The Charles County Charitable Trust is excited to announce a transitional housing grant of $743,858 has been awarded to Poiema Movement Inc, a local program that shelters and rehabilitates trauma survivors. Poiema Movement provides transitional housing for women seeking a fresh start following homelessness, substance abuse, domestic violence, or other traumatic life events. With this grant, they will expand the program to serve women and for the first time, their children as well. The grant funding will provide a new house slated to open in Fall 2025 in Waldorf. Currently, Poiema Movement operates two homes where women accepted into the program can live for 12 to 18 months while receiving intensive services, including job-seeking assistance, group therapy, life skills training, case management, healthcare connections, and support from staff, mentors, volunteers, mental health professionals, and community leaders.
Executive Director, Tiffani Barber, first began plans to expand the program to include mothers with children in 2021. She reports that in the past two years, 43% of inquiry calls received by Poiema have been from women who have children in their custody, highlighting the urgent need to expand in this capacity. The current program is not equipped to house children, but that will change next year, largely due to this grant. The funding allows Poiema to build a new home specifically designed for mothers and their children. “Our program will remain the same with some additions,” Barber explains. “Our current offerings include a safe place to live, transportation, assistance in obtaining and maintaining employment, financial literacy training, and accountability through budgeting, credit scores, and savings. We also provide mentorship, trauma recovery support, sobriety resources, connections to a healthy community, access to therapists, and case management. The new program will add parenting classes, childcare during group sessions, and wrap-around services to address children’s needs.” The addition of the third home will allow Poiema to accommodate up to six additional families.
This funding comes from a federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) grant specifically allocated for transitional housing that creates new beds for Charles County residents. The Charitable Trust received the funding through the Charles County Government and managed the grant application, review, and award process. Since its creation in 2017, the Charitable Trust has been tasked with fairly and effectively dispersing nearly all of Charles County’s allotted nonprofit grant funding. The Trust also provides follow-up support to grant recipients, builds community partnerships, and advocates for additional funding and resources for nonprofits. The Charitable Trust advertised this grant opportunity in the Spring of 2024 and received applications from four nonprofit organizations involved in transitional housing programs. The Trust’s Board of Directors narrowed the applicants down to the top two candidates who then presented their projects to the Board in June. Poiema Movement was announced as the grant recipient in June, after which they signed a grant agreement, and will submit construction progress reports, and host follow-up site visits throughout the program’s expansion to ensure accountability and community partnership.
A groundbreaking ceremony for the new Poiema home, named El Roi, was held on Thursday, September 5th at the site of the new home in Waldorf. Poiema staff, volunteers and residents were joined by Charitable Trust Staff and Board members, county commissioners and delegates, as well as many community business and nonprofit partners to celebrate the expansion of Poiema Movement and the new home. “Our program empowers women to heal from trauma and restore their lives,” Barber tells us. “They experience a community where they are connected and loved, and they move from crisis to sustainable independence. This kind of transformation changes the face of our community. The cycles of abuse, poverty, and addiction are broken and that family experiences dignity, purpose and hope.”