Update: Washington, DC Project H.O.M.E.

Hi everyone! This is Sherry Ways of the Washington, DC Project H.O.M.E. and I am giving you the latest on our project the Unity Health Care East of the River Key Reading Corner Project.

Unity Health Care, Inc., The Ward 7 Arts Collaborative, Design Scheme Interiors, LLC (a private interior design firm in Washington, DC), and the Decorators’ Alliance of North America (DANA) are developing partnerships with local businesses to help brighten the lives of residents East of the River in Washington, DC through Unity Health Care’s East of the River Key Corner Project.

The Ward 7 Arts Collaborative (a non profit -501c3) is a group of artists, supporters, promoters, businesses, and nonprofit organizations who believe in the power of the arts to spiritually, physically, mentally and financially empower individuals and the East Washington, DC community. The mission of the Ward 7 Arts Collaborative is to foster awareness of, support for, and participation in the arts among community residents and visitors of all ages, and to preserve and enhance our local community's cultural and entertainment heritage.

For more than 20 years, Unity Health Care, Inc. (a non profit – 501c3) has provided health care and social services to the under/uninsured, homeless and working poor here in our nation’s capital. From humble beginnings as Health Care for the Homeless Project in 1985 – where a small group of doctors provided vital health care from the coatroom of a local school – to the largest provider of health care in the DC Metropolitan area with a staff of over 900 employees and 39 community health care systems, Unity now provides care for more than 80,000 DC residents every year.

The goal of Unity Health Care’s Key Corner Project is to combine pediatric literacy with pediatric care. To promote the importance of reading, volunteers, celebrity readers and other Partners in Caring, host routine reading and story telling circles in the waiting room area of Unity’s community health centers with the largest number of children in need of care.

To successfully renovate and redesign the Unity Health Care East of the River Key Corner, we need the following donations:

Environmentally friendly paint products
Lobby seating
Books for children ages 2-10
New backpacks and school supplies
Financial contributions- $500 and up

Businesses who sponsor this project with a donation of $5,000 or more will receive a one-year sponsorship of the Corner to include:

A formal unveiling of the corner (media opportunity)
A plaque presented to your company’s senior management team and/or board president
Volunteer opportunities for your company’s employees (hosting story time and reading circles at the Key Corner)
Your organization’s name mentioned in local press releases distributed to radio stations and newspapers
Your organization’s name on book bags and school supplies for more than 2,000 children returning to school in this challenged community within your nation’s capital
Your direct impact toward healing a vulnerable community and empowering the children who depend on Unity Health Care’s East of the River Health Center

With in-kind sponsorship through DANA, a visual artist from the Ward 7 Arts Collaborative, and my staff from Design Scheme Interiors, LLC we are seeking to turn this space into a stimulating, functional, universal and organized environment which will encourage the growth and development of the 2,000 children who visit the clinic for their well-child visits each year. This partnership will bring a message of beauty and hope to this struggling community through the creation of artistic and creative spaces. The Ward 7 Arts Collaborative and my firm, Design Scheme Interiors, LLC, will put our expertise in action as we redesign a beautiful and functional space. This space will establish an environment conducive to literacy and learning, and will also serve as a consistent reminder that there is a resource of hope and healing in the midst of this troubled community.

Well, to date with Tia Maxie as lead, we have selected all of our colors, materials, and the mural design that an artist Mr. William Howard from the Ward 7 Arts Collaborative in Washington, DC has conceptually designed for us. We also met with the new Unity Health Care East of the River Clinic Director, Jesse Langston and showed him preliminary design concepts. Mr. Langston has given us a preliminary thumbs up on the project.

In addition, we prepared a survey for the East of the River Unity Health Care Clinic to survey patients and their children about the colors, look and feel that they would like to see in the center. To date, we have created a color therapuetic palette to calm and relax patients and their children in the facility.

Audrey White the Unity Health Care Director of Community and Corporate Relations and I have drafed and approved a solicitation letter to garner inkind and corporate support for the project. The first group of letters were mailed on Friday, May 16th.

Regarding the current corporate sponsors that have agreed to donate needed materials and furniture for the Key Corner are as follows:

IKEA- College Park, Maryland Store
Eco-Green Living, an environmentally friendly store in Washington, DC

Eco-Green Living will be donating 10 gallons of Yolo Colorhouse Environmentally-Friendly paint. IKEA will be donating children's furniture for the reading corner.

In addition, two art consulting organizations will be soliciting arts materials and backpacks for the children. These organizations are Authentic Art Consulting and the ThickArt Collaborative. Both of these organizations will be co-sponsoring an exhibit entitled H3: Herstory: A Celebration of Women Artists during the months of June and July 2008 in Georgetown, Washington, DC. All participants and guests who will attend the opening reception, scheduled for Friday, June 6th, will be asked to bring children's books, arts materials and school backpacks in support of the Project H.O.M.E. Washington, DC Project.

I have asked my Public Relations Representative, Pauline Elmore, to begin to put together a series of press releases on the project to inform the broader community about what we are doing. I have asked her to be in touch with the national Project H.O.M.E. staff, the Unity Health Care representatives as well as key members and artists of the Ward 7 Arts Collaborative to interview them on various aspects of the project. The first press release will be sent out shortly.
After all sponsors have been solidified, we will be doing an article about their involvement as well.

This fall, my internet radio show, Inside Design, will interview all members of the project including Project H.O.M.E. national staff. This will be likely scheduled in October, after the project has been implemented and hopefully completed.

On Wednesday, May 21st, I along with my business partner Susan Schemm will be volunteering to read to those children visiting the Unity Health Care East of the River Center. This will provide those who work at the center and their families and opportunity to interact with my design firm and to demonstrate that we are involved in the community.

Lastly, On Wednesday, May 28th, my staff will be presenting the final design plan to the officials of the Unity Health Care Center, IKEA and the Ward 7 Washington, DC Councilperson, Yvette Alexander for approval.

Things are being to move quickly on this project. I will be back again to show you photos and a video of the presentation on May 28th.

Respectfully Submitted,

Sherry B. Ways
DANA Project H.O.M.E. Washington, DC Coordinator