Mission:

The mission of the Homeless Children's Playtime Project is to nurture healthy child development and reduce the effects of trauma among children living in temporary housing programs in the District of Columbia.

Vision:

We believe that play is a human right that all children deserve, regardless of housing status. We seek to help create a city that provides every opportunity for homeless children to succeed by advocating for affordable housing and safe shelters for all families.

What We Do:

Our trained and screened volunteers provide weekly activities, healthy snacks, and opportunities to play and learn for the children at emergency shelter and transitional housing sites in the District of Columbia. In the past eight years, 600 volunteers have served more than 1,000 children at eight playtime sites throughout the city.

ABOUT HCPP

As the recession has firmly settled into our nation’s capital, unemployment has doubled, housing prices continue to soar, and more and more families are becoming homeless every day. This vulnerable time in a child’s life presents unprecedented risk factors as families sleep in unsafe situations while they await shelter. Children in families who are granted emergency housing are admitted into a system that can compromise their mental and physical well-being, overlook their needs, and even threaten their safety.

Most family shelters have no programs or services for children despite the myriad of risk factors associated with homelessness. The needs of children are often overlooked, but the opportunity for a healthy and happy childhood has a very real expiration date.

The Playtime Project provides the only children’s program offered in five shelters a total of eight times each week. Eighty volunteers serve more than 120 children in families who are homeless every week. Our program model provides one-on-one attention, healthy snacks and access to developmentally appropriate toys and activities designed to reduce the traumatic effects of homelessness on children and to promote learning and joy.

How Did HCPP Start?

The Homeless Children’s Playtime Project (HCPP) began in 2003 by a coalition of concerned community members, led by social worker and child advocate, Jamila Larson and lawyer Regina Kline. After discovering there were twenty children living in the largest homeless shelter in the country located just a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol building, they helped establish a playroom and begun providing weekly activities, snacks and supplies. In 2005 when families were moved from the CCNV shelter and sent to D.C. Village, HCPP followed the children there and the organization was granted 501(c)3 status. HCPP continued to run as an all-volunteer organization and expanded to serve Hope Apartments and Turning Point Center at the request of the programs.

When D.C. Village closed, HCPP moved to Northwest Church Family Network which had a playroom but lost its funding for a children’s program. In the fall of 2009, they hired their first regular staff, a fulltime Executive Director and part-time Program Associate and expanded to D.C. General Emergency Family Hypothermia Shelter and Park Road Emergency Family Shelter. In 2010, HCPP phased out operations at Hope Apartments and moved to the District Alliance for Safe Housing (DASH) to Cornerstone, a new transitional housing program for survivors of domestic violence and their children.

Take Me to Your Leaders!

HCPP has always been a largely volunteer-run organization managed by small staff along with a team of Site Coordinators who oversee each site. You can read about all of these creatures along with our governing Board of Directors below!

Jamila Larson, LICSW
Executive Director, Co-Founder
jamila.hcpp(at)gmail.com

Lana Tilley
Program & Operations Manager
lana.hcpp(at)gmail.com

Carrie Beaudreau
Development Associate
carrie.hcpp(at)gmail.com

Andy Miller
Teen Program & Field Trip Coordinator
andy.hcpp(at)gmail.com

Staff

Jamila Larson came to D.C. in 1996 from Wisconsin and has been running the Playtime Project as a volunteer since its founding in 2003. She assumed the role as first fulltime Executive Director in September 2009. Her experience as a licensed clinical social worker running a mental health and after school program and as a policy researcher at the Children's Defense Fund helped inform her leadership of the Playtime Project. "We are fortunate to have the most amazing volunteers and dedicated donors who recognize the unlimited potential in the children and families we serve and make a commitment to protecting a child's right to experience joy."

Lana Tilley is originally from Berkeley, California and began volunteering with Playtime in 2007 while working for a homelessness policy non-profit. Now the Program & Operations Manager in the HCPP office, she oversees the organization’s volunteer management, program direction, financial systems, and everything in between. "The consistency that playtime creates for children and their parents is so valuable. The trust that develops between volunteers and families is a result of the visible happiness each child gains from playtime each evening, and it feels really special!"

