YWCA NCA: Community Hub

Since 1905, the YWCA NCA has served low-income women with career training and support and other services. During the pandemic, there was a spike in food insecurity and we added a Food Pantry to better serve the needs of our neighbors. The patrons of the Pantry are predominantly low-income Spanish speakers.

Washington, DC has received more than 12,500 migrants since 2022, most were bused from border states. While some asylum seekers have moved on, many have elected to stay. This influx of Spanish speaking migrants has created a strain on social service agencies in DC. These newcomers are eager to build new lives in America, but they need more than groceries to be able to achieve their goals of employment and financial stability.

Since September we have created partnerships with a wide variety of social service agencies and health entities in DC. When patrons come for food, they can also get a free eye exam or a referral to a partner that provides free mammograms. While getting groceries they can get a flu or Covid shot. We added English Language Learning software to provide literacy skills. We also offer Financial Literacy Training, to help newcomers understand the banking system in the US. 

Career Education and Training is something we have done for more than 100 years and giving women the chance to improve their English, improve their finances and obtain career skills is critical to empowering them to achieve their goals for themselves and their families. By adding a variety of other services, all under one roof, we remove the barriers to access.

DC has many nonprofits who seek to improve the lives of the low-income residents, but access can be an issue. Our first Y Community Hub event focused on health and was a huge success with more than 300 people attending. Our peer organizations were thrilled with the outcome and the opportunity to offer vaccines and other critical health screenings.

YWCA NCA dismantles barriers faced by women and girls of color as they work to develop and sustain healthy lives. Our mission is to eliminate racism, empower women, and to promote peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all. Our bold goal is to ensure that women and girls of color in high-need communities across the National Capital Area have the resources and support necessary to achieve personal, educational, and professional success. Today we support 500 people annually across the District of Columbia, in all DC zip codes, with a majority of participants coming from the Columbia Heights and Shaw neighborhoods. Our clients are Indigenous and Persons of Color and participants generally earn an annual income equal to or less than 125% of the Federal Poverty Level ($32,750 for a family of four).

YWCA NCA uses a racial equity lens to guide decision-making, programs, and advocacy work. All programs are aligned with our goal to empower marginalized people and advance their well-being. Building out our Y Community Hub allows us to do more than feed people. The services provided at the Hub provides women with the skills they need to improve their lives and the lives of their families.

Monica Gray, our CEO, has led the YWCA NCA since 2017. She has significant experience in nonprofit management and education and managed multimillion dollar grants. Monica is a longtime resident of Washington, DC and in addition to her work at the YWCA NCA, also does volunteer community outreach for the homeless and food insecure residents of DC. She has strong community ties throughout the city and with the DC City Council.

Sarah Davila is the program manager. Sarah is from Venezuela who had to leave her country and build a new life in America. Sarah understands what it's like to be in a strange country and having to learn a new language. In her time in America, Sarah has driven communication and social media outreach for nonprofits and created a podcast to connect immigrant service organizations. She has deep connections to the Venezuelan expat community in Washington, DC and uses those ties to build services for new immigrants from all countries.

We work closely with the patrons of our Food Pantry and regularly survey them regarding offerings. We do toy distributions in December and backpack drives at the start of the school. As a result, we have a strong rapport with patrons and their families. They have a degree of comfort with us due to weekly visits for food distribution. Since we started the YWCA Community Hub, they’ve let us know what other services they would like to see. Top on those lists are dental services and access to immigration lawyers, something that we are working to provide.

Since the pandemic, we have offered a Food Pantry, which is open to all who wish to participate. However, it is only recently that we have attempted to provide wider support.

In late September we piloted our YWCA Community Hub around Hispanic Heritage Month. In addition to food distribution, we invited partner organizations to join us. The event was popular with more than 140 participants and four partner organizations attending. 

In October we held our first Women’s Health Fair, again in conjunction with food distribution. We had six partner organizations join us including Georgetown’s Cancer Center for free mammogram opportunities and Emerson Diversity Health Foundation for vaccine distribution.

In November we offered vision screenings and eye health exams, which was hugely popular and caught several serious, but treatable eye conditions during food distribution.

