A community of women supporting the women of our community
Giving Together Grant Awards
2023 Grant Awards - Mental Health
Safe Shores, Grassroots Health, BCAUSEICAN,
Sickle Cell Reproductive Health Education Directive (SC RED), Starting With Today
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$50,000 ($25,000 per year for two years) to Safe Shores, which provides survivor-centered intervention, hope and healing for children up to age 17 and their families, who have been affected by abuse, trauma, and violence in the District of Columbia. Safe Shores also works to prevent and end child abuse and neglect through promising practices, policies and partnerships. Safe Shores serves more than 1,500 children in an average year, and annually trains over 1,000 adults in how to recognize, respond to, and prevent abuse.
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$5000 to Grassroots Health, which promotes the mental, physical and sexual health of DC middle school students using a sports-based approach. They deliver a three-year series of games-based health promotion programs facilitated by trained NCAA college athlete volunteers. Grassroots Health was founded in 2009.
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$20,000 to BCAUSEICAN, which brings STEM education to underserved communities to help close socioeconomic gaps. Founded in 2015, BCAUSEICAN began offering coding classes to students at Shaw Community Center, and in 2020, expanded to provide coding classes to Title 1 schools in Prince Georges County. BCAUSEICAN’s flagship program, BCAUSEICANCODE, teaches coding in current IT languages and is offered as a 16- or 32-week after school or summer enrichment program. In addition to teaching languages like Java and Scratch, BCAUSEICAN has begun offering courses in newer technologies like Cloud Computing and AI. Recognizing that many parents and caregivers lack basic digital skills, BCAUSEICAN also offers Family Technology Workshops.
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$10,000 to Sickle Cell Reproductive Health Education Directive (SC RED), the only US organization to address the sexual, maternal health, and reproductive health needs of women and children with sickle cell disease (SCD). Girls and women with SCD need (but typically do not get) disease-specific information about menstruation, contraception, pregnancy and infertility. SC RED programs include education, support for individual and family members, raising awareness and advocacy.
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$10,000 to Starting With Today, a DC area-based non-profit that provides programs to promote Black wellbeing through wellness and mental health programs. Its signature program, The Shape Up, was launched in May 2018 as a recurring group therapy for men in Ward 7’s Lee’s Barber Shop, continued virtually during the pandemic, and now provides hybrid programming. A companion women’s program, #MyHairAppt, launched virtually in June 2020. #MyHairAppt is a place for Black women to explore, cultivate, and define wellness on their own terms both online and in the Black beauty shop.
2022 Grant Awards - Education
Access Youth, Concerned Citizens Network of Alexandria,
Foundation for the Advancement of Music and Education, LEEP to College Foundation,
and Urban Ed
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$50,000 over two years to Access Youth in the multi-year thematic category of Education. Located in Washington, DC Ward 8, Access Youth works to keep DC youth in school and out of the criminal justice system. Programs seek to reduce truancy and suspensions by addressing behavioral problems, teaching life skills and promoting restorative justice as an alternative to punishment. The grant is for general operating support.
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$15,000 to Urban Ed, a Washington, DC non-profit that provides technology-driven education, information and skills to low-income residents from early childhood through adulthood. Its STEMAcad program, for adults ages 18-35, offers certifications that enable students to move from minimum wage jobs into IT careers at higher pay with benefits.
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$10,000 to Concerned Citizens Network of Alexandria in Northern Virginia, a non-profit that supports middle school students through its Reach and Rise for Excellence (RARE) program, as well as programs for parent engagement, financial literacy, access to mental health services, and a community forum. The grant will be used to support the RARE program.
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$10,000 to LEEP to College Foundation in Prince George’s County, MD. LEEP provides underserved middle school and high school youth with consistent, high quality academic support and enrichment so they can graduate high school and enter college or post-secondary vocational programs. The grant will expand the number of students served by LEEP
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$5,000 to the Foundation for the Advancement of Music (FAME) in Prince George’s County, MD. FAME provides music education and educational support to middle and high school students. Offerings include the FAME jazz -band, a summer music program and its core offering, Music is Central, provided throughout the academic year. The grant will support math tutoring to close the skills gap caused by the pandemic.
