Partner Organizations
If you are interested in becoming a partner of Fair Chance, please review the Partner Application Guidelines.
We also continue to provide services to our Second Year Partners and our Alumni Partner Organizations.
Since 2002, Fair Chance has partnered with 48 community-based nonprofit organizations who serve more than 35,000 children, youth, and families in Washington DC's most underserved communities, Ward 5-8 [PDF]. Fair Chance helps each of these organizations and their leaders rise to their potential. Our proven program of support empowers our partners do what they do better, do more of it, and be around for those that need them for a long, long time.
Learn more about our new partners!
Through our team of highly skilled, specially trained Capacity Building Specialists, Fair Chance provides our partner organizations with year long individually tailored services aimed at improving their capacity, and strengthening their sustainability, impact, and success. This partnership, as well as the customized services it entails, evolves over time as our partner organizations grow and their needs change.
Partners receive a comprehensive assessment process resulting in a detailed work plan, and year-long, weekly, one-on-one, technical assistance in each of our eight service areas: Board Development, Financial Management and Analysis, Fundraising, Leadership Development, Human Resources and Accountability, Outreach and Communications, Program Evaluation and Monitoring, and Strategic Planning. Our Capacity Building Specialists work directly with each of our partner organizations' Executive Directors and other organizational leadership to enhance the skills and confidence they need to effectively lead and strengthen their organizations.
Fair Chance partners are eligible to receive a second year partnership that builds upon the lessons learned and skills transferred throughout the first year. While less time intensive, second year partnerships continue the structured, deliverable-based model to help our partners become stable, sustainable organizations.
After completing a first and/or second year of partnership with Fair Chance, partners join a thriving Alumni network. Fair Chance Alumni receive regular learning and networking opportunities through: quarterly roundtable events, access to our partner e-forum, Executive Director breakfasts, pro bono services, continued staff support when needed and invitations to various other events. Fair Chance values and maintains relationships with its partners to build a stronger community of support for DC children and youth.
New Partner Organizations
(Feb '10-Feb '11)
The following is a list of our incoming partner organizations. Fair Chance targets its efforts in two communities: east of the Anacostia River in Wards 7 and 8, and select neighborhoods west of the river in Wards 5 and 6.
Fair Chance seeks dynamic, child and youth-focused organizations operating in Wards 5-8 who have innovative programs and inspiring leaders. We are delighted to welcome the following five new partner as part of our Spring 2010 cycle.
Critical Exposure (Wards 1, 4 & 8) teaches youth to use the power of photography and their own voices to become effective advocates for school reform and social change. Through this approach Critical Exposure works to secure policy changes in order to ensure that all children have access to an excellent, equitable public education, fulfilling this nation's promise of providing all children with an opportunity to succeed.
First Time Computers (Wards 5, 6, 7, and 8) enhances the educational and employment prospects of low-income children and youth by widening their access to the world of technology. They seek to build their educational resources by [1] providing ready access to computers at home and [2] assisting community non-profits seeking to build computer access for the children and youth they serve. First Time Computers also improves young people's employment prospects by offering training programs in computer refurbishing and repair.
Hope and a Home (City-wide) empowers low income families with children in Washington, DC to create stable homes for themselves and make lasting changes in their lives. By offering affordable apartments and developing a program of comprehensive support including one-on-one coaching and peer support, Hope and a Home has enabled hundreds of parents and children to achieve permanent housing, educational success, rewarding work, and family stability.
Perry School Community Services Center (Wards 2, 5 & 6) uses a collaborative, comprehensive, and integrated approach to social services, economic empowerment, and youth development. Its mission is to help eradicate poverty, its causes and consequences, which results in positive outcomes for youth, adults, and families.
Young Ladies of Tomorrow (YLOT) (Wards 4, 5, 6, 7, & 8) works with preadolescent and teenage girls who have become involved in the juvenile justice system. In hopes of redirecting their course toward meaningful and productive futures, YLOT provides counseling, therapeutic recreation, job training, mentorship, and other services/opportunities for its participants.
Additional Partners in Their First Year
(Oct '09-Oct '10)
Breakthrough DC (serving youth from Wards 7 & 8) increases educational opportunity for high-potential, low-income middle school students and inspires outstanding college and high school students to pursue careers in education. Breakthrough DC accomplishes its mission by providing students with academic tutoring, mentoring, high school placement, and college counseling.
Helping Inner City Kids (HICKS) (serving youth from Wards 7 & 8) assists in the transformation of youth whose lives have been or are currently being affected by drugs, crime, and violence. By providing programming focused on social, academic, and economic development, HICKS offers young people opportunities for mentoring, life skills development, expressions through arts, and workforce development.
Life Starts (serving youth from Wards 7 & 8) provides mentoring, life skills, coaching, support, and advocacy for youth and their families. Life Starts' actions are built upon the belief that transformation begins with the heart. They encourage individuals to create and cultivate a positive change in their lives and inspire others to do the same.
Multicultural Career Intern Program (MCIP) (serving youth city-wide) works to be a "professional learning community" in which, through a collaborative environment, school administrators and teachers continuously seek and share learning opportunities to enhance their effectiveness as professionals to ultimately benefit their students.
Urban Ed (serving youth from Wards 7 & 8) strives to provide technology education, information, and skill development to low-income youth and young adults to foster economic independence. Offering career, technical, and business training and skill building, Urban Ed works with people of color from Oak Hill and the Wards 7 & 8 community to help secure skills in the technology field and improve their visions of their future.
