PRESS RELEASE:

CONTACT:
Chitra Subramanian/Ayize Sabater
202.285.7937/240.286.3765
info@momiestlc.com; www.momiestlc.com 

Award winning community program receives $100,000 grant to build "Green" Educational Center
 

Washington, DC-July 8, 2008– The innovative educational change group—M.O.M.I.E's TLC— recently secured a leadership level investment grant from the Meyer Foundation of $100,000 to transform a vacant row-house on Georgia Avenue into a "beacon of hope, green building" that would establish the city's first-ever children's cultural gallery, that hopes to attract 10,000 visitors each year, for at-risk children of color living in Washington, DC. 

The Meyer funds will be used to build M.O.M.I.E's anexpanded facility in Ward 1, right on historic Georgia Avenue, where Councilmember Jim Graham has been a key supporter.  The site is strategically located across the street from Howard University and incorporates cutting edge "green building elements" into the building design, including: a green roof, geothermal heating, rain-water collection system and other environmentally-friendly plans.  The proposed building will house M.O.M.I.E's model educational programs - which won the Community Foundation's Linowes "unsung Hero" leadership award in 2006 - including an expanded space for their After-school/Summer programs, a health café for children and space for their unique Children's Black History Gallery.

The Meyer Foundation's grant joins a growing list of other supporters, including the Philip Graham Fund and the Cafritz Foundation, that are investing to erect this exciting new million dollar community center to bring hope to children surrounded by crime, gentrification and an affordable housing crisis. 

"Children are suffering in our urban communities, witness the tragic mass murders of youth in the Trinidad neighborhood of D.C.  Our children urgently need more positive community centers to constructively engage them and show them a different path other than the violent streets…"

--Ayize Sabater, M.O.M.I.E's, CEO

Sabater is calling on the community to help erect the facility and challenges all businesses & interested individuals to join this educational change movement by making a tax-deductible pledge today.  M.O.M.I.E's has already secured 60% of the needed funds but still needs $400,000 to reach their goal. 

M.O.M.I.E's is a DC based non-profit organization that has been bolstering educational outcomes for at-risk children for the last eight years and their success is causing them to expand.  Showing children a positive path is just what M.O.M.I.E's TLC does by uniquely integrating creative After School and Summer Camp Programs, parent engagement, and interactive, multi-media resources and tools for families.  Sabater, a Morehouse college graduate, aims to establish a model system that will improve educational results for children locally, and across the USA.  To make a pledge, go online to www.momiestlc.com or call 240.286.3765 for more information.