Carrie Beaudreau, originally from Rochester, NY, moved to Washington DC in 1993 to attend Georgetown University Law Center. After graduation, Carrie worked for several years as an assistant public defender in Baltimore, where she represented youth in the juvenile delinquency system. Recently, Carrie has taken a leadership role in her community to fundraise and advocate for improvements at her neighborhood parks and recreation centers. Carrie joined HCPP as part-time Development Associate in 2011, and is excited about combining her commitment to serving children and youth with her fundraising experience.

Andy Miller, is originally from Central Pennsylvania and has been living in Washington, DC since 2007. Andy has worked with youth in a variety of contexts including after school programming, mentoring, and youth ministry. Most recently, Andy served as program coordinator for Little Lights Urban Ministries in SE DC for three years. Currently, along with being the Teen Program and Field Trip Coordinator at HCPP, Andy serves as Pastor to Children and Youth at Mosaic Church of the Nazarene in NW DC. Andy is also currently working on his Masters Degree in Urban Studies with a concentration in Youth Development from Eastern University. "Being able to leave a positive imprint in the life of a young person is one of the greatest things anyone can do with their time on earth."

The HCPP Site Coordinators

D.C. General

Jessica Kawamura grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. She came to Washington, DC in 2009 as a Presidential Management Fellow. She currently works at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where she is a budget analyst for programs serving low-income children and families. Previously, Jessica graduated from the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley and Brown University. "The kids and parents at DC General keep me grounded and inspire my work in public policy. I am grateful to be part of an organization where people are passionate and committed to improving the lives of children."

Heather Provencher is originally from New England and moved to Baltimore in 2003 to study social work. After several years working in foster care and child protective services in Prince George’s County, Maryland, she is now employed by a national child abuse organization in Washington, DC. Heather joined the HCCP team in 2010 as a way to remain connected to children and families in her community. “Homelessness is an experience in which children have so little control. HCPP gives kids the power to make choices of their own and exercise their incredible imaginations and creativity. Each week I get to watch children having fun, expressing themselves and being kids. It’s fantastic!"

Ashley Wiegner is originally from New Jersey and moved to D.C., working for the US Department of Education. She served as an organizer for the Obama campaign and has been volunteering with Playtime for about a year and a half. Now she works for the United States Agency for International Development. She enjoys taking the lead in special events and field trips for the kids at DC General. She makes it to Playtime every Thursday by reminding herself that “Playtime is a priority and that nothing is more important. Work will always be there, but I want to know at the end of the my life I invested part of myself in the kind of work HCPP does.”

Park Road

Haley Adams is from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and has a Masters degree in public policy from American University. She became involved in HCPP in 2007 because she felt upset seeing homeless people on the street and wanted to do something about it. “I think kids are the best place to start!” One day, she saw a 6-year-old crying, saying classmates had teased him about his ugly and dirty shoes. A 10-year-old girl at the shelter was consoling him, telling him it doesn’t matter what other people say, just what his family thinks and that everyone here at the program cares about him. “The next thing you know, he was off playing with a big smile on his face!”

Stephanie Sprow is from Buffalo, New York and has been involved with HCPP since 2009 after graduating from the University of Michigan and coming to Washington to work for the Children’s Defense Fund. She wanted to volunteer with younger children as she did at a Detroit Head Start Program and says HCPP has helped her realize how important play is for children. “I have watched so many of the children at my site grow up and reach developmental milestones (learning to walk and talk, learning to share, and listening to rules and recognizing the consequences if they are broken). The children never want to leave the same volunteers every week!”

