NOVA’S SOCIAL JUSTICE REGULAR COMMITMENT PROJECTS
OTHER COMMUNITY COMMITMENTS INVOLVING MONEY
COMMUNITY MEMBER COMMITMENTS OF TIME AND RESOURCES
2022
In March 2020, the world stopped due to COVID-19. Still in 2022, adjustments had to be made to our hands-on projects, to projects where schools were closed, to the homeless walk and for the Christ House evening meal we provided. Some of those adjustments have been noted here in the list. Some were able to continue with the help of Zoom.
In January 2022, NOVA held the Social Justice Meeting on Zoom to decide on the projects for our regular commitments for the year. They are listed below. It was also decided to distribute the money to these projects in 2 payments - January and July. The community believed that the money was still needed as quickly as possible during this pandemic. Each project has a NOVA member who brought the need to the community and "watches over it " and brings us news.
NOVA’S SOCIAL JUSTICE REGULAR COMMITMENTS 2022
COMMITMENT SPONSOR
ACTION AFRICA Jeanne Clarkson
Action Africa helps newly arrived, lawful African immigrants in the Washington area obtain housing, take advantage of educational opportunities, and obtain employment and access to health care. It also works to increase sustainable economic self-sufficiency for rural sub-Saharan youth and families through the provision of medical, educational and business development activities. Recent NOVA donations have been directed to a children's educational project in Enugu, Nigeria; a nutritional program in Eziama- Ubulu, Nigeria; and a health counseling program in Sierra Leone. Action Africa has been around for 20+ years, and its director, Chris Egbulem, was a presider at NOVA for a number of years. (How many of us can still remember his joyful “Chinikay Balu” chant during liturgy and how we easily broke into joyful harmony.) Marie Keefe volunteered many hours at Action Africa and until her death last June acted as its sponsor for NOVA funding. Jeanne looks forward to becoming more involved in Action Africa and asks the community to continue funding.
AFAC Dianne Carroll
AFAC (Arlington Food Assistance Center) serves Arlingtonians in need by providing dignified access to nutritious supplemental groceries. AFAC receives no federal or state funding. In 2021, AFAC served 13,905 individuals. Food is distributed through 14 distribution centers, through home delivery to those at high risk, and to partnering agencies for their meal and snack programs. NOVA collects food every week at a couple of NOVA members' homes and at Kenmore liturgies. Members have donated @7000 pounds of nonperishable food, including lots of cereal.
BREAD FOR THE WORLD Peggy Meyer
Bread for the World is a nationwide Christian citizens movement seeking justice for the world’s hungry people by lobbying our nation’s decision makers. BFW Institute seeks justice for hungry people by engaging in research and education on policies related to hunger and development. Jesus told us to feed the hungry, and more and more people are suffering from hunger due to the pandemic.
BRIDGES TO INDEPENDENCE Kopp Michelotti
Bridges to Independence operates the Sullivan House homeless shelter and provides training, counseling and referral services to shelter families and other families in danger of homelessness and in poverty. Last year Bridges merged with the Bonder and Amanda Johnson Community Development Corporation, a small nonprofit that serves the Nauck community of Arlington. One of Bridges' signal accomplishments in 2021 was the integration of the two operations and the development and expansion of a community services center in Nauck. With the addition of services to the Nauck/Green Valley community, Bridges doubled the size of its youth development program to serve 200 children and teens. Overall, Bridges served about 1,000 people in 2021. Among the most serious problems for Bridges in 2021 was low employment for its clients; only about 20% had jobs early in the year. With schools reopening in the fall, about 40% of clients are working now. Another problem is low vaccination rates for clients because of fear, uncertainty and distrust. The staff continues to educate and encourage clients to get vaccinated.
BRYANT SCHOOL COMMUNITY FOOD ASSISTANCE Carolyn Miller
The Bryant Alternative School Food Pantry project is ongoing. Nancy Chang is still using the resources we provided last year to keep it going, particularly helping a few families who are in great need. She has expanded her work with her middle-grade children, who have been sent from their base schools to the Alternative School for various reasons. She is teaching them to grow their own food and has begun a garden behind the school. The children are enthusiastic about this new project.
CO-PARTNERS OF CAMPESINAS Archer Heinzen
Co-partners of Campesinas, a 501(c)(3) organization, works with women and youth in rural communities in El Salvador and Guatemala using a motto of “Learn, earn and lead”. In 2021, in the face of pandemic job loss and nutritional deficits, Co-partners asked NOVA to support a pig project in Guatemala. Given that the pandemic has not abated, Co-partners asks NOVA to support a chicken project for rural residents in El Salvador. The goal is to improve family nutrition and increase mothers’ income through egg sales. The project will benefit 64 women, eight in eight communities. Four NOVA members serve on the Co-partners board.
DREAM PROJECT Emma Violand-Sanchez
The Dream Project empowers students whose immigration status creates barriers to education by working with them to access and succeed in college through scholarships, mentoring, family engagement and advocacy. The Dream Project would like to request funding for services including 100 scholarships and after-school mentoring for 25 to 30 high school seniors. In addition, financial support is needed to continue the Emergency Relief Fund that provides grants to scholars, mentees and alumni who face economic challenges due to loss of jobs, COVID, lack of health insurance, counseling and rental assistance. Our student population and their families are among the individuals hardest hit by the pandemic. Many of our students and their parents, whose jobs frequently denied them the option of living in “lockdown,” contracted the virus. Many others lost their jobs and therefore faced difficulty in paying rent and putting food on the table, not to mention paying college tuition.
