Calvary Women’s Services’ 2022 Hope Awards Dinner Raises More Than $500K for Programs to Help Homeless Women in Washington, DC

Michele Lawrence Jawando and Altria received evening’s top honors

Washington, DC (May 19,2022) – For the first time in three years,  Calvary Women’s Services held the 2022 Hope Awards Dinner in-person at the Capital Hilton. The annual event brings together community and business leaders to celebrate the success of women changing their lives through Calvary’s programs and raise funding to continue its work. The fun and inspirational event featured silent and live auctions and the presentation of the Corporate Partner of the Year Award and the Hope Award. This year’s event raised more than $500,000.

“By the end of this year, Calvary Women’s Services will have more than doubled the number of women we serve, just in the last couple of years,” said Kris Thompson, Chief Executive Officer of Calvary Women’s Services. “We’ve taken advantage of opportunities to grow our programs across all our types of housing. We’re welcoming more women home and standing with them as they build stronger futures for themselves.”

Michele Lawrence Jawando received this year’s Hope Award. Jawando is vice president of programs at Omidyar Network and oversees the program teams’ global mission as Omidyar Network works to tackle the biggest, most intractable challenges facing the planet in the decades ahead.

In accepting her award, Jawando said, “Activist Angela Davis has shared that our duty, our responsibility, is to recreate hope generation after generation. I am so deeply grateful for this award because I hold that adage to be true – that our responsibility for the time that we have here on this planet is to breathe hope and life into generations that have yet to come, to honor the generations that have come before and to do our work as much as we possibly can. There is no organization that more deeply embodies that mission than Calvary Women’s Services.”

More about Michele Lawrence Jawando: Prior to her current role at Omidyar Network, Michele served as the head of strategic engagement and public policy at Google, where she helped to direct over $80 million in resources to issues related to elections, cybersecurity, gender equity, disability rights, and more. In other roles, she has offered leadership to issues that include national security, climate, race and gender equity, economic growth and opportunity, civic participation, and health care.

Michele is a regular commentator for international and US television, print, and radio, an author, a serial entrepreneur, and an afro-tech futurist. She has served as a Board member at Higher Heights for America and In Our Own Voice. Michele has been described as someone who believes that we can create and build the future we desire across our differences. We are grateful to her for her tireless work and outstanding contributions.

Altria was the night’s Corporate Partner of the Year Award Recipient. Altria and its employees have supported Calvary Women’s Services’ work for more than a decade, hosting events, participating in Calvary’s annual 5k, matching employees’ contributions to Calvary’s work, and offering generous financial support that has helped us grow our programs to serve more women.

Accepting the award on behalf of Altria was Cindy Hayden, Senior Director of Federal Government Affairs. She said of Calvary,” When a woman walks through your doors, you meet her where she is. She might have to come to you, but you meet her wherever she is in that moment in her life. You prove to her that your help and the love you have to offer her is not conditional upon anything, that her voice matters and that you see her, her talents matter and that she is capable. And you keep telling her that over and over again until she finally believes it for herself.

“Women are the drivers of positive community change – they always have been. We all know that line that it takes a village. Really, it takes a village of takes a village of women — women for women — women for women, taking care of women.”

“The Hope Awards Dinner is always an inspirational and impactful evening,” continued Kris. “Women at Calvary work hard to make transformational change in their lives. This event is the culmination of their hard work and the businesses, corporations, volunteers, and staff that support their journey. Together, we continue to live out Calvary’s core values of respect, empowerment, collaboration, diversity & inclusivity, and excellence.”

About Calvary Women’s Services: Calvary Women’s Services empowers homeless women in Washington, DC, to transform their lives through housing, health, education, and employment programs. Each woman who comes through Calvary’s doors has unique needs. With the right services and trauma-informed care, women are empowered to make lasting changes in their lives. Calvary is committed to providing these services East of the River.

With almost 40 years of experience, Calvary’s model has been proven to work: women at Calvary are achieving their goals and ending their homelessness for good. Learn more about Calvary Women’s Services.

To make a donation in support of the 2022 Hope Awards dinner and Calvary’s programs, go to https://www.calvaryservices.org/events/hope-awrds-dinner.

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Contact: Renée Williams Hockaday
rhockaday@calvaryservices.org
202-678-2341 x223