Karen Cunningham: A new name, the same vision — let’s get everyone home, DC

On any given night, approximately 7,000 of our fellow residents — families as well as individuals — experience homelessness, according to DC’s 2018 Point in Time homelessness count. Some may see this as a welcome decrease from the prior year, when the figure was 7,473, and I’m proud of our efforts at Capitol Hill Group Ministry that contributed to securing homes for many of our neighbors in 2018. But our work is far from complete.

In fact, I’d say we’re just getting started.

Ensuring a continuous decline in the number of people experiencing homelessness will be an uphill battle as our city continues to gentrify. By making significant and sustained investments in homelessness prevention and housing solutions that work, we can ensure the city’s new prosperity benefits all residents rather than increasing the wealth gap and pushing more longtime residents into homelessness and poverty.

Our vision goes beyond housing. We want all residents to have the opportunities and supports they most need to thrive, including access to nutritious foods, education, employment, parenting supports, children’s services, transportation, and physical and behavioral health care services. We approach our services as we approach caring for our own families — with a mindset that focuses on the whole person, the whole family and the whole community.

As we mark the milestone of our 50th anniversary, we decided it was time for home — rather than homelessness — to be at the center of everything we do.

It was time for Capitol Hill Group Ministry to adopt a name that was truer to our mission, more reflective of our community, and more in line with our vision for our city as a thriving and diverse community, where all people can obtain and remain in safe, affordable and comfortable homes.

And so, I am proud to announce that today, Capitol Hill Group Ministry becomes Everyone Home DC.

Everyone Home DC is a name and a mission statement in one. It is more welcoming of the diverse range of supporters it will take to achieve our vision for everyone to have a home. Our new name also reflects our wide-ranging services and solutions, which now reach far beyond the geographic boundaries of the Capitol Hill community where we were founded.

Our new name, however, does not change our purpose, our programs or our special relationships with faith communities and Capitol Hill area partners. We continue to focus on a rigorous set of solutions for families and individuals experiencing homelessness in the Capitol Hill area and beyond.

The reality is, we’ve known a new name was needed for the past several years. So, about a year ago, we began working with others in the community as we reflected on the words we use to describe our beliefs, values and impact. We refined our vision, mission and strategic priorities, and then began considering how we communicate externally. Our process included conversations with staff, board, community members and faith leaders to ensure that our story was authentic and anchored by our core values and beliefs.

Our new name — Everyone Home DC — gives our work a clear and recognizable descriptor, something we did not have previously. And it reduces the confusion that many people had about our previous name. Our services and solutions are no longer limited to the Capitol Hill community, and while we maintain strong alliances with DC’s faith community, we are not a religiously affiliated organization.

Today we also introduce a new logo that incorporates warm colors and connected row homes — an iconic DC visual that represents our unwavering commitment to this community. The gradient of a rising sun represents hope and optimism, as well as our belief in the self-determination and resilience of all people. We often heard that our prior logo felt dated and traditional — not at all like the work we do every day. The main focus of our rebrand, which includes our new website, was to bring clarity and connectivity to our work, and to help our current and future partners and colleagues better understand our work and our mission to end homelessness. We believe this new brand is a powerful reflection of who we are and what we stand for.

As we anticipate the imminent release of the 2019 Point in Time homelessness count, we trust that the momentum built in the past year will provide the focus and energy needed to continue moving our city in the right direction.

I invite you to learn more at everyonehomedc.org and join us in this next phase of our journey. We are indeed just getting started, and we’ll need everyone in this together if we are to achieve everyone home, DC.

Karen Cunningham is the executive director of Everyone Home DC, formerly known as Capitol Hill Group Ministry. Over the past 50 years, the DC nonprofit’s homelessness prevention, housing, street outreach, drop-in day center, and supportive services have served as the foundation for thousands of individuals and families to secure stable homes and build thriving lives.