Foggy Bottom West End Village

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Check out our new Website

The Vil­lage is now online. We have launched our own web­site! You can now stay con­nected with the Foggy Bot­tom West End Vil­lage online at www.fbwevillage.org.

Keep up with the lat­est news and devel­op­ments. Learn more about mem­ber­ship and vol­un­teer­ing with the Vil­lage. Read our blogs about what’s going on in the com­mu­nity, senior issues and any­thing else we hope will grab your interest.

The Web­site is still a work in progress, and new pages, pho­tos and blogs are added all the time. So please visit often and be sure to send us your sug­ges­tions on how we can make the web­site more use­ful. We hope you will book­mark us and share the link with your friends.

FBWE Vil­lage offi­cially incorporates

Board Member Jackie Lemire shows off incorporation certificate

Board Mem­ber Jackie Lemire shows off incor­po­ra­tion certificate

On Jan­u­ary 6, Foggy Bot­tom West End Vil­lage became a cor­po­ra­tion in the Dis­trict of Colum­bia. The Vil­lage can now act as an inde­pen­dent entity for busi­ness mat­ters, includ­ing set­ting up its own bank accounts.

The Vil­lage is also in the home­stretch to file for sta­tus as an inde­pen­dent 501©3 non­profit orga­ni­za­tion. The appli­ca­tion takes sev­eral months for approval, and in the mean­time, the Vil­lage will retain its non­profit sta­tus under the umbrella of The Foggy Bot­tom Association.

Don’t miss our April event — Join now for an invite!

village_membersEvery­one who becomes a pledged mem­ber by March 31 will be invited to a spe­cial Vil­lage event in April. We now have a lively and expe­ri­enced Pro­gram Com­mit­tee devel­op­ing plans for a unique and fun cel­e­bra­tion. Each mem­ber is encour­aged to bring a guest. (Stay tuned for a date and more details.)

Keep in mind that all Social Mem­ber­ships in the Vil­lage are tax-deductible. Social Mem­ber­ships are $600 for an indi­vid­ual and $900 per house­hold. You can con­vert a Social Mem­ber­ship to a full-service mem­ber­ship at any time. To learn more about mem­ber­ship cat­e­gories, please visit our Web­site. (click here)

Our Pro­gram Com­mit­tee is com­mit­ted to the idea that help­ing neigh­bors get to know one another is a key com­po­nent of Vil­lage par­tic­i­pa­tion. We can’t wait to get the friend­ships started. That’s why the Vil­lage will host monthly “pre-launch” social pro­grams, begin­ning with the April cel­e­bra­tion. We’ll be start­ing a walk­ing group and set­ting dates to meet for cof­fee and conversation.

You can enjoy these events with­out yet pay­ing the mem­ber­ship fee as our appre­ci­a­tion for your com­mit­ment to the Vil­lage. Lots more oppor­tu­ni­ties to social­ize and explore our neigh­bor­hood will be announced once we’re offi­cially under­way, includ­ing restau­rant out­ings, cock­tail par­ties, museum tours, con­ver­sa­tion groups and lec­tures. Let the fun begin!

How to become a Vil­lage Vol­un­teer
FBWE Vil­lage is a “mem­ber­ship first” orga­ni­za­tion. The more vol­un­teers we have, the big­ger the impact we can make. It takes a vil­lage to make a vil­lage! For infor­ma­tion on how you can get involved, visit our Web­site by click­ing here.



Please return mem­ber­ship pledge forms now!

With this newslet­ter, we invite you to join and sup­port Foggy Bot­tom West End Vil­lage, a new non-profit sup­port orga­ni­za­tion to help neigh­bor­hood res­i­dents stay in their own homes. Nearly 250 peo­ple have attended infor­ma­tion recep­tions with Vil­lage Board mem­bers. We’re get­ting mem­ber­ship pledges every­where we go. If you’ve not yet returned your pledge form, we’d appre­ci­ate you doing so as quickly as pos­si­ble so plans can move for­ward. Please mail your pledge form to:

Foggy Bot­tom West End Vil­lage
PO Box 58251
Wash­ing­ton, DC 20037

Mem­ber­ship pay­ment is not due until the Vil­lage begins offer­ing ser­vices, tar­geted for mid-2013. The Vil­lage needs 100 mem­ber pledges before launch­ing to ensure the long-term health of the Village.

FBWE Vil­lage offers sev­eral mem­ber­ship options, and there is no age limit. If you have ques­tions or have not yet received an infor­ma­tion packet, please let us know in an email to fbwevillage@gmail.com. We’ll get back to your shortly!