NCFN

Ari Isaacman Astles currently works as a Policy Analyst in the Office of Management and Budget in the Executive Office of the President. She has an MBA from the George Washington University (GWU) in Strategic Management and a BS in Economics from the University of Pittsburgh. Ari taught 6th grade in an underachieving middle school in Los Angeles with Teach for America, and has worked at KIPP DC, was an Education Pioneers Fellow at New Leaders for New Schools, and served as the SchoolStat Analyst at the District of Columbia Public Schools. Ari recently completed her 200 hour yoga teacher training with Yoga District, and is excited to bring elements of the yoga tradition into her Playtime experience, as she is most proud and humbled to be able to serve DC's most vulnerable little ones as the Baby Room Coordinator.

Kathleen Fawcett is originally from Hagerstown, Maryland and she became involved with HCPP in 2008 after a shooting in her neighborhood near NCFN inspired her to get involved in her neighborhood. Despite her busy schedule as a third year law student at Catholic University and working as a law clerk, Kathleen often organizes special events like holiday parties for Playtime. “I get ten times out of playtime than what I put in. It is the best part of my week!”

Jenna Hubbard hails from the the Baltimore/ Annapolis area, a native Marylander. After graduating from the University of Richmond,, she spent some time coaching middle school lacrosse, and substitute teaching at an Elementary school in Annapolis. She then settled in Washington, D.C. and has been working for "The Advisory Board" for the last 2 years. The Advisory Board has been a long-time advocate and partner of HCPP, and Jenna learned about HCPP from a colleague, and began volunteering at NCFN in February 2011. Jenna joined the HCPP team because she felt it was a positive way to give back to the community and enjoyed working with a group of passionate people who really make a difference day to day. "It's so easy to get bogged down by life's busy schedule- work, plans, school. Volunteering with HCPP is a way that you can put your own needs on pause once a week and give back to children who love to laugh, learn, and ultimately really appreciate you making time for them".

Robin Ngo is from Virginia and Florida and has a background in Classics and Classical Archaeology. She began volunteering for HCPP in the Fall of 2010 in order to contribute to the improvement of the lives of underprivileged children in her community. "It's fascinating to be able to observe with every passing week and month the subtle ways in which the kids grow. Play is so important to children's development, and HCPP's mission has greatly benefited the children most in need of safe and structured playtime."

Turning Point

Megan Fletcher earned her Bachelor of Arts in psychology and sociology at Ohio Northern University. She is currently a candidate for her Masters in Intercultural Service, Leadership and Management at the SIT World Learning Institute. Megan has several years of experience working with children, including previous experience as the Youth Program Coordinator at a low income housing project in Vermont, and 5 years coordinating for children's summer camps and conferences. Megan is currently employed in the communications and policy area at Child Trends, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research center that studies children at all stages of development.

Mary Crom comes from Memphis, TN, and moved to D.C. in 2002 to attend American University, and then Georgetown Law. She works as the gardening instructor in a D.C. public charter school and as a freelance writer. She began volunteering for HCPP in early 2010, and became a site coordinator a year later. She has also participated in HCPP's advocacy efforts. "My reasons for volunteering aren't purely altruistic - Playtime is the best part of my week. The kids we work with are awesome. I love watching them learn and develop, and I'm sure they've taught me more than I've taught them!"

Frances Patton is from Evanston, Illinois and has a degree from Mary Washington University. She works as Special Events Coordinator at the Newseum. She joined HCPP in 2009 because she wanted to give back to the community and she loves kids. “It was the perfect fit! I may walk into Playtime with work on my mind and the second I walk in the door, a child runs up to me and we start playing and I am reminded why I am here!”

Heather Casciato, originally from Tucson, AZ, moved to DC in 2009 to begin a career in International Public Health, after a two-year stint in the Peace Corps. Heather began volunteering with HCPP in fall 2010 after one of her colleagues told her about the program and she fell in love with it. She has always enjoyed volunteering in her community as well as working with children, and HCPP is the perfect opportunity for her to do both. "Every day at Playtime I get to interact with the kids and do what I can to make them smile and feel encouraged and supported. It almost doesn't seem fair that we can have so much fun and still really be making a positive difference in their lives. I am very grateful for every Playtime session, when I have just as much fun as the kids seem to be having!"

