Two part-time family support workers who are bilingual (one in Spanish, one in Amharic).

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1 The Northwest Center 2702 Ontario Road, NW, Washington, DC Pregnancy Center Maternity Home phone phone fax fax General Questions 1. Please submit a budget for your proposed project. Budget: Two part-time family support workers who are bilingual (one in Spanish, one in Amharic). One part-time staff person will be paid at payrate for $19/hour working 20 hours/week for 1 year. Total cost for one employee = $18,240. Two employees = $36,480 total for the year. $3,520 for training and overhead: This includes utilities, property maintenance, training and supervision of family support workers by Programs Director and Pregnancy Center Director. Total = $40, What is the amount of funds needed for subsequent years, and what are the sources of those funds? Receiving this grant would be the seed money to initiate these two positions. We would then go forward and find funding for subsequent years for the family support workers. The funds would come from donor support, future grants and income from special events. 3. How much are you requesting in support from Holy Trinity? $40, What will you do with the support from Holy Trinity? The Northwest Center serves low income, minority pregnant women, many of whom are immigrants and many whom are facing their pregnancies feeling alone, isolated and scared.

2 Many of these women think that they do not have the resources to continue their pregnancies. The Northwest Center provides emotional and material support as well as parenting education and SIDS prevention information for women. The Northwest Center also houses homeless pregnant women and children. The Northwest Center has experienced approximately a 20% an increase in the past year of families seeking services who speak limited or no English. The main increase has been in families who speak Spanish (from a variety of countries) and families who speak Amharic (from Ethiopia and Eritrea). In order to meet this need, we would hire two part-time family support workers who are bilingual (one in Spanish and one in Amharic). This would increase our capability to more comprehensively meet the needs of these populations. The family support workers would meet with women in the Step Up Program as well as provide free pregnancy tests and options counseling. The Northwest Center cares for the unborn and for the entire family by providing counseling, material assistance and housing. Currently, the demand for Step Up appointments is far greater than what we can provide. For example in February of this year, we served 101 families total which included 295 individuals helped (men, women and children). Of these, appointments 35 were in Spanish and roughly 30 were on a wait list for appointments in Spanish. In 2014, 42% of the families we served were Hispanic and 48% were African American. Of the African Americans served, approximately 40% were from Ethiopia and Eritrea. By way of comparison: In September, we served 18 Ethiopian and Eritrean families. In September 2013 we served 20 Ethiopian and Eritrean families. In September, 2014 we served 31 Ethiopian and Eritrean families. Despite exhaustive searches for Amharic speaking volunteers, only one was found and she was only able to volunteer for one month. In an average month, we serve between families. With the addition of the two family support workers, we could serve an additional 80 families per month. Women could access services of the Step Up Program in a timely manner, regardless of language spoken. With increased staffing, we would be able to provide for more families, in a language they understand, and provide them with the emotional and material resources to help decrease the financial stress of caring for a newborn, increase maternal well-being, and help women move to self-sufficiency. 5. Is support from Holy Trinity really necessary? What difference will it make?

3 Support from Holy Trinity would enable us to do something which we cannot do at the present moment, which is to serve more immigrant Hispanic and African women who are pregnant and parenting and do not speak English. Many immigrants already come to The Northwest Center and we rely on volunteers to serve our Spanish speaking population. While the number of Hispanic families has not increased but the number who speak English has decreased and the number of Spanish speaking volunteers has decreased. We recently hired, with the assistance of a small grant, a part-time family support worker who speaks Amharic. The grant only funds a total of 200 hours for the year. Funds from Holy Trinity would help us to expand the hours this staff person works, provide more culturally competent services while building our network of contact within the community whose services we could use to augment the grant source. It also would allow us to continue to provide the high quality of services we are known for in the community. 6. Who is the individual(s) at your organization responsible for this project? Please include their CV s and explanations of comparable project experience. Susan Gallucci, MSW, LICSW (resume attached), Programs and Maternity Home Director Susan Gallucci has worked at the agency for nine years and is the current director of programs. As director of a small agency (four full-time and two part-time employees), she has overseen hiring and training of new staff persons, volunteers and overseen the maintenance and upkeep of the building (The Northwest Center owns the townhouse out of which it operates). She directs the maternity home and oversees the pregnancy center program. She also has supervised several undergraduate and graduate level interns. Jenny Ginsberg, BSW, Pregnancy Center Director Jenny has been the pregnancy center director for two and a half years and has supervised more than 200 volunteers per year (some one time volunteers and some weekly or month) as well as the Jesuit Volunteer. As a social worker, she affords a high level of professionalism to the program. (Many pregnancy centers are run by volunteers or staff persons who do not have any mental health training or social service academic foundation). Lindsey Frechou, Jesuit Volunteer, Pregnancy Center Program Assistant The Jesuit Volunteer is able to serve a large number of families and her commitment to social justice and service is invaluable to our agency and our mission. 7. Please explain your provisions for the replacement of key individuals and the training of those people s successors. Key individuals would be continuing their current positions.

