Washington Area Bicyclist Association provides youth and adult education and conducts advocacy to expand the region’s trail network with the Capital Trails Coalition, complete a protective bike network around the region, prevent traffic deaths and fatalities through Vision Zero, as well as expand access to buses and multi-modal transportation options in areas that don’t usually have access.

Black Swan Academy supports Black youth in middle and high school in being social catalysts in their communities and creating the change that they know is needed. They meet the immediate needs of young folks through capacity-building and mutual aid, and organize through the Black Youth Agenda for police-free schools, and more mental health support, among other youth-driven issues.

Washington English Center: Building, Celebrating, & Empowering Community

For nearly three decades, Washington English Center (WEC) has provided affordable English-language instruction and workforce programs to adult immigrants using volunteers. From English-language classes to citizenship preparation to digital literacy training, they work with hundreds of volunteers each term to deliver their various support programs to thousands of immigrants from over 70 countries.

Since introducing online classes during the pandemic, WEC has been able to welcome even more volunteers and students from all over the world, in addition to helping students who live in the DC area but who may face barriers to attending in-person classes, such as access to transportation or childcare. This summer, the Catalogue for Philanthropy got a chance to speak with their Associate Director of Volunteers, Yaritza Abrego, and their Director of Development, Phillip Carlisle, about how WEC truly builds, celebrates, and empowers its community.

Catalogue: How would you define and describe the WEC community?

Phillip: Our community is resilient and warm. Resilient in that our students have come from around the world — because of economic reasons, changing climate, or political strife — yet they come to WEC wanting to learn more and improve the way they read, write, listen to, and speak English. Some of our students are in their early 20s, looking to go to college in the United States or find a fulfilling job and community among their peers; other students are grandparents who have lived in the United States for decades and raised their children here, but now they are looking to read to their grandchildren in English.

Along with students from so many backgrounds comes warmth. Our students know what it’s like to be a stranger in a new country and what it takes to acquire English, gradually, through practice and memorization. No matter the proficiency level, it’s not easy and takes time. That’s part of why they are so interested in supporting one another through the process — with a number of our past students returning to volunteer and to give back.

Yaritza: The WEC community is a melting pot of different cultures, languages, experiences, and ages but all with the same goal, which is to be able to connect and communicate with others.

Catalogue: Who in your community are you inspired by and why?

Yaritza: I am inspired by both our students and volunteers. I think it is inspirational to see our volunteers give so much of their time and effort to our students. Many of them are brand new to teaching so, in a sense, it is a true act of courage. Many, if not all, of our students display courage — coming to a new country and not knowing the language is challenging and scary. Many of our students have faced hardships back in their home countries and yet, here they are, showing up day after day to learn a new language and acclimate to their new home.

Phillip: For me, it’s helpful and humbling to remember that these are adults — many are parents — with busy social schedules and demanding jobs. No one has made them attend class, but they choose to become students. They make time in their schedules and apply themselves to the classwork. For some, that means becoming students again for the first time in fifty years. For others, it means giving up their evenings (almost ninety hours of class a term!) to improve the way they read, write, and speak English. How amazing is that?

Catalogue: How does WEC empower its volunteers and students?

Phillip: Every year, 740 individuals volunteer with WEC to teach group classes, to tutor students one-on-one, to host clubs, and so much more. Those volunteers spend hours preparing to teach, and teaching, because of the folks we serve. In total, over 1,250 immigrants and refugees from 70 countries come through our doors or join us via Zoom to improve their understanding of the English language. These students are eager to learn and we are ready to meet them wherever they are.

Yaritza: Our Academic Programs team empowers volunteers by creating opportunities to show appreciation to them. Each term, we have an online volunteer appreciation event where we show videos that we have compiled of students thanking our volunteers for their time. During the event, we give out awards to volunteers who went above and beyond.

