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Adventist Community Services, GW
Your trusted source for community compassion

Welcome New Interim Director John Gavin

Adventist Community Services of Greater Washington welcomes interim executive director John Gavin, who served previously from 1986 to 1994. He is looking forward to building on Ken Flemmer’s legacy of expanded service over the past decade. In the years 2020 through 2022 ACSGW distributed more than 2.7 million pounds of food and 1.2 million diapers to more than 67,500 families. That is 2.25 million meals!! This would not have been possible without the help of all the volunteers giving thousands of hours of service and our financial supporters. This year marks the 40th year of continued service. As we celebrate our past accomplishments, we prepare to help those being pushed further into poverty through job loss, higher rents, cuts in benefits and those new neighbors finding refuge in our community. Thank you for your support in the past. We need your support even more!

Your trusted source for community compassion

Generously helping the disadvantaged and disenfranchised in the community attain self-sufficiency and independence since 1983

LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR PROGRAMS

Congratulations to the middle school students who participated in the pilot test for ACSGW’s Making Tracks Academy!

Santhiago Ruiz was the first to complete a pilot of science experiment videos launched by the Making Tracks Academic Enrichment Program.
The science experiment videos are among nearly a dozen made by Washington Adventist University undergraduate science majors in Professor Melinda Villanueva’s biology class. Our upcoming newsletter will give you further details on this online learning enterprise.

Go check out this learning system by clicking the button below.

CHECKOUT MAKING TRACKS ACADEMY

Monetary donations can be made using the button below. After entering the donation amount you can choose to specify the donation for "Resettlement".

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Thanks for welcoming and helping our newest neighbors.

Thank You for Your Continuing Support

THANK YOU! It's been nearly a year since the shutdown began. Each week, thanks to you, ACSGW has distributed over 25,000 pounds of food (12 tons)—enough for 21,000 meals, and about 10,000 diapers for 100 babies/toddlers weekly. More families are coming every week.

YOU ARE MORE ESSENTIAL THAN EVER!

THANK YOU for continuing to support ACSGW!

Who Are We

Adventist Community Services of Greater Washington (ACSGW) was established in 1983 as the collective health and welfare service of several local church congregations. Today, ACSGW is a faith-based, non-profit, organization whose mission helps those less fortunate in our community.

We are a team of donors, community partners, staff, and volunteers who empower those in need through compassionate emergency care, life education, and community development. ACSGW currently provides food, diapers, free thrift shop, youth development, health and fitness, technology education, and workforce skills.

We invite you to join the team at Adventist Community Services in serving the community and help implement this rewarding mission.

You Can Share in the ACSGW Mission and Help Make Miracles

Miracles happen every day at ACSGW, especially during Covid-19. Dedicated volunteers come in, put on all their protective gear, and serve the community with emergency food boxes and diapers. Faithful donors and partners enable food distribution at the ACSGW center and at satellite locations in the Silver Spring area.

Generous donors and organizations in the community continue to join to allow ACSGW to more than quadruple its service to the food insecure during this pandemic! The help families are getting in many cases is a matter of their survival.

Like everyone else, the ACSGW team is hoping for the miracle of a break-through discovery that will take us from the Covid-19 nightmare, from job loss and shelter-in-place, and back to a sense of normalcy. Until then your help making every day miracles is needed.

A Gift for You

Download a free guide that will help pivot you through the changes that Covid-19 has brought and will continue to bring to your life

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD

Programs That ACSGW Donors and Supporters Make Possible

Snapshot Program Updates

Diaper Distribution Program: Deliveries still occur monthly from the Greater DC Diaper Bank. ACSGW currently provides 12,000 diapers weekly to the client base

Healthy Child 1000 Initiative: Good nutrition from conception to age 2 (roughly 1000 days) is critical to development of the infant. Expectant mothers and mothers with babies under 1 year of age can enroll to get a healthy food basket, hygiene items, diapers and weaning foods.

Food Pantry: Is stocked with in kind donations, food rescue from local supermarkets, Capital Area Food Bank, and Manna.

Assistance

The ACSGW team helps stabilize families in need. Even in normal times, many of our neighbors struggle to make ends meet. They often struggle to clothe themselves and their families, put food on the table, and find the resources they need to exist, let alone survive, in our fast-moving society.

In this time of high inflation, your donations and help can literally mean survival.

Emergency Relief - Food and Diapers

This is a challenging time as families struggle with sharp increases in costs for all essentials. We need your continued support for the Inflation Emergency Relief Crisis Fund to help our community and neighbors. ACSGW provides food baskets, hygiene items, and diapers to help people better care for basic family needs. ACSGW is known for its compassion, inclusiveness and responsiveness and has given hope and help to many hundreds of families during challenging times.

In addition to financial support, ACSGW accepts donations of shelf stable foods, hygiene items, and diapers (most needed size 5-6). Donations can be brought to 501 Sligo Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20910, Monday-Thursday 8am-4 pm or dropped in the blue collection bins at other times.

If you are needing food assistance or want to enroll in the Healthy Child 1000 Program: Call 301 585 6556 Monday-Thursday 9am-3pm or email acsgwinfo@acsgw.org with a call back number to enroll and make an appointment.

Emergency Relief - Clothing

During this cold winter weather our clothes “closet” is open outside to distribute free warm clothing including coats, gloves, scarves, socks, and other items to protect against the winter weather.

The team at ACSGW is working hard to make sure that items contributed by our community are available to our clients. If you need something you do not see outside, feel free to ask one of our staff or volunteers and they will do their best to help you.

Youth Programs

ACSGW recognizes that youth from low-income, under-served families consistently score lower on academic tests. In 2014, ACSGW began developing an academic enrichment program for youth to meet the needs of under-served communities in our area. The result was ACSGW’s Making Tracks Academic Enrichment Program (MTAEP). The MTAEP is a nationally recognized program offered by ACSGW and its community partners. Part of this program provides vital academic instruction, hands-on visual and performing arts classes, fitness and recreational activities, and essential life-skill training as part of a free summer camp. In addition, camp participants receive daily breakfast and lunch meals, as well as take-home weekend food packages that contain grocery items in quantities sufficient for family meals, such as grains, beans, nutritious vegetables and fruits, and packages of individual snack foods.

ACSGW continues to develop youth programs and has recently launched our online Making Tracks Academy. Click here for more details on the (Hyperlink - Making Tracks Academy) and watch this space and our (Hyperlink – FB Page) frequently for information on upcoming programs.  

Your help is needed to deliver programs to marginalized youth and their families in Silver Spring, Takoma Park, and other Montgomery County communities as we continue to invest in their future.

Education

ACSGW understands that most people want to take care of themselves and their families. ACSGW offers a hand in helping people learn the skills needed to be self-sufficient. Clients tell us that being self-sufficient allows them to have a feeling of dignity. The newly learned skills also assist them in obtaining employment and career advancement. Workforce training programs include classes offered in ESOL, computer literacy, computer repair, and workplace software.

Health and Wellness

Exercise and the life skill of swimming is important to all of us. ACSGW contracts with the Montgomery County Government to operate the public swimming pool in the Piney Branch Elementary School. ACSGW also regularly conducts health screenings and provides health-related workshops throughout the community.

Click here for pool schedule and fees.

Other Programs

When the needs of our clients cannot be met with ACSGW programs - referrals are made. During the case management process clients are interviewed to understand their needs and qualifications for various assistance programs with other non-profit and government organizations. With this information, it assists clients in finding resources to aid them in difficult times.

*Our education, Health and Wellness, Youth Programs and Other Programs that are greyed out are operating on a limited basis.

Our Team

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