EDUCATE THE GIRLS Nancy Veldhuis
NOVA’s financial contribution to ETG, a 501(c)(3), enables girls in the rural village of Kanoni, Uganda, to obtain primary and secondary education by providing for their school fees and school supplies, and helping them to overcome obstacles, i.e. shoes, feminine hygiene products, etc. that would keep them from school. In November, the Ugandan government announced that schools will reopen beginning with the 2022 school year in January. The 2021 school year presented many challenges with schools opening, closing, and reopening only to close again. Government-ordered shutdowns interrupted food and medical supplies. Terrorist groups are targeting locations with sizable gatherings leaving everyone feeling vulnerable as they gather for required vaccinations before being allowed back in class. Still in the midst of this turmoil, the girls of rural Kanoni are determined to continue their education.
ELDERS CLIMATE ACTION Gloria Mog
ECA has continued to grow and now claims close to 15,000 members. The half-time staff person is now full-time, and a graduate student internship is helping with maintenance and new initiatives. ECA is a national network of seniors working together to address the climate crisis through education, legislative lobbying on the local, state and national level, and support and partnering with over 100 other climate organizations. ECA has built 11 regional chapters in the last few years and has a goal of state chapters throughout the country. With the help of several NOVA Care for Creation team members, we are about to launch the Virginia Chapter of ECA. This innovative start-up organization can do a lot with funds NOVA provides.
EMMAH’S GARDEN – KENYA Clyde Christofferson
The project was formed to help a village of about 2,300 people in Nyandoche Ibere, in western Kenya. The overall concept is not to provide assistance from the outside but for the villagers themselves to own the project. If the concept works out it can be replicated in other villages. The initial focus on the water supply has evolved from delivering filtration units from the U.S. Now, young people are making units locally from buckets, adding filters from the U.S., and delivering them (40 so far) to families in the village. The next phase is for the Emmah’s Garden team in the village to develop a water delivery system that will be operated by groups of families using a higher-capacity filter from Denmark. The second project is agricultural, with the long-term goal of ending hunger in the village. Emmah has assembled a women’s group to learn modern techniques to use in their “kitchen gardens.” The organization has rented an acre of land to experiment with crops that can be self-sufficient and is allocating parcels to village farmers who otherwise are limited to subsistence.
GREENWELL John Tarrant
The Greenwell Foundation continues to provide therapeutic riding for children and wounded veterans in Greenwell State Park in Hollywood, MD. Greenwell has been blessed with a small grant from the Veterans Affairs Department for adaptive sports.
HOMELESS RETREAT PROJECT John Mooney
This project pre-pandemic supported four Ignatian Spirituality Project retreats/year and monthly follow-up spiritual accompaniment, serving about 200 homeless brothers since its start in 2008. During COVID, there were instead weekly texts & emails and weekly Zoom/phone chat & pray sessions, but the plan is for three retreats in 2022.
JOE KENNA FUND Cece Michelotti
Father Joe counsels many of the most marginalized people in Baltimore. In addition, many come to him when they are most in need, with emergencies such as health issues, need for food, and sometimes funds to help them meet their monthly rents. Joe gets families in touch with school counselors when appropriate, and they will help families to get in touch with social services to assist further with their needs. For others, Joe tells them about service programs operating in Baltimoren December, Joe got a call from a mother who wanted to get something for her children for Christmas. Joe invited her to his office where she could choose winter coats for the kids that he was given by St. John the Evangelist parish in Columbia where he sometimes celebrates.
JUST NEIGHBORS CLIENT ASSISTANCE FUND Joe Keyes
This fund directly helps very low-income clients pay fees needed to successfully apply for legal status. These required expenses (USCIS application fees, medical exams, country-expert reports needed for asylum seekers, court documents, etc.) often stand in the way of a family’s ability to obtain a green card, citizenship or work permit. Due to the economic impact the pandemic has had on immigrant families as well as changes in immigration policies that eliminated fee waivers for very low-income clients and increased the filing fees for many applications, Just Neighbors is raising funds to help families pay these expenses. One recent example, from November, is a request for help from an applicant for a T-visa, available to victims of human trafficking.
LITTLE FRIENDS FOR PEACE Scott Spaine
Little Friends for Peace seeks to expand the Uganda Peace Academy, which was planned and launched on Zoom during the pandemic. Since the project generates no income, the exciting work that has already been done will not bear fruit without outside support. Meeting in groups of 11 around a single laptop, Uganda Peace Academy (UPA) students identify challenges, learn practical tools to cope with daily internal and external struggles, and practice LFFP communication and problem-solving techniques. LFFP hopes to host 16 academies and graduate 165 community peace agents in 2022.
MALAWI JESUIT HIGH SCHOOL Eric Carroll
This project, sponsored by Fr. Pete Henriot, former NOVA padre, provides infrastructure support for the school, which is now graduating students. NOVA should continue its support now that the school is up and running and expanding its facility.
