Portia Richardson was a teacher in the D.C. public schools for 10 years, and when she left, “I really thought about ways that I could have provided a more culturally responsive and trauma informed curriculum for my own students,” she told WTOP.
That was the basis for Tumaini DC, the nonprofit she founded that provides teenagers in city schools with social and emotional learning.
Richardson said, “We teach identity, how to explore your strengths and areas of growth, how to build positive and healthy relationships, as well as social justice and civic engagement so that our students are empowered to give back to their community, and influence change in their communities.”
After a regular Wednesday session at H.D. Woodson High School, ninth-grader Mahkiya Roberson described Tumaini — the Swahili word for hope — as an opportunity to “just chill and relieve your stress and talk about your problems.”
She also told WTOP she’s learning to think about things differently.
“You can come here and just chill, but you still have to put in work,” she said. They go through lesson plans and “talk about how we can better our emotions and better take control in situations,” she said.
When she gets angry, “usually I might do things without thinking,” she said. Now, she has learned, “When you get angry, think about things before you do them and you’ll have a better response to it.”
Woodson principal William Massey said he’s noticing growth among participating students.
“There’s team building; there’s character development; there’s identity development,” Massey said. “And we know that all these are things that help students connect with our target of making sure that they are excelling academically.”
“Making sure that we are connecting with both their heart and their mind — we’ve seen the data over and over again that it helps them achieve more,” Massey said. “They come to school more. Because they come to school more, they are learning more. Time is the number one driver in improving academic outcomes.”
Amerigroup DC, part of the Anthem network of managed care organizations, just gave Tumaini DC a $20,000 grant to expand and support its services throughout the District.
“I’m such a fan of the work they’re doing,” said Charmekia Martin, of Amerigroup DC. “They’re grassroots; they’re right here. They’re in the community; they’re doing culturally responsive work, it just doesn’t get any more impactful than that.”
“We really believe in wraparound services for our members. So any time that we can support organizations that are already out there doing the hard work in the community, then that’s our way to get involved,” she said.
