You know it’s going to be a real power lunch when Oprah Winfrey is the keynote speaker.
At the tenth annual N Street Village Empowerment Luncheon, held at the West End Ritz Carlton June 9, Winfrey wowed and electrified the room when she pledged $1 million to support the organization’s “mission to help homeless and low-income women achieve personal stability and make life-changing gains in their housing, income, employment, mental health, physical health and addiction recovery.”
Founded more than 40 years ago, N Street Village says it has “grown to be the largest provider of housing and services for women experiencing homelessness in Washington, D.C, and a national model for effective solutions.”
Winfrey reminded the 700 attendees, “In life, we all want to know: Do you hear me? Do you see me? Everyone who works at N Street Village understands that principle. They know that every woman who comes through those doors wants to be seen, heard, and to know that her life matters.”
N Street Village resident Lolita Mitchell also spoke about N Street Village and its life-changing powers. “I turned to N Street Village and N Street turned my life around,” Mitchell said. “N Street Village helped me find Lolita.”
“Every day at least one new woman comes to our front door, and our task is to meet her where she is, to reflect her own individuality and her significance, and to support her in reaching her personal goals,” said Schroeder Stribling, executive director of N Street Village. “We do this not only because it is effective, but because we know that with just a few small twists of fate or timing or circumstance – ‘she’ would be me.”
“We are overwhelmed,” Stribling said of Winfrey’s donation after the lunch. “Her extraordinary gift ensures we can keep our promise to each and every woman who will come to our door tomorrow and each day after that.”
N Street Village is renovating its aging buildings and is expanding its programs to ensure resources for all who will need them in the future. Earlier this year, the Village announced that it would nearly double in size by opening a short-term emergency-housing facility at a fourth location. Services at the new facility will include 24-hour support and on-site case management to help residents meet their health, wellness and long-term housing goals.