NETWORK ADVOCATES FOR CATHOLIC SOCIAL JUSTICE Pat Sodo
Network is a known presence and a voice on Capitol Hill. The religious and lay staff is engaged in/has had success at molding federal legislation and policies that reflect the teachings of Catholic social justice. It has never been more important for NOVA members to actively advocate for the health, safety and welfare of all, for immigration reform, and racial justice. Following Network’s lead and prompting, NOVA members are positioned – on a daily basis – to transform our political system into one that supports the dignity of all people and creates an economy of inclusion. Simply put, Network works on our behalf and summons us to be involved. In addition, as a supporter, the NOVA community has the benefit of Network-produced educational materials and workshops.
OAXACA SCHOOL PROJECT Raquel Pastor
Teachers at the school in Quiegolani, Mexico, go out into the remote local mountainous villages to train parents how to detect disabilities and how to value and care for their children with disabilities, which is considered a curse or at a minimum shameful. Nearest medical facilities are hours away and the poverty level is so severe that families cannot pay for medicines, so the training is essential.
PATHFORWARD (Formerly A-SPAN) Meg Tuccillo
For many service-oriented nonprofits, 2021 was a year of transitions. A-SPAN has changed its name to PathForward, which better reflects its mission of empowering people from streets to stability. Its care includes street outreach, shelter, food, nursing services and permanent housing. It has expanded services to include a mobile medical unit that allows its nurses to go with outreach workers to outdoor encampments to address medical needs and build trust, escort clients to medical appointments and provide other medical services for our friends experiencing homelessness. PathForward collaborates with other service nonprofits in Arlington to work toward the goal of helping to improve life opportunities for our friends who are struggling. Meg continues to volunteer and recently became chair of the Emeritus Council. The work continues and so does the need for NOVA’s financial support!
RENTAL ASSISTANCE TO PREVENT HOMELESSNESS Dianne Carroll
The NOVA program provides rental assistance on a one-time, emergency basis for those in need in the Arlington Public Schools community. School social workers screen the requests and send the request on a form designed by NOVA. NOVA members have made donations in addition to the NOVA commitment.
SALOMON KLEIN ORPHANAGE Emma Violand-Sanchez
Salomon Klein Orphanage in Cochabamba, Bolivia, serves as a loving, safe haven for 150+ abandoned or orphaned or abused children from newborn to age six. The pandemic has had a major impact on Salomon Klein due to COVID infection of staff and some children. Only about a third of the country is fully vaccinated. The biggest budget item -- paying salaries of caregivers -- has increased due to the need to continue paying quarantined workers and additionally paying their substitutes. The orphanage must pay a private transport service to get employees to work because the transportation system is not operating reliably. Basic infrastructure needs and educational programs require ongoing funding. And as essential supplies have become harder to find, prices have risen. The project needs NOVA’s continued generosity.
STREET SENSE MEDIA CASE MANAGEMENT PROGRAM Brian Carome
The program helps our corps of vendors – men and women who are homeless – navigate to subsidized housing, health and mental health care, and employment and income support for persons with disabilities. The program provides services to over 60 individuals a month, and since its start in 2017, has helped over 50 people secure permanent housing. This program has been expanded significantly in the last year. As a result, costs have jumped from $82,000/year to over $140,000/year. The program has very little dedicated grant funding (about $30,000/year) and therefore relies on a patchwork of donations from individuals and groups like NOVA.
UPPER-NILE ORPHANS CARE ORGANIZATION Scott Spaine
UOCO’s mission is to provide free, safe and kind residential care and education for vulnerable boys and girls, aged 3-15, in South Sudan. The first project is a locally run war-orphan boarding school, Hands of Hope Community School. In October, UOCO welcomed the first eight student-residents, who are in classes, eating well, jumping rope and playing soccer – refreshingly normal activities for poor, war-weary girls and boys. The estimated monthly budget, once the school reaches full, first-site capacity of 50 children, is $1,700. The teacher receives $300 monthly. NOVA's donation would pay the cook or a guard. All salaries will increase in 2022.
VOICE Nancy Veldhuis
Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement (VOICE) is a nonpartisan citizens’ organization of almost 50 interfaith and civic institutions in Northern Virginia of which NOVA is a member. VOICE organizes to build power and do justice in middle- and low-income communities in Fairfax, Prince William and Arlington counties and Alexandria City. Early in the pandemic, V2020 VOICE put pressure on then-Governor Northam to issue a moratorium on evictions in Virginia. With its current focus on ending mass incarceration for the mentally ill and those suffering from addiction, VOICE is working for the creation of Crisis Receiving Centers to ensure these individuals get treatment, not jail. VOICE continues its successful work with the racially diverse tenants of Arlington House Corporation properties to convince County Board members to hold AHC accountable for fixing serious, long-term maintenance and management problems. VOICE plans to work with the new governor toward the goal of constructing 10,000 affordable housing units between 2023 and 2028.
WEEKEND FOOD PACKS 4 KIDS Cathy Showalter
Crossroads Connection is a community service organization that provides a weekend food program for food-insecure children in the public schools of Gainesville and Haymarket, VA The goal is to eliminate hunger as an obstruction to classroom learning. Donors and volunteers operate as a chartered club of Heritage Hunt and the ministry of Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church of Haymarket. The two-year COVID-driven changes of services to students in quarantine has ended, and the program is back in service to 110 students in seven schools. Bags of supplemental food is provided monthly to the schools, and the school staff distributes food on Fridays to the identified students. Also provided are snack bags at 1:30 p.m. for some Bull Run Middle School students whose lunch is at about 10 a.m. Costs are approximately $250 per student per year. Cathy recommends continuing NOVA’s donation.