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2021 Grant Awards - Shelter, and Black-Led Non-Profits
My Sister's Place, ScholarCHIPS, The Safe Sisters Circle, Young Doctors DC
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$25,000 to My Sister’s Place in the single-year thematic grant category of Housing and Homelessness. My Sister's Place is a DC-based non-profit serving families fleeing domestic violence by providing emergency shelter, transitional housing and a wide range of holistic supportive services, most of which are offered in-house. The grant is for general operating support.
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$33,000 in total grants to three non-profits in the new Accelerator Grants category. In 2021, at the recommendation of GT’s Racial Equity Working Group, GT established a new accelerator-grant program to strengthen and amplify the mission of promising small local non-profits led by African Americans and benefitting women and families in the local Black community. Three groups received unrestricted grants of $11,000 each to further their work:
ScholarCHIPS is a DC-area non-profit that provides scholarships and mentoring support to children of incarcerated or formerly incarcerated parents. The GT grant will enable them to launch a mental health support program for ScholarCHIPS scholars on such topics as Grief, Resilience, Having an Incarcerated Parent, Navigating College and Mental Health.
The Safe Sisters Circle is a DC-based non-profit providing culturally specific, trauma-informed, holistic services to Black female survivors of domestic violence and sexual abuse drawn primarily from Washington DC Wards 7 and 8. The GT grant will support general operating costs including rent, transportation for clients, and staff development.
Young Doctors DC is a DC-based organization founded by medical professionals to establish a pipeline to the medical and health professions for high school-aged African American boys residing in DC Wards 7 and 8. The program is anchored by a residential summer academy, a school-year academy, a service-learning component and college tours. The GT grant will be used to support student stipends and college tour expenses.
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In addition to these 2021 awardees, GT presented the second installment ($25,000) of a two-year, $50,000 grant to 2020 awardee Mercy Health Clinic.
2020 Grant Awards - Immigration and Refugees
Identity, Inc. and Mercy Health Clinic
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$25,000 to Identity, an organization serving primarily Latino youth and their families in high poverty areas of Montgomery County. Identity will use GT funds to build long-term capacity as a trauma-informed organization, developing and updating core social-emotional curricula to address trauma-related needs among immigrants and refugee women and girls; implementing new staff training and support protocols/practices; and providing ongoing professional development for client-facing staff.
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$50,000 over two years (2020-2022) to Mercy Health Clinic, an organization of largely volunteer doctors and nurses, that provides free health care to needy adults in Montgomery County. Our funding will enable Mercy to permanently expand their medical and counseling services to adolescents age 13-17 from low income and immigrant households and add more specialized services for clients age 18-22, vulnerable groups that currently lack access to most health care systems in the County.
These latest awards, including contributions through our Emergency Fund for Individuals and Families in Crises, bring to over $700,000 the total amount that Giving Together’s members have donated to worthy local non-profits serving needy women and families. We take pride in the knowledge that our pooled resources have helped to improve the lives of many low-income people in the Washington metropolitan area.
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2019 Grant Award - our 10th Anniversary
KaBOOM!/John H. Bayne Elementary School
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$75,000 to build a Multi-Sport Court at John H. Bayne Elementary School in Capitol Heights, Maryland. Giving Together is partnering with the Bayne community and KaBOOM! - the well known, national non-profit builder of more than 2000 play spaces across the United States. BUILD DAY for our recreation space at Bayne was October 26.
2018 Grant Awards - Senior Services
We Are Family and DC Volunteers Lawyers Project
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​​$25,000 to We Are Family, an organization dedicated to supporting isolated, low-income, primarily female seniors living in the North Capitol, Shaw, Columbia Heights, Petworth and Adams Morgan neighborhoods of Washington. Our grant will support the purchase of a cargo van to increase the efficiency of WAF’s food distribution program. This will allow them to increase their monthly grocery deliveries from 730 to 775 seniors; to increase monthly food shopping trips from 30 to 60 participants; to increase weekly farmers market deliveries from 200 to 250; and increase Thanksgiving baskets from 800 to 850.