DC Aging Report: Vil­lages are a “Best Practice”

Foggy Bot­tom West End Vil­lage is headed in the right direc­tion! The DC Office on Aging has iden­ti­fied the Vil­lage move­ment as a “Best Prac­tice” for help­ing Dis­trict res­i­dents remain inde­pen­dent in their own homes.

Aging-in-place “vil­lages” started as a grass­roots move­ment a decade ago in Boston’s Bea­con Hill neigh­bor­hood. Since then, Vil­lages such as ours here in West End and Foggy Bot­tom have spread expo­nen­tially. The DC Metro area has the largest con­cen­tra­tion of Vil­lages in the country.

The DC Office on Aging has released a report say­ing the Vil­lage con­cept “has the poten­tial to pro­vide a num­ber of ben­e­fits and cre­ate a mech­a­nism for seniors to take the lead in pro­vid­ing sup­port for their own neighborhoods.”

The lat­est Senior Needs Assess­ment con­tin­ues:
The Board and its five com­mit­tees (Vol­un­teer, Com­mu­ni­ca­tion, Mem­ber­ship, Devel­op­ment / Fundrais­ing, and Admin­is­tra­tion) have been busy turn­ing ideas into action. These activ­i­ties have included:

•   First, a Vil­lage takes advan­tage of the oppor­tu­nity for neigh­bors to serve as providers of basic sup­port services.
•   Sec­ond, the Vil­lage model pro­motes a sense of a social sup­port within the community.
•   Third, it has the poten­tial to reduce the cost to gov­ern­ment agen­cies when the Vil­lage com­mu­nity pro­vides sup­port ser­vices, such as trans­porta­tion or coor­di­nat­ing vol­un­teers to help seniors with gro­cery needs or sim­i­lar requirements.

Foggy Bot­tom West End Vil­lage is on the cut­ting edge. Join us there, won’t you?

What exactly is FBWE Village?

Foggy Bot­tom West End Vil­lage is a new non­profit orga­ni­za­tion of like-minded neigh­bors who join together to ben­e­fit from pro­grams that encour­age social ties and pro­vide ser­vices for inde­pen­dent liv­ing. Our mis­sion is to give res­i­dents the prac­ti­cal means and con­fi­dence to live well in their own homes as long as they wish.

When neigh­bors get to know each other the entire com­mu­nity grows stronger. This strong com­mu­nity revolves around a group of vet­ted, trained vol­un­teers who will pro­vide ser­vices with the help of paid vol­un­teer coor­di­na­tor. The Vil­lage cre­ates a net­work to share infor­ma­tion and exper­tise, build new friend­ships, and help one another in times of need.

Social and edu­ca­tional activ­i­ties may include restau­rant out­ings, museum tours, exer­cise pro­grams and lec­tures. Ser­vices will depend on mem­ber needs, such as trans­porta­tion to appoint­ments, help with tech­nol­ogy and gro­cery shop­ping, and unex­pected needs. FBWE Vil­lage adds to the sup­port of your friends and family.

Vil­lage Vol­un­teer Opportunities

FBWE Vil­lage is a “vol­un­teer first” orga­ni­za­tion. The more vol­un­teers we have, the big­ger the impact we can make. It takes a vil­lage to make a vil­lage! For infor­ma­tion on how you can get involved, con­tact Board Mem­bers Bev­erly Gyl­len­haal or Mon­roe Wright at fbwevillage@gmail.com

Donate Now: Every gift opens doors

The Vil­lage needs your sup­port to raise gen­eral oper­at­ing funds. To every­one who has already donated, thank you!
We appre­ci­ate your generosity.

Because mem­ber­ship dues do not cover all of the costs of run­ning a vil­lage, we need finan­cial sup­port for a cush­ion to ensure that the Vil­lage is sus­tain­able for the long term.

All gifts and dona­tions are tax-deductible. Please con­sider includ­ing FBWE Vil­lage in your year-end char­i­ta­ble giv­ing. For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact Board Mem­bers John Seichter or Mary Bern­stein at fbwevillage@gmail.com

How to donate:
Please make your your check payable to Foggy Bot­tom Asso­ci­a­tion with “Aging in Place Project” in the sub­ject line. Mail to:

Foggy Bot­tom West End Vil­lage
PO Box 58251
Wash­ing­ton, DC 20037

Note: FBWE Vil­lage will apply shortly for non­profit tax sta­tus, but in the interim, the Vil­lage oper­ates under the fis­cal spon­sor­ship of the Foggy Bot­tom Association.