WOMEN’S ORDINATION FUND Nancy Veldhuis
The Women’s Ordination Conference is the world’s oldest and largest organization working solely for the ordination of women as priests, deacons and bishops into an inclusive Catholic Church, dedicated to renewing church governance to be inclusive, accountable and transparent; bringing about justice and equality for Catholic women; and incorporating women-centered theologies into everyday Catholicism.
ZIMBABWE CHILDREN’S SCHOLARSHIP & FOOD PROJECT Pat & Don Sodo
The needs of children and families in the Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, area have increased dramatically as virtually all tourism has ceased due to the COVID pandemic. Zimbabwe's poverty was severe before COVID, now it has reached a point where food insecurity is widespread because parents' income from the tourist trade is gone. Sadly, for 2022, the newest strain of COVID has arrived in Zimbabwe, which will again result in minimal if any tourism, thus maintaining the depth of the current poverty level. Last year's funding from NOVA was used to provide food packages for the families of 17 children participating in our scholarship program through our in-country partner Children in the Wilderness. Each family received a food package to feed four for one month. More than 1,000 meals were provided. In 2022, we plan to increase the number of scholarship participants to 25. As our student numbers grow, we request an increase in funding, but will agree to NOVA’s decision on funding.
2022
OTHER COMMUNITY COMMITMENTS INVOLVING MONEY
GIFT CARDS PROJECT Cathy Goldschmidt and Dianne Carroll
NOVA members donate gift cards or cash for gift cards at Christmas and the beginning of the school year. The cards are given to the families of Somali refugees long supported by NOVA and to Arlington school social workers who then distribute them to families in need. The two gift card programs were combined in 2021.
KEN CHAISON FAMILY EMERGENCY FUND Dianne Carroll
This provides funds for an emergency need of a family that cannot be met in any other way. School social workers screen the requests and send the request on a form designed by NOVA. Ten families were helped with an emergency need in 2021.
LEGAL DEFENSE FUND Bob O’Toole/committee
The LDF was created and funded to provide legal representation to individuals who are facing deportation. The Fund has received 10 applications for assistance. Nine applicants were referred to our legal aid partners for processing. All applicants have received a delay in the hearing dates for their cases. The lawyers believe this is the best outcome. All our cases are open, pending further processing. There is one pending case, the Guatemala family. This is currently under review by the immigration attorneys.
NOVA MARIE PINHO/MARIE KEEFE STIPEND SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM Linda Christie/committee
This project, funded by the Marie Pinho bequest and the Marie Keefe Fund, provides $300 a month during the academic year (nine months per year) to those who are granted the scholarship.
PATHFORWARD (formerly A-SPAN) HOMELESS WALKATHON Meg Tuccillo
Each year NOVA members participate in a Walkathon around the Kenmore campus to support the work of PathForward in helping folks who are experiencing homelessness.
VILLA CANDELARIA SCHOOL, Cochabamba Bolivia Dianne Carroll
Twenty-seven NOVA members sponsor students at this school, which serves age 2 through 6th grade. They get a quality education, and low-income families are provided school materials and other items they need.
COMMUNITY MEMBER COMMITMENTS OF TIME AND RESOURCES
BOOK GROUPS
Watch the NOVA Sunday announcements for the groups that are meeting.
CARE FOR CREATION Gloria Mog and team:
Kathy Scheimer, Richard Urban, Carmela Ormando, Rosemarie Annunziata, Scott Spaine, Carolyn Miller, David Mog, Jeanne Clarkson, Cathy Showalter, Markie Harwood, Judy Christofferson. The team was formed in March 2019 in response to the climate crisis and the growing realization that people of faith play an increasingly critical role in the worldwide response to this crisis. The team’s mission:
CHRIST HOUSE EVENING MEAL Tim White
During the pandemic, NOVA was required to change from the hot meal we prepare and serve every other month to bagged meals. Once the pandemic has eased, NOVA will have to decide whether we still have the resources to prepare and serve hot meals. Tim hopes we can.
MY FRIENDS HOUSE INC Teddi Ahrens
Teddi collects needed items for those Eve Birch serves in West Virginia including fresh food, blankets, clothes, building materials, sewing materials, paint, craft materials.
PAPER PRODUCTS FOR DOORWAYS Cece/Kopp Michelotti
Since COVID-19, NOVA members bring paper towels, toilet paper, napkins in the first week of the month to the same drop off places used for AFAC food. They are then delivered to the women’s shelter.
PRAYER GROUP Bill Meyer
NOVA members meet together to pray for intentions. A Prayer Book is available at liturgy for people to record an intention.
TRINITY NOVA TOGETHER FOR RACIAL JUSTICE Carmela Ormando
Dedicated to conversations, exploration and action toward creating a more racially just and inclusive community, the interfaith and interracial partnership of NOVA and Trinity Episcopal Church enthusiastically begins its seventh year. A second circle of NOVA/Trinity members are nearing completion of a Sacred Ground study group, a film and reading-based dialogue series on race, grounded in faith.
