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2010 Annual Report
Special Thanks to our 2011 Mayor’s Annual Senior Holiday Celebration Partner Sponsor, AARP
We would like to thank our presenting sponsors of our 2011 Annual Awards & Fundraiser Event for their generous support of the community and Family Matters:
We appreciate your continued support!
Press & Media
Family-Oriented Artist to Host Benefit Show for Family Matters of Greater Washington
Sep 24, 2010
Founded in 1882, Family Matters of Greater Washington (FMGW), formerly Family and Child Services of Washington, D.C., Inc., was selected by local artist Carolyn Sewell as the family-oriented charity she would most like to support by hosting a public art exhibit/fundraiser.
After hearing about cutbacks in social service funding, Sewell decided to get active in an effort to close the gap by helping an area agency that focuses on families and children. Family Matters came recommended to her by a friend, so she reached out and received a warm welcome from the staff.
Her current work, entitled ‘Postcards to My Parents’, is a collection of illustrated postcards that she mailed to her parents— once each day— for a full year as a 38th anniversary present. All 365 mini-canvasses will be featured exclusively on September 30, 2010 from 6:30-9:30pm at The Fathom Gallery, 1333 14th Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20005. Proceeds will benefit Family Matters of Greater Washington’s Child Welfare Programs.
After graduating from Mississippi State University, Sewell moved to DC and worked for ad agencies for several years. After she started the award-winning blog Pedestrian Typography, she founded Carolyn Sewell Design. Her work has been published in HOW, GDUSA, CMYK, The Washington Post, Washingtonian Magazine and has received awards at the ADDYs, ADCMW Annual Show, LMA Awards and MAME Awards. When Carolyn isn’t designing, she’s teaching design coursework at American University.
Family Matters CEO, Tonya Smallwood said, “We are grateful to enjoy this recognition of our social workers’ hard work and our organization’s family-oriented solutions to today’s challenges. The reputation of our programs translated into an appreciation from someone whom we didn’t directly help, showing that the community support we’ve relied on for 128 years is alive and well despite the financial challenges that all service providers are facing. We thank Ms. Sewell for her generosity and her dedication to our mission to bring brighter futures for all ages. This is a testament to the value our programs provide to the area’s most needy and Ms. Sewell is a hero to them and us simply for doing her part to help.”
U.K.’s Social Services Chief Tours U.S. Seeking Ideas; D.C.’s ‘Family Matters’ Hand Picked t
Aug 06, 2010
Founded in 1882, Family Matters of Greater Washington (FMGW), formerly Family and Child Services of Washington, D.C., Inc., was chosen as one of the primary organizations in the Capitol Region to brief England’s Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Iain Duncan Smith, on the unique solutions provided for D.C.’s social service needs. He was joined by colleague Natalie Branoksy, Senior Advisor on Employment, Education, Poverty and Pensions for the British Embassy and his private secretary. Their tour included New York City charities as well.
FMGW’s C.E.O. Tonya Jackson-Smallwood hosted the group’s visit to 1509 16th Street NW and ensured her top program leaders were in attendance to share their success methods.
“We’re honored to have been called upon to provide our expertise to help another nation. We recognize how bleak the world seems for many people today and the challenges they face just to survive. Fortunately, England has Secretary Smith, and Washington, D.C. has Family Matters to shoulder some of those burdens and look for creative solutions. By sharing information and program concepts with each other, we can begin to bridge the gap between our citizen’s needs and limited funding for those needs.”
On Tuesday, August 3, 2010, a site tour and department leaders’ presentation was given to Secretary Smith and Ms. Branoksy about the 35,000 square foot facility and the numerous services provided for children, families, individual adults and senior citizens each with general to specific health and life needs.
Following a one-hour roundtable discussion, comparisons of the two country’s needs revealed that both are facing similar problems with economic cutbacks to programs that create a compounding negative effect on the demand for core social services such as child care, elder care, transportation, education and addictions. Each country’s approach to social services varied in their level of priority and treatments. As England’s poverty and unemployment level continue to rise, Secretary Smith noted the U.K.’s attention is beginning to shift focus more toward prevention to help stop the public dependency cycle from starting. The group agreed that each can incorporate parts from the other’s policies to improve their own.
FMGW’s RSVP and Senior Works programs attract hundreds of 55+ year-olds and keep them involved with community projects and volunteerism efforts. These programs yield healthier, happier people who live longer, more productive lives. England’s current focus is the social service needs of an aging-yet-healthy population that is living longer but mandated to retire often long before they’re ready to.
“England would do well to have more programs that follow these models. When seniors are less active or unhealthy, an added demand for services and subsidy appears. There’s quite a bit of debate on the subject of equalizing the retirement age between men and women to balance the fact that people today simply live longer and they run out of saved money at some point,” Smith explained, “The work you folks do here is excellent, especially with seniors. I’m very impressed and intend call upon your experts in the near future. This appears to me to be the beginning of a mutually beneficial partnership.”