We’d love to hear from you…

Happy Thanks­giv­ing to all, and we’re grate­ful to have made it through both Hur­ri­cane Sandy and the elections!

We’ve heard great sug­ges­tions and ques­tions as we’ve been mov­ing through the com­mu­nity, talk­ing with neigh­bors about the Vil­lage and its role in West End and Foggy Bot­tom. If you’d like to lend your sup­port in our plan­ning process — or if you have ideas to share about the Vil­lage going for­ward — we’d appre­ci­ate hear­ing from you. You can expect to hear from us monthly with project updates through e-blasts like this one. Our Web­site is cur­rently under construction.

    Best regards,
    Board of Direc­tors
    Foggy Bot­tom West End Village

Dear Neigh­bors in the West End and Foggy Bottom,

Every day we meet more and more peo­ple who are excited about start­ing a Vil­lage to pro­mote self-sufficiency and qual­ity of life in the West End and Foggy Bot­tom. More than 200 of you have par­tic­i­pated in com­mu­nity meet­ings and sur­veys since the start of our vision for Foggy Bot­tom West End Vil­lage. A lot has hap­pened since then! We’ve been rais­ing seed money, dream­ing up fun and stim­u­lat­ing social pro­grams, cre­at­ing a bud­get, and work­ing on details for mem­ber­ship and vol­un­teer oppor­tu­ni­ties. Your con­tin­ued sup­port is essen­tial to this excit­ing project, and the Board of Foggy Bot­tom West End Vil­lage is pleased to update you on our progress.

ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITIES
The Board and its five com­mit­tees (Vol­un­teer, Com­mu­ni­ca­tion, Mem­ber­ship, Devel­op­ment / Fundrais­ing, and Admin­is­tra­tion) have been busy turn­ing ideas into action. These activ­i­ties have included:

•   Devel­op­ing a mem­ber­ship fee struc­ture (details below)
•   Decid­ing how best to recruit mem­bers and train volunteers
•   Estab­lish­ing a budget
•   Seek­ing cru­cial dona­tions and in-kind support
•   Incor­po­rat­ing and obtain­ing our non­profit 501 © (3)* status
•   Com­mu­ni­cat­ing with mem­bers, vol­un­teers, and supporters
* (The Vil­lage cur­rently oper­ates under the non­profit umbrella of the Foggy Bot­tom Asso­ci­a­tion as a spe­cial project.)

SURVEY RESULTS
More than 90 peo­ple responded to our recent sur­vey to help iden­tify the most impor­tant activ­i­ties the Vil­lage should pro­vide. The four top inter­ests are:

•   Unex­pected needs
•   Computer/technical assistance
•   Social and Edu­ca­tional events
•   Trans­porta­tion for health care

We appre­ci­ate you tak­ing the time to respond to the sur­vey. This input is vital to our plan­ning process!

FUNDRAISING

The Vil­lage has received over $26,000 in tax-deductible finan­cial con­tri­bu­tions and in-kind dona­tions. Thank you to the more than 60 area res­i­dents who have donated so far! Every­one on the Board has made a finan­cial com­mit­ment in addi­tion to vol­un­teer­ing time and skills. Such gen­eros­ity gives the Vil­lage a good foun­da­tion to demon­strate the community’s com­mit­ment. But we still need indi­vid­ual dona­tions to raise the seed money to get the Vil­lage off the ground. If you haven’t yet con­tributed, please ear­mark the Vil­lage in your fall giv­ing plans.

Later this fall we’ll announce other fundrais­ing efforts, includ­ing a Found­ing Donors Pro­gram that will help us raise addi­tional start-up funds from out­side indi­vid­u­als and businesses.

OUTREACH EVENTS

The Mem­ber­ship Com­mit­tee has attended sev­eral func­tions to intro­duce more of our neigh­bors to the Vil­lage con­cept. We’ve met res­i­dents at a pro­gram about med­ical direc­tives at the West End Library. We’ve addressed local build­ing man­agers at one meet­ing, and attended a com­mu­nity break­fast, both spon­sored by George Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­sity. The responses have all been pos­i­tive, with every­one say­ing “What a great idea!”