We also give out prizes and cards to all our volunteers at the end of their volunteer service, and we have online and in-person volunteer socials. Additionally, we provide training and continuous professional development opportunities that help volunteers gain confidence and enhance their teaching skills in the classroom.

For students, we put together our online graduation event where we celebrate our students’ achievements throughout the term. During the event, we display student certificates and recognize students who had perfect attendance. Everyone in the WEC community is welcome to attend — and if you’re reading this, you’re a part of our community. We have also recently encouraged advanced students to become teachers and serve as role models themselves!

Catalogue: What about your work with WEC brings you joy? And what about it brings joy for others?

Phillip: Our students bring me joy. When a student is grappling with a phrase or pauses to think of the exact right way to express themselves in English, there’s this pride that shines through once they’ve conquered the phrase and with it comes joy. I think any of our teachers could tell you, there’s something really wonderful about a student who shows up, wants to learn, and is determined to get the most from their class. And WEC is filled with those students.

Yaritza: I think the best part about WEC is seeing our students succeed and gain confidence in their speaking and writing abilities. I also love to walk through our hallways and see students interacting and building friendships with one another.

Something I am never asked is why I choose to work at WEC. In a way, I am relieved because it is very personal to me and stirs a lot of emotions. My mother and father both immigrated to the US from Central America and left everything behind. In the ’70s and ’80s, there were little to any resources available to immigrants. I saw firsthand how difficult it was for the two of them to communicate with others, which led to many different challenges, from finding jobs to housing to healthcare to schools, etc. A lot of the burden fell on me to be a translator for them, which I know, even today, a lot of first- and second-generation children face to help the family.

I think organizations like WEC help alleviate a lot of that and empower immigrant families and parents to learn English and ultimately advocate for themselves. In a nutshell, working at WEC is a way to honor my parents and others like them. My work has also given me the opportunity to honor my own experience as the daughter of immigrants.

Interested in becoming a volunteer with the Washington English Center? Visit their website to learn more, or sign up to receive their newsletter and stay up-to-date on their volunteer opportunities, upcoming teaching workshops, and social events!

Redefining Citizenship

Amid the Jan. 6 hearings, in light of the Supreme Court’s highly consequential decisions, and as the country reaches a record-low level of extreme national pride, there have been increasing calls to reexamine the true meaning of patriotism and being American. In last month’s Vox issue of the Highlight, Sean Collins reflected that Juneteenth, which falls exactly half a month before Independence Day, “is a holiday commemorating America as it is” while “July Fourth celebrates the country America pretends to be.”

On the heels of Independence Day, we invite you to consider what the truth of the American promise has meant for the myriad communities who live on this land and the possibilities of interdependence we can discover and realize — the threads of coexistence that many among us and before us have already weaved into their understanding of “citizenship,” as well as our intertwined ideas of rights and responsibilities that we want to practice now and into the future.

“(Patriots) combine a loving devotion to America with a demand for justice,” Robert Reich affirmed in the Guardian. As we define and redefine citizenship in America, we are guided by the love and justice fueling the work of our nonprofit partners who have been steadily moving our national narrative from one rooted in fear to one rooted in abundance.

By sharing their words and impact, the Catalogue hopes to articulate their work within the larger context of who we choose to include in our visions for this country and how we want to do so. We welcome your thoughts, experiences, and stories in this ongoing project.

From Othering to Love and Abundance

“Language that defines immigrants as “others” frequently dominates public discourse around immigration and immigrants,” Tara Magner and Marisa Gerstein Pineau wrote in the Stanford Social Innovation Review in 2018. “In fact, framing immigrants as “others” has infiltrated the US national dialogue and seeped into the country’s collective consciousness, so much so that even progressive politicians often use it without realizing its toxic effects.”