A Grand Finish for 2010 Camp Moss Hollow Fund Drive
Aug 05, 2010
By John Kelly, The Washington Post
Thursday, August 5, 2010; B02
All envelopes opened. All checks deposited. All credit cards debited. All fingers crossed.
That’s how we’ve spent the past week at Send a Kid to Camp world headquarters as our annual fund drive for Camp Moss Hollow entered its final hours. Would we—and by “we” I mean “you”—be able, in this year of dispiriting economic news, to reach our goal of $500,000?
The answer, I’m delighted to say, is yes. When we uncrossed our fingers and pressed the equals sign on our calculator, the total was $551,654.93. That money goes to support the camping and youth development activities of Moss Hollow, the summer camp run by Family Matters of Greater Washington. When I gave the charity’s chief executive, Tonya Jackson Smallwood, the good news, she said: “I want to offer a personal thank you. Especially when times are hard and people are as generous as they were this year, it really inspires us to go on and do more for the people we seek to serve.”
Some special people helped us. They include an “angel” donor whose foundation promised to match reader contributions up to $100,000 during the final 10 days of the campaign. You responded wonderfully, donating even more than that. I’m so glad I didn’t have to say to the foundation, “Well, you only owe us $85,000.”
Hat’s off to Clyde’s. Once again the homegrown restaurant chain featured special menu items each week. If, over the past eight weeks, you stopped at Clyde’s or Old Ebbitt Grill on a Wednesday and ordered such treats as a BLT with local tomatoes or a slice of blackberry pie featuring Virginia berries, your appetite pushed us toward our goal. Clyde’s donated $20,136 to the cause.
This is the 13th year that residents of Marina Towers in Alexandria have supported the campaign. Recently, they passed the hat and also held a silent auction at which resident Dianne Eppler Adams donated proceeds from her book “Conscious Footsteps: Finding Spirit in Everyday Matters.” The total gift was $3,210.
Here are some other generous groups: DC-MD Small Business Owner Networking Meetup ($710), Association of the Oldest Inhabitants of Washington ($125), the Catalyst Foundation ($500), AR Landsman Foundation ($200), clients of Clinton’s “Tax Babe” ($3,425).
My thanks to the staff of Family Matters and the counselors at Moss Hollow. I’m also grateful to the families who spoke to me about their camp experiences. My Post colleague Gerri Marmer kept all the digits straight with her running tally of the donations.
And of course I thank you, the readers who donated. Here’s a letter I received from Carolyn Frasier of Burke along with her donation: “As a camper at ages 14-15, I remember the great times and congratulate you for bringing these same pleasures to needy kids. Here is my 2010 contribution. If you are short making your goal this year, I’ll send more.”
Many readers expressed similar sentiments, once again reminding me how caring our community can be.
Saying goodbye to ‘Mom’
The end of the campaign is tinged with sadness this year, for on Friday, Mary Wiggins passed away in a Washington hospice. She was 81. Known to campers and counselors as “Mom,” Mary Wiggins was the cook at Moss Hollow and had been for more than 35 years. She started out at Moss Hollow’s predecessor, Camp Goodwill in Triangle, Va., then spent summers at Moss Hollow starting in 1977. She was known for her hot buttered rolls, string beans and macaroni and cheese. Every time I visited camp, I asked the kids what they thought of the food. Pretty much all of them said they loved it. So did I.
Mom Wiggins filled a lot of empty stomachs. She filled a lot of hearts, too. She understood that food can assuage more than just a physical hunger. When kids had braces, she sliced their apples and ground up coconut so they wouldn’t get caught in the metalwork. When campers needed love, she took them into her kitchen. More than one Moss Hollow camper decided on a career in food service after watching Mom Wiggins at work.
Hope Asterilla, the head of the camp, said: “Ms. Wiggins has helped to shape the lives of thousands of children over the years with a firm but loving hand. She truly embodied the spirit of the Hollow in every sense of the word and in all that she did.”
The memory of Mom Wiggins lives on in the minds of the thousands of Washington area children who were fed by her hands and nourished by her soul.
Family Matters was a featured sponsor on DC50TV in Recognition of Black History Month
Mar 01, 2010
Click on the link below to see our new commercial featured on DC50TV during Black History Month.
Family Matters of Greater Washington Commercial from LaKish Cox on Vimeo.
Child Welfare League of America’s 90th Anniversary
Feb 08, 2010
In celebration of the Child Welfare League of America’s 90th anniversary in 2010, this video was played at the organization’s national conference in January. CWLA was established in 1920, with the help of 68 founding agencies, which includes Family Matters of Greater Washington, to bring together public and nonprofit child-serving organizations across the United States.
Watch the video to learn more and see one of our campers talk about her experience at Camp Moss Hollow!
Child Welfare League of America’s 90th Anniversary from CWLA Videos on Vimeo.