Please join us on Sun­day, Octo­ber 21 from 1 — 4 pm for the fes­tiv­i­ties at the 10th-annual Foggy Bot­tom & West End Neigh­bor­hood Block Party. This year the event will be held on I Street NW between 22nd and 23rd Streets and will fea­ture local orga­ni­za­tions and busi­nesses. We hope you’ll visit our dis­play, and share your ideas and com­ments while learn­ing more about the Vil­lage. Bring your neighbors!

MEMBERSHIP

Begin­ning in mid Octo­ber, we’ll host small gath­er­ings in West End and Foggy Bot­tom to share more details on mem­ber­ship options, ser­vices, and pro­grams. Stay tuned for infor­ma­tion o when and where! Do you have ques­tions? Please con­tact Lorna Grenadier at (202)-338‑7323 or FBWEVillage@gmail.com

MEMBERSHIP FEES

The Vil­lage fee struc­ture includes a num­ber of options so mem­bers can choose a cat­e­gory that best fits their inter­ests and circumstances:

Annual Stan­dard Mem­ber­ship includes access to all ser­vices from vet­ted vol­un­teers (coor­di­nated by our paid staff), social activ­i­ties, and dis­counts from vet­ted ven­dors. The fee for an indi­vid­ual is $600 per year (equiv­a­lent to $50 per month). The fee for a house­hold is $900 per year (equiv­a­lent to $75 per month).

Annual Social Mem­ber­ship includes par­tic­i­pa­tion in activ­i­ties and events spon­sored by the Vil­lage, but does not include vol­un­teer ser­vices. Nearly all of the social mem­ber­ship fee is tax deductible.* A Social Mem­ber­ship can also be con­verted to a Stan­dard Mem­ber­ship at any time, (but with­out the con­tin­u­ing tax deduc­tion). The fee for an indi­vid­ual is $600 per year (equiv­a­lent to $50 per month). The fee for a house­hold is $900 per year, (equiv­a­lent to $75 per month). *The tax deduc­tion excludes $50 for tan­gi­ble services.

Char­ter Mem­ber­ship is dis­counted with no annual fee increase for a three-year com­mit­ment. An indi­vid­ual 3-year Char­ter Mem­ber­ship is $1,500, and the house­hold Char­ter Mem­ber­ship is $2,400. Char­ter mem­ber­ships offer a sav­ings, plus the oppor­tu­nity to help the Vil­lage remain sus­tain­able in its start-up phase.

In addi­tion to these options, the Vil­lage Board is pur­su­ing funds to sup­port mem­ber­ships for indi­vid­u­als who may wish to join, but whose finan­cial cir­cum­stances won’t allow for it. Most of the other 17 Vil­lages in the DC Metro area pro­vide this option for those who meet cer­tain cri­te­ria. We are com­mit­ted to hav­ing this sub­si­dized mem­ber­ship option avail­able in our neighborhood.

STAYING IN TOUCH
As you can see, we have a lot going on and a lot to talk about. Mov­ing for­ward, you can expect to hear from us more fre­quently. We hope you’ll want to stay con­nected and become even more involved as a mem­ber or vol­un­teer. There is much to do. Once again, the Board is grate­ful for your par­tic­i­pa­tion in cre­at­ing a Vil­lage that will strengthen com­mu­nity ties and make our neigh­bor­hood an even more sta­ble and sat­is­fy­ing place to live. If you have ques­tions, sug­ges­tions, want to get more involved, or make a dona­tion, we’d like to hear from you. You can email, write or call:

Email: FBWEVillage@gmail.com
Tele­phone: 202–338-7323 (Lorna Grenadier, Mem­ber­ship Com­mit­tee)
Write: Foggy Bot­tom West End Village, PO Box 58251, Wash­ing­ton, DC 20037

Best Regards,

The Foggy Bot­tom West End Vil­lage Board


Board of Direc­tors:
Rev. Mon­roe Wright, chair; Jackie Lemire. sec­re­tary; Mary Bern­stein, Rebecca Coder, Myrna Faw­cett, Lorna Grenadier, Bev­erly Gyl­len­haal, Susan B. Haight, John Seichter
Carl Vack­etta, C.B. Wooldridge
FBWE Vil­lage, PO BOX 58251, Wash­ing­ton, DC 20037 fbwevillage@gmail.com

One Trackback

  • By Aging in Place Project | Fawcett & Fawcett Attorneys @ Law on October 3, 2012 at 12:44 pm

    […] if they so desire, rather than hav­ing to relo­cate and lose their social cap­i­tal. The ‘Aging in Place Project’, a recently launched by the the Foggy Bottom/West End Vil­lage Board of Direc­tors here in […]

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