Friends of Friends

August 20, 2010 at 3:04 PM | Posted in Advocacy, Announcements, Community Partners, News, Volunteers | Leave a comment

The mother of one of my friend’s is one of those magical connective people who will remember exactly where you left off in your last conversation and probably line you up with the job and/or man of your dreams during the course of an afternoon barbecue.  Fabia is a beautiful example of the power of human relationships and the community they create.  When we care about someone or something, we are willing to share what we have beit other relationships, money, education, food, knowledge, etc.  When we opened Connections for Hope, it sought to create that sort of  community.

Sarah Newman, is our own  Queen Bee, she brought together the resources of several area organizations for Connections for Hope.  Last Tuesday, staff from each of the partners at Connections for Hope came together to reflect, share, and celebrate the 6 months we’ve been open to the public and creating community.  Together, over lunch, we took time sharing the progress of our programs and how we might be better at referring clients to one another.   The array of services available are amazing from free clinics to world-wide children’s aide, homework help for immigrant children and our classrooms have a home there, too.  I sat across some of the volunteers and staff from Jeanie Schmidt Free Clinic.  They have doctors who not only volunteer their time, but have specializations detecting war trauma from the many African immigrants adults who use their services.  They also hired a new counselor who is working to fill the need for mental health issues.  Here at the Literacy Council, we’re working to address the more specialized unmet needs of our clients as we search for a new hire with a specialty in Learning Disabilities to especially help our Basic Adult Literacy Program.  We are really excited and proud to be part of this vision.  Hopefully, as time goes on, we’ll be sharing clients, space, and the time and talent of our staff to better serve the Northern Virginia community.  I hope you’ll share the mission we’re so committed to with the people you care about, so they might share their time and talent, too.

-Katie Beckman, Program Assistant

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