From phrases like bringing immigrants “out of the shadows” to framing some immigrants as more “worthy” of support than others, much of the widespread narrative around who exists within the definition of “American” excludes immigrant communities. The consequence of such rhetoric is, as Define American elaborates in a recent report, “the systematic and sustained dehumanization of immigrants and people of color.” When it is no longer surprising or shocking that anti-immigration rhetoric is used by white nationalists to “promote isolationism” and then justified “as a form of self-defense,” we see how critical it is to deeply challenge the notion and weaponization of “foreign-ness” against immigrants and non-white people.

It is this rhetoric that local nonprofits like One Journey are committed to shifting — from the fear-based message of “refugees and immigrants (as) a cost or even a threat to our society” to a narrative that “(connects) people through the shared languages of humanity.” Vanda Berninger and Wendy Chan founded One Journey to celebrate the “vast contributions of immigrant communities,” economically, culturally, and beyond. Through their flagship festival, educational events, coalition and community building, and joyous emphasis on our common languages of music, dance, art, storytelling, technology, food, and more, they are harnessing the power of narrative change to build a more welcoming world.

This past June, The New York Times reflected on ten years of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) by inviting Dreamers to share what makes them American. In the article’s introduction, Isvett Verde wrote that “Lost in the conversation around who should and shouldn’t have the right to stay in the United States is the toll living with perpetual uncertainty exacts on a life — and the ripple effects it has on families.” This echoes what Ayuda and their immigration legal program team has experienced: “Whenever there is a window for immigrants to obtain stable status, it is never certain how long that window will remain open.”

It isn’t just that Dreamers and immigrants make vital contributions to our communities. As Esder Chong shares in The New York Times, “What we all really want is a guarantee that we can stay in the country and live a good life, one that includes access to health care, education, employment opportunities and a driver’s license, and the ability to travel to see our family abroad.” These are opportunities that have historically been precarious or inaccessible for Black and Indigenous communities in America, and other communities of color, and that we collectively continue to fight for. Not only is a better world possible when it is better for us all, but a better world is also made possible by the plurality of our experiences. It is through cultural, linguistic, and experiential diversity and visibility that we thrive.

And it is with solidarity that we materialize this world in ours. In the words of our nonprofit partners:

“To build the truly liberatory economic and political system that working class Washingtonians deserve,” Yannik Omictin, former Economic Justice Program Coordinator at Many Languages One Voice, wrote in a blog article, “we will need a strong coalition of Black native Washingtonians and Black and brown immigrants of all backgrounds — in addition to white accomplices.” Through “Know Your Rights” workshops and trainings, direct cash assistance for immigrant families, cultivating youth leadership, organizing an immigrant-led worker base for economic justice, and more, Many Languages One Voice builds power and mobilizes the community to prompt greater systemic change.

Recently, the Virginia General Assembly passed an amendment that would take the $5 million designated to help make higher education more affordable for undocumented and DACA students over the next two years and direct it to students at two of the state’s historically Black universities. “Funding for higher education should be a priority for all students who are in need,” the Dream Project declared in a statement they issued on this decision. “Rather than prioritizing funding for both underserved student groups, the decision pits the needs of one against another… Redirecting these funds creates a false narrative, implying that legislators had no option but to choose between immigrant students and Black students.”

What could it look like to operate from a mindset of abundance, not scarcity? We’ve learned how quickly grassroots operations like the Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network and our nonprofit partner CARECEN, among others, can mobilize the community to care for each other, as they have done and continue to do for migrants being bused from Texas and Arizona to DC these last three months. And it is through their power-building that we can invest in long-term solutions and truly move our city and country collectively beyond “othering” to loving.

What Rights, Whose Rights?

“When someone’s locked away for a long time, when they come back, they don’t have an identity,” Paula Thompson, Executive Director of Voices for a Second Chance, told Lauren Zehyoue on the Unbossed, Unbothered, and Unfiltered podcast last year. “And so, we’re helping people get their birth certificates so that they can get their identification, we help people with clothing, food, shelter, and getting them connected.”