WOMEN’S PRISON BOOK PROJECT Pat Sodo
NOVA members support this project by donating used books.
In January 2022, NOVA held the Social Justice Meeting on Zoom to decide on the projects for our regular commitments for the year. They are listed below. It was also decided to distribute the money to these projects in 2 payments - January and July. The community believed that the money was still needed as quickly as possible during this pandemic. Each project has a NOVA member who brought the need to the community and "watches over it " and brings us news.
NOVA’S SOCIAL JUSTICE REGULAR COMMITMENTS 2022
COMMITMENT SPONSOR
ACTION AFRICA Jeanne Clarkson
Action Africa helps newly arrived, lawful African immigrants in the Washington area obtain housing, take advantage of educational opportunities, and obtain employment and access to health care. It also works to increase sustainable economic self-sufficiency for rural sub-Saharan youth and families through the provision of medical, educational and business development activities. Recent NOVA donations have been directed to a children's educational project in Enugu, Nigeria; a nutritional program in Eziama- Ubulu, Nigeria; and a health counseling program in Sierra Leone. Action Africa has been around for 20+ years, and its director, Chris Egbulem, was a presider at NOVA for a number of years. (How many of us can still remember his joyful “Chinikay Balu” chant during liturgy and how we easily broke into joyful harmony.) Marie Keefe volunteered many hours at Action Africa and until her death last June acted as its sponsor for NOVA funding. Jeanne looks forward to becoming more involved in Action Africa and asks the community to continue funding.
AFAC Dianne Carroll
AFAC (Arlington Food Assistance Center) serves Arlingtonians in need by providing dignified access to nutritious supplemental groceries. AFAC receives no federal or state funding. In 2021, AFAC served 13,905 individuals. Food is distributed through 14 distribution centers, through home delivery to those at high risk, and to partnering agencies for their meal and snack programs. NOVA collects food every week at a couple of NOVA members' homes and at Kenmore liturgies. Members have donated @7000 pounds of nonperishable food, including lots of cereal.
BREAD FOR THE WORLD Peggy Meyer
Bread for the World is a nationwide Christian citizens movement seeking justice for the world’s hungry people by lobbying our nation’s decision makers. BFW Institute seeks justice for hungry people by engaging in research and education on policies related to hunger and development. Jesus told us to feed the hungry, and more and more people are suffering from hunger due to the pandemic.
BRIDGES TO INDEPENDENCE Kopp Michelotti
Bridges to Independence operates the Sullivan House homeless shelter and provides training, counseling and referral services to shelter families and other families in danger of homelessness and in poverty. Last year Bridges merged with the Bonder and Amanda Johnson Community Development Corporation, a small nonprofit that serves the Nauck community of Arlington. One of Bridges' signal accomplishments in 2021 was the integration of the two operations and the development and expansion of a community services center in Nauck. With the addition of services to the Nauck/Green Valley community, Bridges doubled the size of its youth development program to serve 200 children and teens. Overall, Bridges served about 1,000 people in 2021. Among the most serious problems for Bridges in 2021 was low employment for its clients; only about 20% had jobs early in the year. With schools reopening in the fall, about 40% of clients are working now. Another problem is low vaccination rates for clients because of fear, uncertainty and distrust. The staff continues to educate and encourage clients to get vaccinated.
BRYANT SCHOOL COMMUNITY FOOD ASSISTANCE Carolyn Miller
The Bryant Alternative School Food Pantry project is ongoing. Nancy Chang is still using the resources we provided last year to keep it going, particularly helping a few families who are in great need. She has expanded her work with her middle-grade children, who have been sent from their base schools to the Alternative School for various reasons. She is teaching them to grow their own food and has begun a garden behind the school. The children are enthusiastic about this new project.
CO-PARTNERS OF CAMPESINAS Archer Heinzen
Co-partners of Campesinas, a 501(c)(3) organization, works with women and youth in rural communities in El Salvador and Guatemala using a motto of “Learn, earn and lead”. In 2021, in the face of pandemic job loss and nutritional deficits, Co-partners asked NOVA to support a pig project in Guatemala. Given that the pandemic has not abated, Co-partners asks NOVA to support a chicken project for rural residents in El Salvador. The goal is to improve family nutrition and increase mothers’ income through egg sales. The project will benefit 64 women, eight in eight communities. Four NOVA members serve on the Co-partners board.
DREAM PROJECT Emma Violand-Sanchez
The Dream Project empowers students whose immigration status creates barriers to education by working with them to access and succeed in college through scholarships, mentoring, family engagement and advocacy. The Dream Project would like to request funding for services including 100 scholarships and after-school mentoring for 25 to 30 high school seniors. In addition, financial support is needed to continue the Emergency Relief Fund that provides grants to scholars, mentees and alumni who face economic challenges due to loss of jobs, COVID, lack of health insurance, counseling and rental assistance. Our student population and their families are among the individuals hardest hit by the pandemic. Many of our students and their parents, whose jobs frequently denied them the option of living in “lockdown,” contracted the virus. Many others lost their jobs and therefore faced difficulty in paying rent and putting food on the table, not to mention paying college tuition.
