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Mission
Mary’s Center for Maternal and Child Care builds better futures through the delivery of health care, education and social services. The Center embraces culturally diverse communities to provide them with the highest quality of care, regardless of their ability to pay.
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Key Facts
Target demographics:
Twenty years ago, Mary’s Center was founded to address the demand for bilingual services to pregnant women and their infants in predominantly Latino areas of Ward One. Today, it serves multicultural populations throughout the metro Washington, D.C. region, serving individuals and families who have limited or no access to health-related services. As the foreign-born population has skyrocketed to over 1 million in the DC metropolitan region, the diversity and needs of our majority-immigrant population have increased.
While many of our participants come of Latin America, primarily El Salvador, Mexico and Guatemala, we also serve many Ethiopian, Vietnamese and Middle Eastern families. Most of our participants are low-income, 21% are uninsured, and 73% receive public insurance coverage.
Results to date:
Key health outcomes indicate that Mary’s Center exceeds national quality standards on diabetes care measures, childhood immunization rates, healthy birth weight and women’s cancer screenings.
• 63% of our family literacy program participants improved an educational functioning level—a rate 28 percentage points above the District of Columbia standard.
• 95% of Mary’s Center babies are up to date with their immunizations—only 68% of DC babies are.
• Compared to the DC average of 88% of babies born at a healthy birth weight (greater than 5.5 lbs), 97% of babies born to Mary’s Center families had healthy birth weights.
• 99% of Mary’s Center families had no substantiated cases of child abuse and neglect—unfortunately, only 63% of families in DC did not have substantiated cases.
Direct beneficiaries per year: 10,379 participants served in 2007 (increase of 47% since 2005!), not including several social and educational services and programs.
Indirect beneficiaries per year: Mary’s Center takes a social change approach to our services, and has continuously expanded our programs beyond basic primary health care to meet the additional social and economic needs of our community. By empowering our participants and community to create a better future for the next generation, we are indirectly benefiting countless more.
Obstacles:
Low-income families face numerous obstacles in not only accessing basic health care, but in accessing basic needs such as food and shelter—not to mention the lack of social services and educational opportunities. Immigrants often face even more complex barriers, such lack of linguistically and culturally appropriate services, inability to access and receive publicly supported services, stigma and discrimination, and lack of a social support network.
What your donation will allow us to do:
Your donation will allow us to expand our programs to even more participants. Your support could help us to:
• Enroll an expectant mom in our Healthy Start Healthy Families home visiting program.
• Provide more health education classes on topics ranging from Nutrition and Physical Activity to Cancer Screenings.
• Tutor more children and teens in our after-school program.
• Further improve the literacy and parenting skills of our Even Start Multicultural Family Literacy adult students.
The investments made into these programs create economic benefit for participants and society. For example:
• Childhood immunizations result in avoided medical costs, since immunized children and adolescents have a lower incidence of preventable disease.
• Prenatal care provides economic savings by avoiding the increased neonatal and long-term care costs that result from pre-term and low-weight births.
• Increased earnings and lower education costs for children of adult literacy participants are some of the individual and societal economic benefits attributable to adult literacy programs.
• The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), in addition to providing nutritional and diet related health benefits, provides economic benefit in the form of reduced health care costs within the first 60 days of birth.
Board Members and Affiliation:
Luis Carrera, Vice-Chair
Trade Electrician, Convention Center
Participant of Mary’s Center
Years of Continuous Board Service: 4
Alejandra Ceja, Secretary
Majority Staff, House Committee on Education and Labor
Years of Continuous Board Service: 1
Ximena Cespedes
Child Care Provider
Participant of Mary’s Center
Years of Continuous Board Service: 1
Patrick Chaulk, MD
Senior Associate, Annie E. Casey Foundation
Years of Continuous Board Service: 1.5
Ana Chavez
Teen Participant of Mary’s Center
Years of Continuous Board Service: 1
Inmar Mondragon
Teen Participant of Mary’s Center
Years of Continuous Board Service: 1
Guadalupe Pacheco
Office of Minority Health, US Department of Health and Human Services
Years of Continuous Board Service: 7
Francesca Robinson
Student
Participant of Mary’s Center
Years of Continuous Board Service: 1
Estuardo V. Rodriguez, Jr.
Legal Counsel on Media and Communications, The Raben Group
Years of Continuous Board Service: 1
Eluvia Sanchez
Child Care Provider
Participant of Mary’s Center
Years of Continuous Board Service: 4
Luisa Sanchez
Child Care Provider
Participant of Mary’s Center
Years of Continuous Board Service: 1
Hanita Schreiber
Retired Health Administrator
Years of Continuous Board Service: 1
Estelle Cooke-Sampson, MD
Radiologist
Years of Continuous Board Service: 6
Luis Guardia, Treasurer
Vice President, Finance & Administration and CFO, International Center for Research on Women (ICRW)
Years of Continuous Board Service: 1
Karla Larrenaga
Homemaker
Participant of Mary’s Center
Years of Continuous Board Service: 1
Mary MacPherson, Chairperson
Executive, M2Works, LLC
Years of Continuous Board Service: 3
Julie Martinez Ortega
Research Director, American Rights at Work
Years of Continuous Board Service: 1
Shirley Marcus Allen, Board Guest
Non-voting Board Member representing Venture Philanthropy Partners
Years of Continuous Board Service: 2
Anna Alvarez Boyd, Board Guest
Non-voting Board Member representing Venture Philanthropy Partners
Years of Continuous Board Service: 1
Past and Current Funders:
Mary’s Center Funding List FY2007
CORPORATIONS, FOUNDATIONS, GOVERNMENT AGENCIES, COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS
$50,000 or more
• Alexander and Margaret Stewart Trust
• American Lung Association of DC
• Annie E. Casey Foundation
• Capital One Financial
• Consumer Health Foundation
• DC Addiction Prevention and Recovery Administration
• DC Chartered Health Plan
• DC Children and Family Services Administration
• DC Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation
• DC DHS Early Childhood Education Administration
• DC DHS Income Maintenance Administration
• DC DOH Division of STD Control
• DC DOH Maternal and Family Health Administration
• DC DOH Office of Nutrition Programs, WIC State Agency
• DC DOH Primary Care and Prevention Administration
• DC Mayor’s Office on Latino Affairs
• DC Office of Victim Services
• DC Public Schools
• Freddie Mac Foundation
• HHS HHRSA Division of Perinatal Systems
• March of Dimes of the National Capital Area
• Montgomery County Healthcare Initiative
• Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington
• Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation
• The Summit Fund of Washington
• United Planning Organization
• Unity Health Care, Inc.