DASH/Cornerstone

Thalia Bishop relocated to the DC Metro area in 2005 from Brooklyn, New York. She completed her MBA in 2005 and will be finishing up with her masters in General Psychology at Catholic University of America in December 2011. She joined HCPP in 2009 hoping to find a positive environment to work with children. After volunteering for a year at DC General and Park Road, Thalia became a Co-Site Coordinator at our newest location, DASH. “Working with Playtime has been a greater experience than I could have ever imagined. I only pray that I bring the same happiness and joy to the lives of these children that they bring to mine.”

Lauren Waterhouse is from rural Maryland and attended college in DC. She now works at Children's National Medical Center in the Division of Trauma. She started volunteering with HCPP in 2010 as a way to engage in her community and merge her interests in child development and social justice.

The HCPP Board of Directors

Jamila Larson, LICSW
President, Co-Founder
Member of the Board of Directors
jamila.hcpp(at)gmail.com

Jamila has been running the Playtime Project as a volunteer since its founding in 2003 and assumed the role as first fulltime Executive Director in September 2009. For the previous five years she served as the Community School Director for the National Center for Children at the J.C. Nalle Elementary School in southeast Washington where she managed a mental health and after school program. In 2005 she was awarded “Employee of the Year” as a “Voice for Children” by the agency whose 180 staff provides comprehensive child welfare services in the D.C. metropolitan area.

While a college student in Minnesota, Jamila founded a program similar to HCPP at a Minneapolis homeless shelter which earned her the “Social Work Student of the Year” award in 1995 and continues now in its sixteenth year. Jamila originally came to Washington to work for the Children’s Defense Fund where she researched and wrote about best practices for strengthening low-income families for four years before getting her Master’s degree in Social Work. She then served as a Clinical Social Worker at Bright Beginnings, a Head Start program for homeless families, and then as Regional Director and Consultant for LIFT. She serves as a mentor to two children and writes a regular column for the Children’s Defense Fund and Media Voices for Children.

Kirsten Lodal
CEO and Co-Founder of LIFT (formerly National Student Partnerships)
Chair of the HCPP Board of Directors
klodal(at)liftcommunities.org

Years of volunteering with children’s services organizations left Kirsten Lodal repeatedly asking one question: why aren’t there more supports for poor parents who are trying to create a better future for their children while dealing with the overwhelming struggles that accompany living in poverty? As a response to that question, she founded LIFT in 1998 while a sophomore in college. Her idea was simple: to train talented, driven student volunteers from campuses across the country to serve as relentless advocates for people – especially women and children – living in poverty in the United States. Recognizing that poor families have to confront an inordinately complicated maze of bureaucracies to access help, these volunteer advocates would do whatever it took to help families find stable housing, employment, childcare, healthcare, food – anything they needed to chart a path out of poverty.

Over 11 years later, Lodal, now 30, has turned LIFT from a concept into a growing national movement to combat poverty and expand opportunity for all families in the United States. LIFT currently runs volunteer-staffed service centers across Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., which have helped over 30,000 families find the stability necessary to transform their lives. Lodal has played a leadership role in numerous poverty policy initiatives, and she actively participates on several boards, including her current role as the Chair of the Homeless Children’s Playtime Project. She is also a frequent and passionate public speaker; Lodal’s leadership with LIFT has been featured by the NBC Nightly News, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, and CNN. She is the proud recipient of the Jefferson Award for Public Service. Lodal graduated from Yale University in 2001 and has completed the Executive Management Program at the Columbia Business School’s Institute for Not-for-Profit Management.

Regina Kline
Co-Founder, HCPP
Advisory Board Chair
gkvfg(at)yahoo.com

Gina graduated from the University of Maryland law school in 2008 and currently serves as a law clerk for a judge in Washington, DC. She received a degree in Political Science in 2002 from Columbia University and was a member of the founding group of students who organized and built the nation’s only student-run nonprofit serving the needs of low-income individuals, LIFT. Gina served as Site Coordinator for the NSP-DC office as an Americorps*VISTA volunteer where she helped low-income and homeless individuals find housing, jobs connect with critical social services. Gina then went on to work for the Appleseed Foundation and the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless where she advocated for families whose rights were being violated because of their homeless status. She is passionate about protecting civil rights for all people.