EDUCATE THE GIRLS Nancy Veldhuis
NOVA’s financial contribution to ETG, a 501(c)(3), enables girls in the rural village of Kanoni, Uganda, to obtain primary and secondary education by providing for their school fees and school supplies, and helping them to overcome obstacles, i.e. shoes, feminine hygiene products, etc. that would keep them from school. In November, the Ugandan government announced that schools will reopen beginning with the 2022 school year in January. The 2021 school year presented many challenges with schools opening, closing, and reopening only to close again. Government-ordered shutdowns interrupted food and medical supplies. Terrorist groups are targeting locations with sizable gatherings leaving everyone feeling vulnerable as they gather for required vaccinations before being allowed back in class. Still in the midst of this turmoil, the girls of rural Kanoni are determined to continue their education.
ELDERS CLIMATE ACTION Gloria Mog
ECA has continued to grow and now claims close to 15,000 members. The half-time staff person is now full-time, and a graduate student internship is helping with maintenance and new initiatives. ECA is a national network of seniors working together to address the climate crisis through education, legislative lobbying on the local, state and national level, and support and partnering with over 100 other climate organizations. ECA has built 11 regional chapters in the last few years and has a goal of state chapters throughout the country. With the help of several NOVA Care for Creation team members, we are about to launch the Virginia Chapter of ECA. This innovative start-up organization can do a lot with funds NOVA provides.
EMMAH’S GARDEN – KENYA Clyde Christofferson
The project was formed to help a village of about 2,300 people in Nyandoche Ibere, in western Kenya. The overall concept is not to provide assistance from the outside but for the villagers themselves to own the project. If the concept works out it can be replicated in other villages. The initial focus on the water supply has evolved from delivering filtration units from the U.S. Now, young people are making units locally from buckets, adding filters from the U.S., and delivering them (40 so far) to families in the village. The next phase is for the Emmah’s Garden team in the village to develop a water delivery system that will be operated by groups of families using a higher-capacity filter from Denmark. The second project is agricultural, with the long-term goal of ending hunger in the village. Emmah has assembled a women’s group to learn modern techniques to use in their “kitchen gardens.” The organization has rented an acre of land to experiment with crops that can be self-sufficient and is allocating parcels to village farmers who otherwise are limited to subsistence.
GREENWELL John Tarrant
The Greenwell Foundation continues to provide therapeutic riding for children and wounded veterans in Greenwell State Park in Hollywood, MD. Greenwell has been blessed with a small grant from the Veterans Affairs Department for adaptive sports.
HOMELESS RETREAT PROJECT John Mooney
This project pre-pandemic supported four Ignatian Spirituality Project retreats/year and monthly follow-up spiritual accompaniment, serving about 200 homeless brothers since its start in 2008. During COVID, there were instead weekly texts & emails and weekly Zoom/phone chat & pray sessions, but the plan is for three retreats in 2022.
JOE KENNA FUND Cece Michelotti
Father Joe counsels many of the most marginalized people in Baltimore. In addition, many come to him when they are most in need, with emergencies such as health issues, need for food, and sometimes funds to help them meet their monthly rents. Joe gets families in touch with school counselors when appropriate, and they will help families to get in touch with social services to assist further with their needs. For others, Joe tells them about service programs operating in Baltimoren December, Joe got a call from a mother who wanted to get something for her children for Christmas. Joe invited her to his office where she could choose winter coats for the kids that he was given by St. John the Evangelist parish in Columbia where he sometimes celebrates.
JUST NEIGHBORS CLIENT ASSISTANCE FUND Joe Keyes
This fund directly helps very low-income clients pay fees needed to successfully apply for legal status. These required expenses (USCIS application fees, medical exams, country-expert reports needed for asylum seekers, court documents, etc.) often stand in the way of a family’s ability to obtain a green card, citizenship or work permit. Due to the economic impact the pandemic has had on immigrant families as well as changes in immigration policies that eliminated fee waivers for very low-income clients and increased the filing fees for many applications, Just Neighbors is raising funds to help families pay these expenses. One recent example, from November, is a request for help from an applicant for a T-visa, available to victims of human trafficking.
LITTLE FRIENDS FOR PEACE Scott Spaine
Little Friends for Peace seeks to expand the Uganda Peace Academy, which was planned and launched on Zoom during the pandemic. Since the project generates no income, the exciting work that has already been done will not bear fruit without outside support. Meeting in groups of 11 around a single laptop, Uganda Peace Academy (UPA) students identify challenges, learn practical tools to cope with daily internal and external struggles, and practice LFFP communication and problem-solving techniques. LFFP hopes to host 16 academies and graduate 165 community peace agents in 2022.
MALAWI JESUIT HIGH SCHOOL Eric Carroll
This project, sponsored by Fr. Pete Henriot, former NOVA padre, provides infrastructure support for the school, which is now graduating students. NOVA should continue its support now that the school is up and running and expanding its facility.
NETWORK ADVOCATES FOR CATHOLIC SOCIAL JUSTICE Pat Sodo
Network is a known presence and a voice on Capitol Hill. The religious and lay staff is engaged in/has had success at molding federal legislation and policies that reflect the teachings of Catholic social justice. It has never been more important for NOVA members to actively advocate for the health, safety and welfare of all, for immigration reform, and racial justice. Following Network’s lead and prompting, NOVA members are positioned – on a daily basis – to transform our political system into one that supports the dignity of all people and creates an economy of inclusion. Simply put, Network works on our behalf and summons us to be involved. In addition, as a supporter, the NOVA community has the benefit of Network-produced educational materials and workshops.
