JLW Gives 2013 Community Partner Grant to Teen Life Clubs

The Junior League of Washington (JLW) is proud to award a $12,500 grant to a longstanding community partner, Children's National Medical Center, in support of its Teen Life Clubs (TLC) program. JLW’s grant will provide just under half of the fiscal year’s needed funding for the TLC program, with a grant from the D.C. Office of the State Superintendent of Education providing the other funding.

Children's Hospital of the District of Columbia was founded by a group of citizens in 1870 to care for children orphaned during the Civil War. The hospital has grown from a 12-bed row house to Children’s National Medical Center - a 303-bed, medical facility that is ranked among the top pediatric hospitals in America by U.S. News and World Report. In the more than 140 years since its founding, Children's National has become a vital community resource and a significant national force for the advancement of pediatric health care. The mission of Children's National is to excel in Care, Advocacy, Research and Education and is accomplished through: Providing a quality health care experience for our patients and families; Improving health outcomes for children regionally, nationally, and internationally; and Leading the creation of innovative solutions to pediatric health challenges. It is the only integrated health care system in the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area dedicated exclusively to the care of infants, children, adolescents and young adults.

Beginning in the 1920s, the JLW showed strong support of the children’s hospital by funding a convalescent ward and then a Social Services department. The JLW continued its commitment by funding a director of volunteer services and a Child Guidance Center, and in the 1960s, provided a grant to assist in the opening of an Intensive Care Unit. Today, the JLW provides trained volunteers to the TLC program at Children’s National.

TLC is one of the programs offered through Children’s National’s Adolescent Prevention Education Programs. TLC provides young people with the knowledge, activities and mentorship they need to help them avoid pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS. It is a 26-week program that includes weekly club meetings, monthly enrichment activities and group mentorship. Club members can earn a stipend based on attendance, punctuality and participation. At TLC meetings, members address topics such as safe sexual activity, goal setting, responding to violence, maintaining healthy relationships, securing jobs and exploring careers. Volunteers from the Junior League of Washington are an essential part of the TLC events. They provide materials and supplies for events and speakers for particular workshop presentations. With the support and energy of these volunteers, TLC club members are exposed to significant cultural and enrichment activities, as well as positive role models for leadership and good citizenship.

In the last full year of the program, TLC served just over 70 youth through six community sites, which is a major expansion of the program from previous years. This year TLC seeks to serve 100 youth at six to eight sites in the D.C. area. The goal is to continue to expand the program, by gaining access to new youth service locations such as Boys and Girls Clubs, D.C. Parks and Recreation Centers and more schools within the area.

Katie Thomas-Canfield, 2013 Meg Graham Scholarship Recipient

The Junior League of Washington is pleased to announce Katherine Thomas-Canfield as the recipient of the 2013 Meg Graham Scholarship...Celebrating Service and Leadership.

Katie Thomas- Canfield is pictured here at the JLW 2013 Awards ceremony with JLW's 2013- 2013 President Wendy Cumberland.

Katie is a senior at School Without Walls and will be matriculating in the fall to the University of California-Berkeley. She plans to major in international development, and one day hopes to work in the Peace Corps, at the State Department, or with USAID. She currently serves the Class President and is a member of the National Honor Society. She serves as the student representative to the Local School Advisory Team, working with principals, teachers, and parents to better the School Without Walls environment; with the Team, she is currently working to facilitate a merger of a middle school with School Without Walls and help plan the 2013-2014 School Without Walls budget.

Katie has over 540 documented hours of volunteer service. The past two summers, Katie has volunteered with AMIGOS de Las Americas, first in Nicaragua and last year in the Dominican Republic. She has interned with Save the Children International and the Library of Congress. She is passionate about art, having taken classes at the Corcoran College of Art and having had work displayed at George Washington University and American University; she won first place in the 2012 citywide DCPS Arts Exhibition. Katie said her first volunteer experience was when she was two-years-old and went to N Street Village, one of the JLW’s current community partners, with her church.

Bill Graham, husband of the late Meg Graham, says about Katie: “If one looked at Meg's achievements at a comparable point in her youth, the parallels would be striking.”

The JLW is thrilled to support Katie in her higher education pursuits over the next four years and looks forward to her accomplishments.

For more information about the JLW's 2014 application for the Meg Graham Scholarship, including the availability of and deadline for submission, please email grantsandvolunteers@jlw.org or visit our website at http://www.jlw.org/?nd=grants_scholars.