Letter from the President and CEO

Tennis Anyone? The Answer is Yes at DC Schools, Thanks to USTA

March Madness: Catholic League Champs vs. DCPS Champs

Mark Your Calendars!

-We're Turning 10 in June!

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty with Millicent Williams at the RFK event

Like everyone that lives or works in the District, Inauguration weekend was a very exciting time for the staff of the Trust. We spent the Martin Luther King Day of Service, Monday, January 19th at the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, supporting thousands of volunteers create 80,000 care packages for the troops in Iraq. The Trust was pleased to be able to participate in this project and to welcome Michelle Obama as she volunteered the very day before she became our First Lady. We are all so proud of the way the District welcomed millions to our city and that so many people saw the heart and spirit of our residents!

Of course, after the excitement of the historic weekend, we all have focused our energy to work in a very challenging time. To help local nonprofits cope with the grim economy, we supported two recent workshops presented by the Nonprofit Roundtable’s series focused on “New Ways of Working Together.” We were pleased that many of our grantees and other local funders attended the sessions, which included topics such as shared “back office” functions like accounting and human resources, mergers, and partnerships.

In a timely piece published in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Peter Goldberg, president and CEO of the Alliance for Children and Families, wrote an essay entitled “Tread Lightly in Nonprofit Mergers.” He concluded that “during an economic situation as tough as the one we are mired in, many nonprofit groups have been called on to increase their services..., all while dealing with the same economic trouble as every other type of organization in the United States. Many of those organizations may have to merge or affiliate with another to meet the demands facing them now and in the future. By following a careful plan that avoids the obstacles involved in mergers, they could end up in a stronger position to fulfill their missions and help make their communities even stronger.” For more information about the Nonprofit Roundtable series, please click here.

We will continue to look for ways to help our grantees weather these challenging times. Please watch our Web site for additional workshops later this spring.

Millicent Williams, Trust President and CEO
 

Tennis Anyone? The Answer is Yes at DC Schools, Thanks to USTA

Project My Time students at the Southeast Tennis and Learning Center

With a generous grant from the U.S. Tennis Association, the Trust has launched an after-school initiative that offers free after-school tennis instruction to students in underserved neighborhoods of the District of Columbia. This winter, we held a festive tournament event at the Southeast Tennis and Learning Center, with dozens of students from seven middle schools playing tennis and competing for prizes and trophies. Participating schools include MacFarland, Eliot-Hine, Sousa, Hart, Kelly Miller, Deal and Powell middle schools. This fun event featured team-based “QuickStart” format of play as well as prize courts, giveaways and refreshments.

Thanks to this initiative, several nonprofit community-based organizations are able to offer tennis to children and youth at elementary and middle schools across the District. Providers include the Latin American Youth Center and the Washington Tennis and Education Foundation. Teams of students from different schools meet monthly for friendly competition and skill building. We will continue to work with USTA and many OST partners to spread the word: tennis can be a fun, healthy part of your life for years to come.

To listen to the WAMU-FM story about this tennis initiative, click here.
 

March Madness: Catholic League Champs vs. DCPS Champs

On March 4, the Trust hosted a luncheon for the student athletes that were going to compete for the “City Title” in basketball. Monday March 9 the teams took the court: for the boys, it was DeMatha vs. Ballou and for the girls, it was Good Counsel vs. H.D. Woodson. The Trust also hosted DC City Council members in Washington Wizards owner Abe Pollin’s suite after their hoops match with the DC press corps.

To read about the City Title games, click here.

Councilmembers Yvette Alexander and Mary Cheh join Chairman Vincent C. Gray, Chief of Staff Dawn Slonneger and Millicent Williams at the City Title game	H.D. Woodson student athletes at the Verizon Center luncheon

Mark Your Calendars...

Summer Grants Coming Soon!

We will be announcing our grants for summer learning programs on April 15. Please check our Web site www.cyitc.org under “Programs for Youth.”
 

The Trust Sponsors a Regional Conference on Afterschool

The Trust is co-sponsoring the Fifth Annual Eastern Regional Conference on Afterschool May 5-6 at the Tremont Plaza Hotel in Baltimore. The theme of the conference is “Integrating Practices of AfterSchool, Community Schools and Mentoring” and will focus on strategies that result in improved outcomes for youth, families, communities and schools. For more information and to register, click here.
 

We’re Turning 10 in June!

The Trust will celebrate 10 years of being the primary resource for developing partnerships that expand and improve services and opportunities for children and youth in the District of Columbia, especially during their time out of school. We will celebrate with a number of events in June, including a citywide read-a-thon, an essay contest, a field day and performing arts showcase, all with a focus on building bridges and breaking down barriers. We will share the winning essays – and lots of photos – on our Web site, so you can see the real impact of our shared work on the faces of our young people. We thank you for your support and partnership, and look forward to the next 10 years!