Causes supported
The Humanitarian Inaugural Ball funds service to kids from Kenya to King Street
Space of Her Own (SOHO)
Your participation in the Humanitarian Inaugural Ball: Celebrating a new Era of Humanitarian Action and Service will help support "Space Of Her Own." Space of Her Own is an art-based program serving pre-teen girls, ages 10 to 12. The program offers participants yearlong mentoring through engagement in creative art activities and meaningful community service projects. Each volunteer mentor makes a one-year commitment to the program, which fosters long-term relationships.
Space of Her own was conceived in a partnership between the local Court Service Unit and the non-profit Art League. Research demonstrates that at-risk girls would be most successful in avoiding juvenile criminal activity and improving social skills and self-esteem, through engagement in long-term mentoring involving art activities.
Girls are matched with adult, volunteer female mentors, who work with them in weekly art classes as part of the yearlong program. Homework support, life skills, communication and anger-management classes are infused into every program day. The mentors are not professional artists. They and the girls learn artistic concepts and techniques throughout the course. Both mentor and youth work together to create expressive and attractive artwork for the girl's bedroom, which may include a "dream" chest, mirror, personalized chairs, lamps and wall hangings.
Each girl is then required to "pay it forward" by completing community service projects with her mentor. Artwork and a before-and-after renovation video are exhibited at a community reception.
The promise of gorgeous new bedrooms is the program’s hook, promoting near-perfect program attendance, which also attracts mentors. Because of the program’s non-threatening approach, mentors, program administrators, and seasonal volunteers are welcomed into the girl’s homes during renovations. This often results in connecting families to appropriate city services. The success of this program is not only the one-year commitment by mentor and youth, but also the three-year follow-up of activities and supportive services through the SOHO Sisterhood Club, which is available to graduates throughout their middle school years.
Alice Merrill from The Art League and Linda Odell from the City of Alexandria Court Service, are recipients of the 2005 Leadership Fairfax Community Partnership Award for the development of "Space of Her Own." The program has been awarded the 2004 United Way EurekaAward, by INOVA Health Services. SOHO has been featured in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, on WAMU 88.5 FM Metro Connection radio show, The Washington Post, and the recently published book, Healing the Inner City Child: Art Therapies for At-risk Youth. SOHO has been presented at various local, state and national conferences, which has prompted solicitations for support in replicating the program in other cities.
Alexandria's Youth Fund supports this program, along with the Otto Whalley Family Foundation and The Meltzer Group. Other contributors include: Alive! (Alexandrians InVolved Ecumenically), Bittersweet Catering, Bugsy’s Pizza Restaurant & Sports Bar, Duron Paint Company, Mattress Discounters, and many more who have contributed their time, materials, and financial support.
SOHO has a waiting list of interested girls and mentors. SOHO's goal is to establish a new funding source that will enable us to duplicate the program to reach youth on the currently under-served west end of Alexandria. Your involvement in this Inaugural Ball is the new funding source.
SISTER to SISTER
This newly developed initiative is developing garden projects for women living with HIV/AIDS in Swaziland and youth employment opportunities in Nairobi, Kenya.
VISION
Our Vision is to create a system of economic and social relationships between women of poverty infected by the HIV/AIDS virus and women with resources and access to economic and political influence. Women of all cultures and all classes deserve information and assistance for the purpose of enhancing and strengthening their quality of life through education, access to health and employment.
MISSION
The Mission of Sister to Sister is for women of resources to support nutritional, economic, medical, social and spiritual support to women in Africa who are living with HIV/AIDS.
GOALS
- Identify women in Africa who are currently taking ARVs and are in need of nutritional supplements to complement their treatment regime.
- Identify appropriate intermediaries that can acquire food kits and distribute them to support groups of women living with HIV/AIDS.
- Identify micro-finance and micro-insurance initiatives that will facilitate the development of income projects for support groups, developing youth employment initiatives in Nairobi, Kenya and mobilizing self-sustaining communities to support women living with HIV/AIDS.
- To establish communication links in the Sister to Sister initiative that build social and spiritual support for the participants.
- To create a web-based communications network between Sisters to better inform sponsors of the needs and issues facing Sisters in need.
- Provide technical and resource support for the development of support groups sustaining women living with HIV/AIDS.
ORGANIZERS
The Servant Forge, Strategic Applications International and the principals engaged in this initiative have extensive experience in developing systems to respond to health and safety issues in countries throughout the world. We have worked in 27 countries and helped mobilize citizens throughout the United States to respond to various youth substance abuse and mental health issues. The leadership of this initiative approaches this mission from the context and influence of our faith. Providing nutritional support, nutritional counseling, employment counseling and job training for women and their teenage children is the least we can do.
Your participation in this Humanitarian Inaugural Ball will make it possible for us to support three garden projects that provide employment and nutritional support for over 150 women and their children; build connections between an emerging business community in Nairobi, Kenya and the many homeless and jobless youth contributing to poverty and political unrest. Your support will help provide job training and jobs for young people.
