Community Grants
WBA Foundation 2023 GRANT RECIPIENTS
Click here for an at-a-glance flyer of our grantees and the programs we support.
amaralegal.org |@AmaraLegal
Amara Legal Center provides free legal services to individuals whose rights have been violated while involved in commercial sex, whether involvement was by coercion, necessity, choice, or otherwise, in the DC metropolitan area. Amara’s attorneys are trained in providing trauma-informed legal services and are devoted to providing comprehensive support, making sure that its clients know they are not navigating their cases alone. The WBAF grant supports survivors of sex trafficking with civil legal services, including civil protection orders, child custody, divorce, sealing and vacating criminal records, and victim-witness advocacy.
AYUDA
Ayuda advocates for low-income immigrants through direct legal, social, and language services, training, and outreach in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Ayuda is the only nonprofit organization in the DC metro area that offers a full range of integrated immigration and family law assistance, social services, and language access support for low-income immigrants from any country. The WBAF grant supports Ayuda’s Client Support and Empowerment Fund and Ayuda’s efforts in providing culturally-specific legal services for immigrant girls and women who are victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking, as well as abused, abandoned, and neglected children.
DC KinCare Alliance supports the legal, financial, and related service needs of relative caregivers, the majority of whom are women, who step up to raise children in their extended families in times of crisis when the children’s parents are not able to care for them. DC KinCare Alliance is the only organization in DC focused solely on serving relative caregivers raising DC’s at-risk children. The WBAF grant supports the Kincare Legal Defense Project, which provides free legal representation to relative caregivers in court and free legal advice in their communities.
dcvlp.org | @DCVLP
The DC Volunteer Lawyers Project addresses the critical shortage of legal assistance for low-income people in Washington, DC, especially in cases involving domestic violence. The WBAF grant supports HAVEN: Housing Advocacy for Victims, an initiative of DCVLP’s Domestic Violence Program, that provides District victims of domestic and other gender-based violence with legal assistance and advocacy on victim legal rights in housing, employment, and financial matters. HAVEN’s goal is to help victims achieve long term safety, housing and employment stability, and economic self-sufficiency.
firstshift.org | @1stShiftJustice
First Shift Justice Project empowers low-income pregnant women and parents to safeguard the economic security and health of their families by asserting their workplace rights. By receiving advice and representation, working parents are able to assert their rights before they lose their positions or before their workplace stress becomes untenable, First Shift helps them safely maintain their employment, their health and their family commitments. The WBAF grant supports efforts to provide employment-related direct legal services to low-income women in the Washington Metro Area.
Mil Mujeres serves low-income Latina immigrants, particularly survivors of domestic violence, human trafficking, sexual assault, and other violent crimes. Females make up 99 percent of Mil Mujeres' clients. Almost all of Mil Mujeres’ clients are from Mexico (72%), El Salvador (14%), Guatemala (8%), or Honduras (5%). The WBAF grant supports efforts to increase the level of legal representation that is available to Latina immigrants in the DC Metro Area.
mothersoutreachnetwork.org | @MothersOutreach
Mother's Outreach Network facilitates the power of Black mothers subject to systems of disempowerment, such as the family regulation and foster system, to upend a socio-economic structure that inadequately addresses their full potential for economic independence. It advances economic security for women and families through social justice education, mutual aid, grassroots mobilization, and legal advocacy, focused on disadvantaged Black women in Washington, DC. The WBAF grant supports a new pop-up legal clinic program focused on mothers with children entangled in the foster care system that provides assistance that includes navigating Child Protective Services investigations to address neglect related allegations and minimize removals; post-Child Protection Register inclusion fair hearings representation; legal services that impact economic security such as child tax credits, and collecting stories for city officials and oversight hearings on these issues.
THE NETWORK FOR VICTIM RECOVERY
The Network for Victim Recovery of DC empowers victims of crime to achieve survivor defined justice through a collaborative continuum of advocacy, case management, and legal services. Since its founding in 2012, NVRDC has served over 3,500 crime victims in the District, providing holistic case management and legal services for crime victims needing assistance regarding civil protection order representation, crime victims' rights enforcement, and Title IX/Clery representation for campus crime victims. The WBAF grant supports the Systemic Advocacy Legal Services and Pro Bono Program, through which NVRDC builds partnership with law firms to combat the barriers survivors face in accessing justice and ultimately create positive, long-lasting impacts on the trajectory of survivors’ lives.
THE SAFE SISTERS CIRCLE
safesisterscircle.org | @TheSafeSisters
The Safe Sisters Circle provides free culturally-specific, trauma-informed, and legal holistic services to Black women survivors of domestic violence and/or sexual abuse. Rooted in Safe Sisters Circle is the belief that there is value in having an organization established for Black women and where the majority of service providers and leadership within the organization are also Black women. The WBAF grant supports East of the River Women's Legal Services Project, which provides free legal services to Black women survivors of domestic and sexual violence living in Wards 7 and 8, specifically civil protection order hearings, family law cases, and victim advocacy cases. Safe Sisters Circle will also provide educational workshops and hold listening sessions for survivors and advocates living or working in Wards 7 and 8.
TZEDEK DC, INC.
Tzedek provides trauma-informed legal assistance for women in DC who are subject to financial abuse and coerced debt. Their client base is 90% BIPOC, 60% women, and 25% disabled community members. The WBAF grant supports general operations, supporting efforts to help women avoid debt collection credit harms for debts incurred through identity theft, to refer women to other local organizations serving victims of domestic abuse (e.g., Sinai House, DASH, Wendt Center, Mary’s Center, etc.), for trauma-informed care, and to provide financial abuse prevention /recovery training.
Click here for a list and video of 2022 Grant Recipients.
Click here for a list and video of 2021 Grant Recipients.
Click here for a list and video of 2020 Grant Recipients.
Click here for a list and video of 2019 Grant Recipients.
Click here for a list and video of 2018 Grant Recipients.
Click here for a list and video of 2017 Grant Recipients.
Click here for a list and video of 2016 Grant Recipients.
Click here for a list and video of 2015 Grant Recipients.
Click here for a list and video of 2014 Grant Recipients.
Click here for a list and video of 2013 Grant Recipients.
Click here for a list and video of 2012 Grant Recipients.
Click here for a list and video of 2011 Grant Recipients.
Click here for a list and video of 2010 Grant Recipients.