David Graling, CPA, MBA
Finance Committee Chair
Member of the HCPP Board of Directors
patty(at)legalclinic.org

David Graling is the President and Managing Director of Gelman, Rosenberg & Freedman, Certified Public Accountants. He joined the firm in 1982. Mr. Graling has more than 30 years of experience in all areas of public accounting and his client base includes nonprofit organizations, for-profit businesses and individual clients.

He consults with clients on optimum business structure, tax saving strategies and obtaining financing and provides advice on tax compliance, estate planning, and family-owned business. His extensive experience with nonprofit organizations includes auditing, structuring of nonprofit organizations, internal control evaluation and management consulting. Mr. Graling is the Past Chairman of the Board of Directors of CPAmerica International and is Past-President of the Greater Washington Society of CPAs. He is the former Treasurer of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce and Past-President of the McLean Citizens Association, and remains active in local and community affairs. He is also the current Treasurer of the Military Order of the Carabao, and is a member of the Army and Navy Club finance committee. Mr. Graling belongs to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Maryland Association of CPAs and the Virginia Society of CPAs. He earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Business Administration at George Mason University.

Patty Mullahy-Fugere, Esq.
Executive Director of Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless
Member of the HCPP Board of Directors
patty(at)legalclinic.org

Patty has been involved in low-income housing and homelessness issues in the District of Columbia since 1980. She is one of the co-founders, and presently is the executive director, of the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, which advocates on behalf of people struggling with homelessness and poverty in the nation’s capital. Ms. Mullahy-Fugere was recently appointed by the DC Court of Appeals to the newly-formed Access to Justice Commission. She serves on the steering committee of the Fair Budget Coalition, and on the Board of Directors of the Washington Council of Lawyers in addition to the Homeless Children’s Playtime Project.

Patty is actively involved in the D.C. Consortium of Legal Services Providers. Previously, she served on the D.C. Bar’s Public Service Activities Committee, the D.C. Bar’s Pro Bono Initiative Working Group, the management committee of the Campaign for New Community, as well as on the boards of directors of Calvary Women's Shelter, the Coalition for Financial Accountability, and the Legal Resource Center for Non-Profit Housing Sponsors. She is an adjunct faculty member at the Georgetown University Law Center, where she teaches a course titled “Homelessness and Legal Advocacy".

Bob Edwards
Host, The Bob Edwards Show on Sirius XM Satellite Radio
Member of the HCPP Board of Directors
Bob.Edwards(at)siriusxm.com

In a career that has lasted more than 30 years, Bob Edwards has interviewed nearly 20,000 newsmakers. Born May 15, 1947 in Louisville, Kentucky, Edwards spent the early part of his career as a newscaster for Indiana station WHEL/New Albany, followed by a stint in Korea with Armed Forces Radio and Television. Edwards was working for WTOP/Washington when he joined National Public Radio in 1974. Later that year, Edwards was asked to join Susan Stamberg as co-host of a new NPR news program, All Things Considered.

In 1979, NPR launched Morning Edition, a morning companion show in the style of All Things Considered. Edwards was asked to host the show for the first 30 days until a permanent replacement could be found. In fact, Edwards served as the host for nearly 25 years. During his tenure on Morning Edition, Edwards won two Gabriel Awards from the National Catholic Association of Broadcasters, in addition to the Alfred I. du Pont-Columbia University Award in 1995 and a Peabody Award in 1999. Edwards stepped down as host of Morning Edition on April 30, 2004. Later that year, Edwards moved to XM Satellite Radio to launch The Bob Edwards Show. Bob Edwards was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2004. He has volunteered his time to the Homeless Children’s Playtime Project which he introduced to the country in 2008 through his award winning radio documentary: The Invisible: Children Without Homes that won the Alfred R. Murrow Award for Best Radio Documentary.