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Georgetown Ministry Center (GMC) is proud to announce that the Catalogue for Philanthropy will be featuring GMC’s good work in their 2013-14 Catalogue.

A panel of over 100 expert reviewers from area foundations, corporate giving programs, and peer non-profit organizations evaluated over 210 applications, and Georgetown Ministry Center is one of 73 outstanding nonprofits to be featured in print this year.

“Individual donors can continue to make a real difference, keeping great organizations afloat during these challenging times,” says Barbara Harman, President and Editor of the Catalogue for Philanthropy: Greater Washington. “Charities were selected for excellence, cost-effectiveness, and impact.”

Georgetown Ministry Center has provided crucial social services to the chronically and most service-resistant homeless for the past twenty-five years and has grown to operate a drop-in center, conduct street outreach, and organize a winter congregation-based shelter. A caring support staff that includes a visiting psychiatrist and general practitioner build meaningful relationships with the homeless at all three locations, working seven days a week to end homelessness one person at a time.

Gunther Stern, Executive Director of Georgetown Ministry Center, says that “the Catalogue’s designation assures donors that their money is providing the highest quality services to the people we serve.” In the past two years, Georgetown Ministry Center has more than doubled the operating hours of its drop in center. On top of the critical case management and medical care they provide, the center includes shower and laundry services, a computer lab, counseling and support groups, and a safe, welcoming escape from the street. Stern hopes that being accepted into the Catalogue for Philanthropy will “encourage donors and volunteers to give generously to ensure that GMC can continue to provide high quality services to the most vulnerable members of our community.”

Now in its eleventh year, the Catalogue’s mission is to connect caring citizens with worthy community causes. The online Catalogue connects donors with volunteer opportunities, events, and more. The Catalogue’s 2013 edition will be released on November 1, and we hope you will take the opportunity to check it out!

Please join GMC staff, board members, and volunteers in giving back to the DC Public Schools that support GMC!

Join Team GMC at the DC Pubic School’s Beautification Day on Saturday, August 24 from 9am to 1pm. This annual DCPS event was established in 2005 as a citywide “spruce up” of all DC public school buildings in preparation for the first day of school. Beautification efforts will include landscaping, trash pick-up, light painting, planting flowers, and other external beautification efforts.

We are hoping to be placed at either Hyde-Addison Elementary School (O Street NW) and/or Stoddert Elementary (Calvert St). Both of these schools have been amazing supporters during GMC’s Help the Homeless campaign and have had their students walk for our help the homeless fundraiser. Georgetown Ministry Center would like to say thank you for their years of support by supporting them!

We will be registering as a group under Georgetown Ministry Center’s name, so please fill out the form below if you would like to be part of Team GMC.

More informations about the DCPS can be found here.

We are in need of bath towels for our shower program. Do you have any gently used towels that you can donate? We are open seven days a week from 8am to 4pm, and you can bring towels any time we are open. We run 20 showers a day for the homeless every day of the week, and our towels either need to be retired into cleaning rags or walk out the door because people need them on the street. Can you help us replenish our stock of towels?

A few months ago, Peggy Pacy reached out to us and expressed interest in bringing food to GMC. She has been such a supporter of our program, bringing not only sandwiches but also toiletries and clothing when we needed them. Everyone looks forward to when she comes in with her adorable dog, Dusty, and her tray of sandwiches!

I asked her to share with us her how she came to discover GMC and her experience providing sandwiches for our guests. We are so grateful to have friends like Peggy. Thank you, thank you, thank you! 

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I discovered GMC through my friends at the Homeless Children’s Play Time Project. I enjoy volunteering with the Play Time project, but my main role with them is in fundraising and community outreach.

I love to cook! I asked the folks at Play Time if they had a need for food delivery. They didn’t but they directed me to GMC.  As an independent producer I have a fair amount of control over my schedule so I chose Mondays, a day I can almost always start work after food delivery. My dear friend and neighbor covers Saturdays, and together we decided during the cold months to switch to warm burritos! More work and expense but they have been a huge hit. We also asked neighbors via our list serve to pitch in with supplies, and they did on occasion.

I sometimes ask neighbors to come over and share a bottle of wine while we make burritos. It becomes a party and everyone pitches in. When it is just me, I really enjoy it. I know that smiles, and conversations, and appreciation that will be part of delivery.

My favorite moment…. I  often bring my dog, Dusty. Lots of the guests like to pet her and feed her treats. One day as I was leaving someone asked me about her name. I explained that she is named after a famous English singer who was big in the 60s and 70’s. Some knew of Dusty Springfield and some didn’t. But it turns out they all knew one song. I explained that when Dusty gets nervous during thunder storms I sing her a Dusty Springfield song.  It was really cold out, but in about 30 seconds all of us were in the alley belting out the tune, badly….. but it was fun!  ” You don’t have to say you love me just be close at hand…. you don’t have to STAAAY forever I will understand….  a great moment of community.

Delivering meals has become a really important part of my life. When people thank me, I tell them that it is I who am grateful.

With the subject of mental illness in the news due to tragedies such as mass shootings, family members of people with mental illness are articles detailing how difficult and scary it can be, how they can be at a loss on how to act when a loved one is having a mental health crisis.

The Treatment Advocacy Center is dedicated to the timely and effective treatment of severe mental illness. They have just released a wonderful and easy-to-use app for smart phones to assist people during mental health crises– how to respond to someone who is having one, how to talk to 911 operators, vocabulary, and much more. It is a lot of information packed into such an accessible app.

We hope that you will help the Treatment Advocacy Center spread the word about their new app. You can click on this link to see the app and download it on your phone.