Because most incarcerated DC residents are placed in federal custody and housed anywhere as close as Maryland or as far as California, re-entry for returning citizens — many of whom grew up in under-resourced communities — is particularly challenging. This is in addition to the central narrative we hold of expecting returning citizens to “(pay) their debt to society.” As noted on A Chance to Thrive’s website, “for many, they never stop paying — their history of incarceration prevents them from renting a home, getting a job, making friends, and living without stigma or harassment due to their record.”

In our last article examining safety, we explored the devastating impact a heavily punitive criminal legal system has on BIPOC communities. Dismantling structural racism through decarceration needs to be accompanied by adequate support for people’s re-entry into the community. Again, we return to the question of who is considered “American” and what rights we all want to be afforded as participants in this country — if we operate from a place of valuing interdependence, love, justice, and plurality, how could we recreate our systems to actually love and support formerly incarcerated individuals so that we ensure their health and happiness?

Here, we want to echo the words of another nonprofit partner, Open City Advocates, who supports youth sentenced in the juvenile system both during and after incarceration:

“Treat the young people in our juvenile justice system like you would your own. Believe in them. Care for them. Invest in them.” (Emphases ours)

“I get the idea (that) people coming home from prison can be scary, but none of us are scary,” Margaret, one of the three panelists featured in A Chance to Thrive’s event on the barriers facing returning citizens, shared during the conversation. “I want to be the best person I can to bring value to my neighborhood (and) to protect the children from not doing the things I did growing up.”

Citizenship as an Ongoing Practice

“Deeply listen to kids, their ideas, their concerns,” Amy Neugebauer, Founder of youth philanthropic organization The Giving Square, told Karen Leggett in the Washington Post, “because they will make us think and make us better people.”

Nationally and locally, our democracy currently faces a significant host of challenges, from declining faith in public institutions to the spread of misinformation to increasing polarization. “And yet,” Vernee Green, CEO of Mikva Challenge, asked, “which among them might not be helped by engaging the active and thoughtful civic participation of a wide array of our nation’s youth?”

What could America look like if we define citizenship as an ongoing practice, and if we commit to giving everyone full opportunities to participate in civic and political life? As it stands, “scholars have expressed growing concern about the ways in which our democracy fails tests of political equality,” Molly Andolina and Hilary Conklin wrote in a Mikva Challenge white paper. Alongside other growing gaps, “those with the greatest resources (participate) at rates much greater than those who have less access to key resources of “skills, money, and time”” — a disparity that both further marginalizes already under-resourced communities and, frankly, impoverishes our visions for what this country could be.

Imagine, instead, the vibrance of an actively engaged citizenry, where students ask questions of our political candidates as in Mikva Challenge’s youth-led mayoral candidates forum; where their visual storytelling talent is nurtured by organizations like Critical Exposure so that they have a platform to speak for themselves and take ownership over their narratives; where their advocacy solutions are given room and weight in spaces like the Washington Urban Debate League‘s programs; and, most importantly, where our empowerment of Black and Brown youth can reverberate and expand to include every American we don’t want to leave behind.

Finally, we take inspiration from the words of Lulit Shewan, a youth activist and board member of the Youth Activism Project, which holds as its core belief that “there is no minimum age for leadership.” In Shewan’s note to the youth, titled “Resistance is the Theme of Our Generation,” she shared:

“Investing in our communities — education reform, social work, mental health resources, safe spaces for LGBTQ+ youth, etc. — will be the improvement in our quality of life that will furthermore reduce crime and incarceration… Revolution requires resistance and resistance can’t occur if you’re unable to see the impact of actuating on a small scale. Your voice matters.”

A practice of love can feel small, but we have seen that it leads to the largest ripple effects in our society. As you redefine citizenship with us, the nonprofit partners we highlight here, and the many other local nonprofits we support, we hope you will engage in the long-term, scalable work of love and justice so that we can collaboratively materialize and celebrate a good life for all Americans.