The DowntownDC Business Improvement District (BID) Ambassadors celebrated women in the arts in September at their monthly employee meeting hosted by the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) (1250 New York Avenue).
A museum founded in 1987, NMWA is the only major museum in the world solely dedicated to recognizing women’s creative contributions. Current exhibitions include No Man’s Land: Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collection, and every first Sunday of the month you can enjoy the museum for FREE.
Kristi Whitfield, the BID’s director of public space operations, discussed a new homeless youth drop-in center being piloted in Chinatown on Monday nights by the BID and Sasha Bruce Youthwork, a local provider dedicated to ending youth homelessness.
The pilot drop-in center is hosted in the First Congregational United Church of Christ (945 G Street) and offers homeless teens and adult youth a safe place to have a meal, interact with staff and be connected with support networks for mental health, physical health, housing and more.
The DowntownDC BID is a partner in the pilot and has also trained ambassadors on supporting and identifying vulnerable young adults as a part of the program.
The center was recently profiled by the Washington City Paper.
Whitfield also shared staff celebrations at the employee of the month meeting. She welcomed the ambassadors to celerate Maintenance ambassador Ethel Frye’s recent promotion to supervisor.
Additionally, Whitfield announced that Timothy Bolden, an student who participated this summer in the Marion Barry Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP), was selected to move into a regular, full-time position as a DowntownDC Maintenance ambassador at the end of his SYEP program.
Ambassadors also played “Name that SAM”(Safety/Hospitality and Maintenance employee) at this month’s meeting. Participants had to guess the name of their colleague based on a series of fun facts. They learned that Maintenance employee Nelson Giron-Mendoza played lacrosse in high school, repairs pools, has been employed at the BID for 9 years, his favorite color is black and has been skydiving twice.
Birthday announcements were also made and celebrated and Shanita Cowles received a glowing report from the public regarding her service at the DC Fringe Festival.
Closing the event the two SAMs were chosen as employees of the month. The two winners for August were: Bernard Bond and Michael Bunn