Our peer organizations wish to participate on a regular basis and our clients are asking if these events can occur each month. They are also asking for additional services such as legal aid. With support, we could hold monthly events, providing wraparound support including online language classes, career training and workshops, as well as continuing health and mental health support.

www.ywcanca.org 

www.youtube.com/@ywcancacommunityhub

DC is a city that has great needs but also offers a great many supports. However, for families in crisis, or who do not speak English or understand how to obtain services, getting support can be challenging. Having to travel across the city, while juggling childcare and work responsibilities can be daunting.

By offering the YWCA Community Hub, during regularly scheduled food distribution, we make it easier for families to connect with the services they need. By convening social services agencies such as Catholic Charities and SAMU along with health and mental health providers, women and their families can get support, while they collect groceries. We are also piloting online English language training, to further assist families. This is in addition to our regular career education offerings and financial literacy training classes. 

We believe that by offering a place for service providers to easily connect with clients, we build connections and are better able to provide wrap-around services for DC residents.

We have also created a dedicated WhatsApp channel for clients that allows us to reach them directly, to inform them of opportunities, whether it’s a chance to get a free mammogram or additional donated food that might help them better feed their families.

Our overall goal is to empower women to obtain the job skills and training they need in order to support their families and achieve their dreams.

To achieve that goal, we will help women master English. This will be measured within the online learning tools we use (Learning Upgrade and Voxy EnGen) where we can track progress through the various levels of coursework.

We also teach computer classes, where we measure mastery through coursework completion and online assessments.

We also offer certificate programs for home health aids, and we measure how many clients successfully complete the program and pass certification.

We offer numerous health screens, where we measure mammograms obtained, eye exams completed and other health referrals.

We also offer mental health support, where success is measured via pre and post coursework surveys of participants. 

We also offer Financial Literacy coursework, where we measure success by coursework completed, credit scores pulled, credit scores repaired and bank accounts opened.

We have 12 full time employees and 2 part time staff.

We have operated our Food Pantry for five years and have built strong relationships with our patrons. 

We started the YWCA NCA Community Hub in September of 2024.

The YWCA NCA’s mission is to eliminate racism and empower women and the makeup of our staff very much reflects our mission.

Thirteen of our fourteen staff members are women. 

Our C-suite is 100% African-American women. 

Nine of our staff members are African-American, two are Hispanic or Latino, two are white and one is multi-racial. 

Three staff members are fluent Spanish speakers, including our most recent hire. We are fully committed to hiring people of color and in particular, increasing the number of staff who speak Spanish to better serve our clients.

We are a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. We provide value to the population we serve through distributing food and providing a variety of services including mental health support, financial literacy training, career education training and computer classes. 

Through Y Community Hub, we can connect women and their families to health providers and provide online language classes.

Our clients are low-income and typically unemployed or underemployed. The services we provide are designed to provide wraparound support to help them overcome barriers and obtain employment so they can best support their families.

We have robust support from individuals, foundations, corporations and government grants. Funders include government support such as the Department of Health and Human Services, the District of Columbia's Department of Employment Services and the Office of the State Superintendent's Out of School Time Program. We have a loyal base of individual supporters as well as support from the George Preston Marshall Foundation, the Dimick Foundation, the Comcast NBCUniversal Foundation and Pepco.

Working with the Truist Foundation and MIT Solve would be a game changer for us. We’ve been serving women in the DC Metro area since 1905 and we have a strong reputation for offering quality programming in a supportive environment.

When we were founded, women didn’t even have the right to vote. Our founders had big dreams and a vision. They made it happen. Today, we see an impending crisis for immigrants in our community and a backsliding of women’s rights. We are determined to support women in achieving their goals for a better life.

We started our Y Community Hub to support vulnerable families. While the award would be incredibly valuable for us to fully staff and fund this effort, the chance to collaborate on scalability is exciting. We are part of a network of YWCAs throughout the US and the world. If we could better implement this program and get ongoing support for resources and thought partners, we could greatly improve the lives of the women and families we serve. We believe this model could be implemented at YWCAs across the country and in turn could help women throughout the US and the world.