Looking Back at 2012

The beginning of a new year is traditionally a time of celebration, reflection and setting goals. As we step into 2013 at Calvary Women’s Services we have so much to celebrate!

At the end of 2012 Calvary opened our new facility on Good Hope Road. We relocated (and grew!) our two transitional housing programs, and we added a Life Skills, Education and Arts Center, a Wellness Center and our new Good Hope Kitchen. We look forward to serving 40% more women this year and continuing to expand our successful programs.

Other accomplishments from 2012 include:

• 65% of the women at Calvary moved into their own homes!
• Calvary provided women with over 15,000 nights of safe housing.
• With the help our incredible volunteers, Calvary provided over 20,000 nutritious meals.
• We welcomed new staff members, including Sheryl Pope – our energetic new case manager, Lisa Buchs – our talented grant writer, and Michelle Woodall and Whitney Parnell – our dedicated full time program managers.
• We continued to grow our successful education programs, including classes and activities focused on women’s health, financial literacy, job readiness and other topics critical to women’s success.
• We hosted our 11th Annual Hope Awards Dinner – honoring Katie Couric of ABC News and Sandra Evers-Manly of Northop Grumman and raising over $250,000 for Calvary’s programs. You can check out photos from the event here. And if you missed the Hope Awards Dinner this year, you can still view Katie Couric’s inspiring message.
• Our 3rd annual Holiday Give Back brought together members of the Capitol Hill community to raise funds to support Calvary’s work. Special guests included Congressman Richard Hanna, Congressman Ed Perlmutter, and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. You can see photos of the Holiday Give Back here.
• Board members and others friends hosted a number of creative and fun events for Calvary, including, the DC alumni Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta’s 5K Run,  the 2nd Annual Iron Chef Calvary and a 2nd Annual Texas Hold ‘Em Tournament.
• Executive Director Kris Thompson wrote for the Huffington Post about the importance of our expansion project.
• Gorilla Challenge selected Calvary as the beneficiary of its Washington, DC competition.
• Calvary was recognized by the Catalogue for Philanthropy: Greater Washington as “one of the best small charities in the region.”

Of course there are many, many more successes to celebrate for the women who came to Calvary in 2012. So many women realized their goals for good health, employment and moving into their own homes – and many more took critical steps toward those goals.

We are incredibly grateful to the volunteers, donors, and other friends who helped to make all of this possible – and we look forward to working with you to make even more of a difference in our community in 2013!