4 The Jesuit Volunteer ends her year of service in August each year and the new volunteer begins a few weeks later that same month. The orientation and training is completed by the Pregnancy Center Director. The Programs Director and Pregnancy Center Director provide the training of volunteers and new staff persons. 8. Please set forth and describe your milestones for the project. We aim to increase the following statistics which we currently track or are in the process of implementing tracking. 1. Number of families served per month. 2. Number of abortion vulnerable women who choose to continue their pregnancies. 3. Number of individuals trained in SIDS prevention. 4. Number of individuals who enrolled in an ESL class. 5. Number of individuals who enrolled in a job training class. 6. Number of individuals who found employment. 7. Number of individuals who are assessed for/educated about domestic violence. 8. We are in the process of implementing an evaluation tool to track maternal wellbeing. The goal is to increase maternal well-being. Project Specific Questions 1. Please provide some examples of women who are forced to choose between continuing with pregnancy and losing their housing. There have been several women who have resided in the Maternity Home who were forced to choose between keeping their housing and continuing their pregnancy. For example, an 18 year old, was raised by her grandparents. She was graduating high school in a few months. Her grandparents told her if she ever got pregnant, she would have to get an abortion or get kicked out. She became pregnant and told her grandparents who forced her to leave the home. She called from a friend s house where she was staying temporarily. She moved into the maternity home, graduated high school, and went to college a year later. A 26 year old woman who was working full-time and in college part-time was subletting an apartment. When she told the woman she was subletting from that she was pregnant, the woman told her that she should have an abortion. Sharon did not want to have an abortion so the woman refused to continue renting to her. She moved into the maternity home. She found a new job and continued her college education until she was able to afford her own apartment.

5 Another example, was a 20 year old college student. She was entering her junior year and was 5 months pregnant. She could no longer stay in the dorm due to her pregnancy. She was staying at a single women s shelter and they did not want her to stay because she was pregnant (and also would have no where to stay after the baby was born). She moved into the maternity home, graduated college, moved out, found a job and started graduate school. Lastly, was a woman who was residing at a transitional housing program with her 2 year old daughter. When she found out she was pregnant and informed her case worker, she was told that she would have to leave the program because the program only allowed for one child. She had to choose between continuing to reside in her apartment and participate in that program or leave the program, pregnant and with a 2 year old, and find another place to live. She was able to stay there until she was accepted into the Maternity Home. She gave birth to a healthy baby girl, found a job, her 2 year old, who was behind on her vaccinations, received the necessary ones and started daycare. They moved into their own place and she and the children s father are now married. 2. Please provide further detail on how clients find The Northwest Center or how you find them. In 2014, 49% of first time clients reported that they found us through word of mouth. This referral process is especially high in the Ethiopian, Eritrean and Hispanic communities. Other sources of referral include the internet (google searches as well as Several agencies in the community also refer to The Northwest Center, including: Local hospitals (Providence, Washington Hospital Center and others), local medical clinics and social service agencies (La Clinica del Pueblo, Unity Health Care, SOME, the Mary Center), and local social service agencies (The Latin American Youth Center, Catholic Charities Sanctuaries for Life Program, Virginia Williams Resource Center, A Wider Circle). We also accept referrals from other local pregnancy centers (Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center, Rockville Pregnancy Center and Forestville). They are stand alone pregnancy centers and do not have maternity home programs. They often connect us with women who are forced to choose between their housing and continuing their pregnancy. 3. The application references getting data from women who seek GEDs, job training or transition into stable housing. Do your services assist with these? How do you help women become self sufficient? In the maternity home, the women are given individualized guidance from the director who is a clinical social worker as well as other staff and volunteers. A woman who is in a job training, GED program or college, is helped with homework (we often recruit volunteers with expertise in her field of study), child care is sometimes provided (by staff and

6 volunteers) while she is looking for daycare or if baby is sick and can t go to daycare (but she has to go to class), and can also be provided while she is working on schoolwork. Women obtain credit reports and review with the social worker and are referred for free credit counseling, if necessary. Women also work on budgeting with the social worker. Other household management issues from physically maintaining a home (the women have weekly chores and if keeping her room clean is an issue, she will have weekly room checks and can be helped to clean and organize room with staff and volunteers). Meal planning, good nutrition, exercise are all things that can be worked on with the women more in-depth or not depending upon her needs. As for both programs: Women receive help with creating or updating their resumes, they are referred (and often taken to for maternity home residents) appointments at partner agencies to help them obtain work apparel (or often receive it here through donations), are assisted with job searches and cover letters. They are also connected to job training programs (such as DC Central Kitchen, DC Workforce Development, Jubilee Jobs). Women are also connected to resources to help her maintain employment (such as First Shift, which can provide pro bono legal support for women who lose jobs due to pregnancy discrimination) as well as daycare resources. Financial stability is a key component to help the women become self-sufficient. We partner with Housing Counseling Services to assist families in repairing their credit as well as learning about what affordable housing is available and how to apply. A large number of women are experiencing domestic violence. They come to us every month to talk about their struggles and find not only emotional support but also the resources they need (legal, housing, therapy) to provide a safe home for their children. We work closely with My Sister s Place, DC Volunteer Lawyer s Project and other agencies in the field. Lastly, building her support network through family, possibly church, story time at the library or small groups that we hold here (such as parenting, labor and delivery/postnatal classes) so when she leaves she is surrounded by a village to celebrate triumphs and to assist in challenging times. 4. Please address the sustainability of the proposed project in greater detail. A grant from Holy Trinity would give us a head start in our fundraising for these two new positions. If we received the grant, we would take this year to fundraise to make sure that we have funds to continue the positions. Additionally, we are in the process of hiring a new development director. We are looking for someone with the requisite experience to help us increase our fundraising.

7 Lastly, we hope that two new employees would also help us to increase our connections among their respective communities and therefore increase opportunities for grants and donations by making more connections. By Holy Trinity s endorsement of our work by your grant and your favorable impressions upon report of the grant s use, it will help us achieve the kind of self-sustaining program we envision. We will not return to previous grant donors for at least two years.