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$50,000 two-year grant to DC Volunteer Lawyers Project, a network of volunteer lawyers serving low-income victims of domestic violence and at-risk children in Washington, DC. This is GT’s first multi-year grant. Our grant will enable DCVLP to strengthen its child advocacy program through TARGET: Teens At Risk, Growing, Engaging and Thriving. Toward that end, DCVLP will hire a new supervisory attorney to oversee volunteer lawyers representing teens involved in high-risk living situations; develop specialized training on the needs of these clients; create a new case management process; and establish partnerships with organizations that serve teens. The award will ensure intensive legal and other support to 40 low income teens over a two-year period.
2017 Grant Awards - Health
Aspire Counseling and the Healthy Babies Project
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$20,000 to Aspire Counseling, in Montgomery County, for their Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies program, which provides in-home therapy to low-income, uninsured and underinsured pregnant women and new mothers experiencing perinatal depression. Our grant will enable Aspire to serve an additional 30-42 women by expanding the hours of a part-time bilingual therapist currently on staff.
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$20,000 to the Healthy Babies Project, in Washington DC, which through its Home Visiting Project provides intensive, long-term pre- and post-natal support. The program helps needy young women deliver healthy babies, become effective parents, reduce repeat unplanned pregnancies and return to school or obtain living wage employment. Our funds will enable HBP to extend this valuable support to an additional 17 DC residents.​
2016 Grant Awards - Food and Nutrition
Nourish Now, Food for Others, and Crossroads Community Food Network
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$30,000 to Nourish Now, a Montgomery County, MD food recovery and redistribution nonprofit. (Our $25,000 GT grant was augmented by an additional $5,000 from anonymous GT donors.) Funds will be used to expand the reach and improve the effectiveness of Nourish Now's family food distribution program, with the number of families served monthly increasing from 500 to 700.
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$25,000 to Food for Others, a food bank/food pantry in Fairfax County, VA, to enhance the scope and nutritional value of its Power Pack Program, providing low-income elementary school students in 29 Fairfax County schools with a pack of food to take home over the weekend.
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$8,000 in additional funds to Crossroads Community Food Network, to purchase necessary equipment for its new community kitchen. This project is the first of its kind in the local area, to be used by low-income women seeking to build successful food businesses.
2015 Grant Awards - Workforce Development
Career Catchers, CASA de Maryland and Computer C.O.R.E.
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$20,000 to Career Catchers for helping at-risk young women who are 17-25 and aging out of the foster-care system. CC helps them develop employment skills.
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$20,000 to CASA de Maryland for their Workforce and Leadership Project, which provides 30 low-income immigrant women with training to pursue higher-paying careers in nontraditional fields, such as the construction trades.
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$10,000 to Computer C.O.R.E. to provide 10 of their female students with home computers and supplementary training in areas such as accounting/QuickBooks; communication, mentoring and leadership training, which should help them increase their career options and earning potential.
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2014 Grant Awards - Housing & Homelessness
Sasha Bruce Youthwork and Interfaith Works
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$20,000 to Interfaith Works (Montgomery County) to establish a "Giving Together Women's Fund" that provides education grants to 15-20 homeless women seeking a career path to financial independence.
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$20,000 to Sasha Bruce Youthwork (DC) to pay the salary of an after-care specialist for homeless and at-risk youth.
Additional membership dollars were split between the runners-up: National Center for Children and Families (MD and DC) and Stepping Stones Shelter (Montgomery County).
2013 Grant Awards - Education
George B. Thomas School and Urban Alliance
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$20,000 each to the George B. Thomas Saturday School and Urban Alliance to purchase computers and technical equipment for education and job-training programs. These organizations work with underserved youth, Urban Alliance in DC and George B. Thomas in Montgomery County.
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Additional membership dollars were split between the runners-up: New Community for Children and Project Create.
2012 Grant Awards - Legal Services
DC Volunteer Lawyers' Project
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​$25,000 to the DC Volunteer Lawyers' Project to hire a supervisory attorney to train volunteers representing low-income women in DC. Clients are generally victims of domestic violence who desperately need legal assistance.
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$25,000 to this DC women's day shelter to expand counseling services for homeless clients seeking to become independent and self-sufficient.
2010 Grant Award
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$20,000, augmented by $5,000 from an anonymous supporter, went to A Wider Circle in Silver Spring for an additional loading dock and meeting rooms. This enabled AWC to provide more services and donate more goods to families making the transition out of homelessness. New meeting space is used for parenting and financial management classes that help clients develop life skills.
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