Summer Wrap Up

And just like that, another summer is quickly coming to a close. Despite the continued 90 degree weather, a few signs of fall have appeared: our youth summer programs and field trips have ended, and school has started for many kids in our programs.

Our annual backpack drive has kept us busy this summer. One of our favorite activities, we’ve again been able to provide much needed school supplies and materials to the kids in our programs, thanks to generous donations from you.

Though in a few months we’ll be dreaming of warm summer days, we’re excited to kick off our fall events and plans. We hope you enjoy these last days of summer!

Backpack Drive 2016

Housing Up is proud to announce that its annual backpack drive has just come to a close. With the help of generous support and donations, we were able to outfit over 400 children across the city with much needed school supplies. That is an increase of over 100 kids from last year’s drive. While the kids might not be too excited to see the end of their summer vacation, they’ll definitely be prepared for their first day of school.

Housing Up would like to thank all of its supporters in this effort. This includes Gifts of Hope, The Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Bethesda, All Souls Memorial Episcopal Church in DC, St. Paul’s Rock Creek Church in DC, the Morris family, the Pardo family, the Park family and the Iwugo family. We are so grateful to have such generous and caring friends in the community!

For more on our backpack drive, visit our website.

Employee Spotlight: August

We love highlighting the amazing staff we have here at Housing Up. This month, we sat down with Colby Johnson, Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) Case Manager, to talk about life at Housing Up and her goals for the year.

Tell me a little about yourself.

I was born and raised in New Haven, CT. I attended Gateway Community College for my Associate degree, Temple University for my Bachelor’s degree and the University of New Haven for my Master’s Degree. After undergrad I started working for various non-profit organizations before moving to Maryland in August of 2015. I have been married to my wonderful husband going on six years this November. We are in the process of purchasing our first home currently and we have no regrets about relocating to the DMV. For fun, I love retail therapy, date night with the hubby, reading, writing and traveling. I also love food – Mexican, Thai, Caribbean, and soul food are my favs. A fun fact about me is that during my freshman year of college I started doing photography and my work was exhibited with my mother’s paintings at a local art gallery in New Haven, CT. I hope to return to photography soon!

Check out the rest of Colby’s profile on our website.