OAXACA SCHOOL PROJECT Raquel Pastor
Teachers at the school in Quiegolani, Mexico, go out into the remote local mountainous villages to train parents how to detect disabilities and how to value and care for their children with disabilities, which is considered a curse or at a minimum shameful. Nearest medical facilities are hours away and the poverty level is so severe that families cannot pay for medicines, so the training is essential.
PATHFORWARD (Formerly A-SPAN) Meg Tuccillo
For many service-oriented nonprofits, 2021 was a year of transitions. A-SPAN has changed its name to PathForward, which better reflects its mission of empowering people from streets to stability. Its care includes street outreach, shelter, food, nursing services and permanent housing. It has expanded services to include a mobile medical unit that allows its nurses to go with outreach workers to outdoor encampments to address medical needs and build trust, escort clients to medical appointments and provide other medical services for our friends experiencing homelessness. PathForward collaborates with other service nonprofits in Arlington to work toward the goal of helping to improve life opportunities for our friends who are struggling. Meg continues to volunteer and recently became chair of the Emeritus Council. The work continues and so does the need for NOVA’s financial support!
RENTAL ASSISTANCE TO PREVENT HOMELESSNESS Dianne Carroll
The NOVA program provides rental assistance on a one-time, emergency basis for those in need in the Arlington Public Schools community. School social workers screen the requests and send the request on a form designed by NOVA. NOVA members have made donations in addition to the NOVA commitment.
SALOMON KLEIN ORPHANAGE Emma Violand-Sanchez
Salomon Klein Orphanage in Cochabamba, Bolivia, serves as a loving, safe haven for 150+ abandoned or orphaned or abused children from newborn to age six. The pandemic has had a major impact on Salomon Klein due to COVID infection of staff and some children. Only about a third of the country is fully vaccinated. The biggest budget item -- paying salaries of caregivers -- has increased due to the need to continue paying quarantined workers and additionally paying their substitutes. The orphanage must pay a private transport service to get employees to work because the transportation system is not operating reliably. Basic infrastructure needs and educational programs require ongoing funding. And as essential supplies have become harder to find, prices have risen. The project needs NOVA’s continued generosity.
STREET SENSE MEDIA CASE MANAGEMENT PROGRAM Brian Carome
The program helps our corps of vendors – men and women who are homeless – navigate to subsidized housing, health and mental health care, and employment and income support for persons with disabilities. The program provides services to over 60 individuals a month, and since its start in 2017, has helped over 50 people secure permanent housing. This program has been expanded significantly in the last year. As a result, costs have jumped from $82,000/year to over $140,000/year. The program has very little dedicated grant funding (about $30,000/year) and therefore relies on a patchwork of donations from individuals and groups like NOVA.
UPPER-NILE ORPHANS CARE ORGANIZATION Scott Spaine
UOCO’s mission is to provide free, safe and kind residential care and education for vulnerable boys and girls, aged 3-15, in South Sudan. The first project is a locally run war-orphan boarding school, Hands of Hope Community School. In October, UOCO welcomed the first eight student-residents, who are in classes, eating well, jumping rope and playing soccer – refreshingly normal activities for poor, war-weary girls and boys. The estimated monthly budget, once the school reaches full, first-site capacity of 50 children, is $1,700. The teacher receives $300 monthly. NOVA's donation would pay the cook or a guard. All salaries will increase in 2022.
VOICE Nancy Veldhuis
Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement (VOICE) is a nonpartisan citizens’ organization of almost 50 interfaith and civic institutions in Northern Virginia of which NOVA is a member. VOICE organizes to build power and do justice in middle- and low-income communities in Fairfax, Prince William and Arlington counties and Alexandria City. Early in the pandemic, V2020 VOICE put pressure on then-Governor Northam to issue a moratorium on evictions in Virginia. With its current focus on ending mass incarceration for the mentally ill and those suffering from addiction, VOICE is working for the creation of Crisis Receiving Centers to ensure these individuals get treatment, not jail. VOICE continues its successful work with the racially diverse tenants of Arlington House Corporation properties to convince County Board members to hold AHC accountable for fixing serious, long-term maintenance and management problems. VOICE plans to work with the new governor toward the goal of constructing 10,000 affordable housing units between 2023 and 2028.
WEEKEND FOOD PACKS 4 KIDS Cathy Showalter
Crossroads Connection is a community service organization that provides a weekend food program for food-insecure children in the public schools of Gainesville and Haymarket, VA The goal is to eliminate hunger as an obstruction to classroom learning. Donors and volunteers operate as a chartered club of Heritage Hunt and the ministry of Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church of Haymarket. The two-year COVID-driven changes of services to students in quarantine has ended, and the program is back in service to 110 students in seven schools. Bags of supplemental food is provided monthly to the schools, and the school staff distributes food on Fridays to the identified students. Also provided are snack bags at 1:30 p.m. for some Bull Run Middle School students whose lunch is at about 10 a.m. Costs are approximately $250 per student per year. Cathy recommends continuing NOVA’s donation.
