The Hope Association

HOPE Multiplied strives to provide direct-service programs that address the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs of the community in the D.C. Metro area. We aim to close the gap between what our community has and what they need to live healthy, fulfilling lives.

Recognizing that a community’s needs change, along with our ability to address these needs, HOPE has programs that address some of the community’s most persistent needs:

Food and nutrition: According to an Executive Summary from the DC Office of Planning, nearly 1 out of 3 children in the District will be food insecure in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 public health emergency. Even after the economy recovers, food insecurity in DC will likely remain at emergency levels. Through our service experience, we noticed free & reduced meal programs only cover so much. HOPE’s Healthy Start program provides free, nutritious, culturally-appropriate food to students in low-income families in order to supplement these programs and provide meals on the weekends and holidays during which students would otherwise not have access to meal programs.

Healthcare: In addition to access to healthy food and nutrition, we identified a basic need for access to healthcare in several neighborhoods in the DC area, predominantly in Wards 7 & 8. While the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010 provided low income families with the ability to obtain health insurance, research and assessments done in low income neighborhoods around DC showed that although residents had insurance, their inability to visit an in person primary care facility hindered the care they were able to receive. Hope quickly identified this gap and the idea that health insurance does not equal healthcare and quickly sought to alleviate that problem through the creation of mobile health clinics in Wards 7 & 8 in DC.

Community development: In addition to those long term, focused needs, Hope also uses our monthly Love Your City program to focus on more immediate, one-time needs for at-risk populations such as the homeless community in DC. While these events aren’t meant to solve systemic issues in these populations, they do provide an immediate need being met and strive to lay the framework for long term engagement and relationship building. Whether it be a BBQ and free haircuts for the homeless, or a holiday party with gifts and a meal for kids with cancer and blood disorders from the local hospital, Hope is always focused on finding new ways to make an impact with an immediate need.

Investment in our youth: Hope recognizes the importance of investing in our younger generations, which is why we developed our Mentor, Read Aloud, and Emerging Leaders programs. Each program utilizes the passions and talents of our volunteers-including college students, CEOs, non-profit leaders- and provides opportunities for them to invest in changing the lives of at-risk students from elementary through high school.

The goals of HOPE Multiplied are accomplished using three steps:
Step 1. Identify the need(s) of the community. Our needs assessment process includes identifying what resources are already available AND accessible to people and where there is a gap. That is where we step in.

Step 2. Create new or modify current programs/events to address these needs.
Our programs and events are created out of a need we identified in the community. We constantly evaluate and monitor our program and events in order to find out if they need to be tweaked, revamped, scratched, or grown. One of the many advantages of our organization’s structure is that we can make quick and effective changes to a program(s) if needed - as an example, our Healthy Start program ramped up its distribution during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in order to provide food for the students who no longer had access to school lunches everyday due to virtual learning. HOPE provided over 15x as many meals to students as it was in a normal program month.

Healthy Start addresses food insecurity for children of low-income families in the D.C. area. We help bridge the gap between what the kids are getting through and what they need by providing nutritious meals for weekends and holidays- times in which they otherwise may not have access to sufficient quality or quantity of food.

Hope Mentor Program helps elementary and middle-school students identified as “at-risk” by their schools to reach their full potential through positive and meaningful relationships with local adults serving in a mentor role.

Read Aloud plants and fosters a love of reading in elementary students in Arlington County, VA and establishes a foundation for future reading successes.

Love Your City (LYC) is an event designed to bring a large number of volunteers together and make a real impact in our local communities. LYC is our way of showing genuine love to our neighbors and peers by meeting them where they are and attending to their needs. Examples include passing out food & hygiene kits to the homeless, visiting young people at the juvenile detention center and cleaning the playroom of a homeless shelter.

Emerging Leaders is a comprehensive 3 year professional development entrepreneurship program that puts students on a path toward economic security and social influence.

Mobile Health Clinics serve the at-risk, disenfranchised populations on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt where most of the residents have no access to a healthcare facility.

Step 3. Gather, motivate, empower, and support volunteers to multiply the impact of our programs.
We firmly believe our positive impact is multiplied exponentially through the service of our volunteers. Thus, an equally valuable goal of HOPE is to inspire, enable and equip passionate people to use their unique gifts, talents, and abilities to serve more people than they could on their own and meet the greatest needs of our communities.

Staff
Our staff is passionate, talented, compact, and diverse in their backgrounds and skills. One thing they share is their relentless desire to help people in need. With professional backgrounds and personal interests ranging across education, business, nutrition, health, social work, and beyond, HOPE views service to our community from a multi-lens approach.
HOPE has a full time Executive Director that is fully engaged and committed to focusing on the strategic vision of the organization, a full time Program Director who handles the day-to-day operations of programs, and volunteers serving in leadership roles such as Site Leads that oversee multiple volunteers at specific sites or events.

Volunteers
HOPE is fortunate to have a large volunteer base with a wide variety of interests and resources to contribute. We believe this is a direct reflection on the value we place in our volunteer’s service.
Our volunteer base composed of 150+ dedicated and passionate volunteers allows for HOPE to pour the majority of its financial resources into the program beneficiaries while still providing a meaningful impact.
We offer a range of opportunities for volunteers to serve their communities, each varying in time and consistency commitments.
Volunteers won’t just be giving, they will also receive -- through volunteering at HOPE Multiplied, our volunteers get a sense of fulfillment, connection to their local community, opportunities to meet other individuals with similar interests, support and appreciation from our organization, and more.

Budget
Hope’s budget is designed in such a way that every dollar is maximized and stretched in order to create as large an impact in our programs as possible. That’s why over 80% of the money we bring in on a yearly basis is put right into our programs in order to create that impact. We strive to keep our overhead costs as lean as possible, foregoing extraneous costs including office space, equipment, etc. In 2020, out of a budget that included expenses of $493,429, Hope used roughly $429,500 of those dollars for program-related expenses.

Partnerships
HOPE Multiplied recognizes we can achieve more by partnering with other organizations and institutions that align with our values.
Some of these partners include:

Mentor Program: Randolph and Dr. Charles R. Drew Elementary Schools, Gunston Middle School

Read Aloud: Randolph and Dr. Charles R. Drew Elementary Schools

Love Your City: Central Union Mission, Special Olympics, Downtown DC Business Improvement District’s efforts in Franklin Square, World Central Kitchen, Children’s National Medical Center, DC Juvenile Detention Center

Healthy Start - Brightwood Education Campus, World Central Kitchen

6 programs designed to address food insecurity, healthcare needs, investment in our youth and community.
Multiple monthly and/or annual events including holiday parties for children in hospitals, community beautification and clean-up, fundraisers and food drives, and more.
5,800+ meals provided to students of low-income families in the Washington D.C. and Arlington County areas.
150+ mentor/mentee pairs matched and supported throughout multiple school years.
50+ second and third graders exposed to the joys and importance of reading by motivated reading buddy volunteers.

But we are so much more than numbers.

We are a small but mighty force composed of the most invaluable resource: passion. And we are only just getting started. HOPE Multiplied has grown from hosting individual community service events to developing and sustaining multiple programs that address our community’s most pressing needs. We have goals to both grow and develop our current programs and events, as well as create new programs when we see an opportunity for our resources to align with the community’s needs.