• University of the District of Columbia
• Venture Philanthropy Partners
$25,000 to $49,999
• DC Primary Care Association
• Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation
• Fight for Children
• Joseph E. & Marjorie B. Jones Foundation
• The Meltzer Group
• The Moriah Fund
• The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation
• Naomi and Nehemiah Cohen Foundation
• Primary Care Coaltion of Montgomery County
• U.S. Department of Homeland Security
• DC DOH HIV/AIDS Administration (via La CLinica)
• Mead Family Foundation
• Marpat Foundation
$10,000 to $24,999
• Children’s National Medical Center
• Diane & Norman Bernstein Foundation
• Georgetown University
• Greater Southeast Community Hospital
• Health Right, Inc.
• Herb Block Foundation
• HSC Foundation
• ICOR Partners, LLC
• Inter-American Development Bank
• Lead Safe DC
• Metropolitan DC Coalition for Reach Out & Read
• Morningstar Foundation
• National Nursing Center Consortium
• Nordstrom - Eastern Region Contributions
• PhRMA
• Rapoport Family Foundation
• Samuel R. Dweck Foundation
• Venable, Baetjer and Howard Foundation
• The Carter and Melissa Cafritz Charitable Trust
• Poor Robert’s Charities
• Weissberg Foundation
• Northrop Grumman
$5,000 to $9,999
• American Institutes for Research
• Amerigroup Corporation
• CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield
• Columbia Heihgts/Shaw Family Support Collaborative
• Community House Church
• GEICO Direct
• Harris Teeter
• Hattie M. Strong Foundation
• HHS Bureau of Primary Health Care
• Houston Associates, Inc.
• Johnson & Johnson
• Lester Poretsky Family Foundation
• M & T Bank Charitable Foundation
• PEPCO Holdings, Inc.
• United Way of the National Capital Area
• Washington Adventist Hospital
• Washington Area Women’s Foundation
$1,000 to $2,499
• Adams Investment Group
• Amanter Fund
• American Legacy Foundation
• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
• Blue Cross Blue Shield Association
• Burness Communications
• Car Program L.L.C.
• Colonial Parking
• DC Department of the Environment
• Fleet Feet Adams Morgan
• Gale R. and Alan D. Marcus Foundation
• J.V. Schiro-Zavela Foundation
• Joyce and Donald Rumsfeld Foundation
• M & T Bank
• Mark and Anne Hansen Foundation
• Maya Advertising and Communications
• Miller & Long
• National Council of La Raza
• Pitney Bowes
• Powell Goldstein, LLP
• Providence Health Foundation
• Reading Is Fundamental, Inc.
• Rotary Foundation of Washington, D.C.
• The Lee and Juliet Folger Fund
• The Lewin Group
• The Maple Tree Fund
• The Morino Institute
• United Jewish Foundation of Metropolitan Detroit
• Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program
• Verizon Foundation
• Washington Post
• $999 and under
• Acsys, Inc.
• Adventist Health Care
• Anonymous
• AT&T Community Giving Program
• AVF Consulting
• Campbell & Company
• Clark Construction Company
• CVS Drug Stores, Inc.
• Hoop Dreams Scholarship Fund
• Iglesia Evangelica de Restauracion
• The Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation, Inc
• Kaiser Family Foundation
• LatinVIP.com
• Local Union No. 26, I.B.E.W.
• Marketing Resource International, LLC
• Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services
• National Center on Nonprofit Enterprise
• National Hispanic Medical Association
• Octane, LLC
• Paint Branch Unitarian Universalist Church
• Patricia M. Sitar Center for the Arts
• The Pew Charitable Trust
• Planit Design Associates
• Security-Moving-Storage-Logistics
• Terris, Pravlik and Millian, LLP
• Tranquil Space
• United Planning Organization
• Verizon Foundation Matching Gifts
• Washington Hispanic, Inc.
• Washington Hospital Center
• Wellpoint Associate Giving Campaign
• The World Bank
• Youth Venture, Inc.
Key Staff
http://www.maryscenter.org/management.html
Maria S. Gomez, RN, MPH
President and CEO
MGomez@maryscenter.org
Alvaro Simmons, M.ED, MSW, LCSW
Chief Operating Officer
ASimmons@maryscenter.org
Julie Beecher
Vice President for Planning & Business Development
JBeecher@maryscenter.org
Joan Yengo
Vice President of Programs
JYengo@maryscenter.org
Andreina Pradas
Human Resources Manager
APradas@marycenter.org
Yesenia Sarabia-Peiker
Director of Advocacy and Communications
Ypeiker@maryscenter.org