WOMEN’S ORDINATION FUND Nancy Veldhuis
The Women’s Ordination Conference is the world’s oldest and largest organization working solely for the ordination of women as priests, deacons and bishops into an inclusive Catholic Church, dedicated to renewing church governance to be inclusive, accountable and transparent; bringing about justice and equality for Catholic women; and incorporating women-centered theologies into everyday Catholicism.
ZIMBABWE CHILDREN’S SCHOLARSHIP & FOOD PROJECT Pat & Don Sodo
The needs of children and families in the Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, area have increased dramatically as virtually all tourism has ceased due to the COVID pandemic. Zimbabwe's poverty was severe before COVID, now it has reached a point where food insecurity is widespread because parents' income from the tourist trade is gone. Sadly, for 2022, the newest strain of COVID has arrived in Zimbabwe, which will again result in minimal if any tourism, thus maintaining the depth of the current poverty level. Last year's funding from NOVA was used to provide food packages for the families of 17 children participating in our scholarship program through our in-country partner Children in the Wilderness. Each family received a food package to feed four for one month. More than 1,000 meals were provided. In 2022, we plan to increase the number of scholarship participants to 25. As our student numbers grow, we request an increase in funding, but will agree to NOVA’s decision on funding.
2022
OTHER COMMUNITY COMMITMENTS INVOLVING MONEY
GIFT CARDS PROJECT Cathy Goldschmidt and Dianne Carroll
NOVA members donate gift cards or cash for gift cards at Christmas and the beginning of the school year. The cards are given to the families of Somali refugees long supported by NOVA and to Arlington school social workers who then distribute them to families in need. The two gift card programs were combined in 2021.
KEN CHAISON FAMILY EMERGENCY FUND Dianne Carroll
This provides funds for an emergency need of a family that cannot be met in any other way. School social workers screen the requests and send the request on a form designed by NOVA. Ten families were helped with an emergency need in 2021.
LEGAL DEFENSE FUND Bob O’Toole/committee
The LDF was created and funded to provide legal representation to individuals who are facing deportation. The Fund has received 10 applications for assistance. Nine applicants were referred to our legal aid partners for processing. All applicants have received a delay in the hearing dates for their cases. The lawyers believe this is the best outcome. All our cases are open, pending further processing. There is one pending case, the Guatemala family. This is currently under review by the immigration attorneys.
NOVA MARIE PINHO/MARIE KEEFE STIPEND SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM Linda Christie/committee
This project, funded by the Marie Pinho bequest and the Marie Keefe Fund, provides $300 a month during the academic year (nine months per year) to those who are granted the scholarship.
PATHFORWARD (formerly A-SPAN) HOMELESS WALKATHON Meg Tuccillo
Each year NOVA members participate in a Walkathon around the Kenmore campus to support the work of PathForward in helping folks who are experiencing homelessness.
VILLA CANDELARIA SCHOOL, Cochabamba Bolivia Dianne Carroll
Twenty-seven NOVA members sponsor students at this school, which serves age 2 through 6th grade. They get a quality education, and low-income families are provided school materials and other items they need.
COMMUNITY MEMBER COMMITMENTS OF TIME AND RESOURCES
BOOK GROUPS
Watch the NOVA Sunday announcements for the groups that are meeting.
CARE FOR CREATION Gloria Mog and team:
Kathy Scheimer, Richard Urban, Carmela Ormando, Rosemarie Annunziata, Scott Spaine, Carolyn Miller, David Mog, Jeanne Clarkson, Cathy Showalter, Markie Harwood, Judy Christofferson. The team was formed in March 2019 in response to the climate crisis and the growing realization that people of faith play an increasingly critical role in the worldwide response to this crisis. The team’s mission:
- Provide education in the NOVA Community around environmental issues and actions needed to make progress on this problem.
- Develop concrete personal and communal actions that members can take.
- Integrate Care for Creation themes in the liturgical and prayer life of the community.
- Advocate for legislative progress locally, statewide and nationally.
- Engender hope and motivation by reporting on progress.
CHRIST HOUSE EVENING MEAL Tim White
During the pandemic, NOVA was required to change from the hot meal we prepare and serve every other month to bagged meals. Once the pandemic has eased, NOVA will have to decide whether we still have the resources to prepare and serve hot meals. Tim hopes we can.
MY FRIENDS HOUSE INC Teddi Ahrens
Teddi collects needed items for those Eve Birch serves in West Virginia including fresh food, blankets, clothes, building materials, sewing materials, paint, craft materials.
PAPER PRODUCTS FOR DOORWAYS Cece/Kopp Michelotti
Since COVID-19, NOVA members bring paper towels, toilet paper, napkins in the first week of the month to the same drop off places used for AFAC food. They are then delivered to the women’s shelter.
PRAYER GROUP Bill Meyer
NOVA members meet together to pray for intentions. A Prayer Book is available at liturgy for people to record an intention.
TRINITY NOVA TOGETHER FOR RACIAL JUSTICE Carmela Ormando
Dedicated to conversations, exploration and action toward creating a more racially just and inclusive community, the interfaith and interracial partnership of NOVA and Trinity Episcopal Church enthusiastically begins its seventh year. A second circle of NOVA/Trinity members are nearing completion of a Sacred Ground study group, a film and reading-based dialogue series on race, grounded in faith.
WOMEN’S PRISON BOOK PROJECT Pat Sodo
NOVA members support this project by donating used books.