TRUE
CENTER
Annual Report | Fiscal Year 2024
A Note from Our Board Chair
Dear Friends and Supporters,
I write to you today with a message of both reflection and resolve. I want to begin this letter with gratitude for your support and dedication. I sincerely appreciate each and every one of you, from our steadfast founding donors to our newest volunteers. We are grateful for your generous contributions of time, dollars, words of encouragement, and social media shares. With your support and by building community partnerships, we were able to meet - and even exceed - several of our strategic goals for the year.
I must also acknowledge the reality that our efforts over the past year have not met all of the expectations we had set for ourselves and, more importantly, that some of our community expected of us. We embarked on several initiatives this year with optimism, hoping to drive positive change and expand our impact. Our focus was on increasing our program’s reach. However, despite the hard work and commitment of our staff, volunteers, and partners, we encountered challenges in several critical areas.
The challenges we faced ranged from recruiting volunteer clinicians with availability that worked for our clients to difficulties in securing sustainable funding. Moreover, while we have succeeded in reaching some of our community members, we have not made the deep, lasting impact we envisioned for the broader population we serve. These shortcomings, though difficult to confront, provide us with a crucial opportunity to reevaluate our approach, assess our strategic direction, and make necessary changes.
At this crossroads, TRUE Center stands at a moment of reflection. It is a time for us to ask the difficult questions: How do we align our actions with the true needs of our community? What will it take for TRUE Center to fulfill its promise and make the difference we know is possible?
The road ahead will require difficult decisions, innovation, and a renewed commitment to the vision of increasing access to trauma-focused, evidence-based care and prevention services. While this moment brings with it uncertainty, I am confident that through collaboration and a willingness to adapt, TRUE Center will rise to meet these challenges. We have a responsibility to our community and to our supporters to ensure that we learn from these setbacks and emerge stronger and more focused on our mission.
In the coming months, we will be engaging in strategic planning sessions and consulting with experts, stakeholders, and community members to develop a path forward. We are committed to transparency throughout this process and will continue to update you as we work to refine our goals and direction.
Your continued support is more important than ever, and we remain deeply grateful for the trust you have placed in us. Together, I believe we can lead the TRUE Center toward a future where our impact is meaningful, lasting, and transformative.
Thank you for your commitment to our mission.
Sincerely,
Alison Kramer-Kuhn, Ph.D.
Chair, Board of Directors
The TRUE Center
Table of Contents
What this year has looked like.
to our Volunteers & Donors.
Revenue, expenses, and more.
HOW YOUR SUPPORT HELPED US IN FY24
148
UNIQUE INDIVIDUALS SERVED
316
SERVICES
PERFORMED
Services include therapy sessions, educational presentations and trainings, and after school group sessions
Educational Program
TRUE Center’s educational program continued to provide professionals, families, children, and others who work with children with information about being more trauma informed. This work took place in several formats. We launched our Mental Health Minute, a short webinar series that provided tips and information for parents, caregivers, and other professionals about how to respond to the most frequent issues related to trauma therapy. Topics ranged from online safety to suicide and depression. We also provided presentations in-person and virtually on trauma-focused topics to community organizations and professional groups, such as Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) for Children of DC (“Working with Youth Impacted by Trauma”) and My Sister’s Place domestic violence shelter (“Parenting Through Trauma”).
Comments from Attendees
“Related to us a lot. I loved it!”
“I love it. The session was awesome.”
“This was really great and I've never seen our kids so engaged in this type of discussion”
“I think this workshop was wonderful”
“I learned how to successfully communicate with my child in a way that can make them feel comfortable and safe.”
“[Dr. Deboard-Lucas] was AMAZING! So informative and organized, and clearly passionate and knowledgeable about what she does.”
“Thank you so much for helping tailor this to our student audience”
Based on survey data of individuals who attended our educational trainings,
92%
will apply this to their life and/or parenting
92%
learned something new
93%
were satisfied with quality of instruction
94%
were satisfied with value of service
After School Groups
TRUE Center launched after school groups this year to equip children and teens with coping skills to buffer them from the effects of both traumatic and everyday stress. In partnership with So What Else, we served 27 students in Southeast D.C. who learned relaxation skills, feelings identification, combating negative thoughts, and problem solving.
Therapy Services
TRUE Center continued therapy services through our pilot volunteer clinician program. These volunteers generously donated their time to provide evidence-based trauma therapy to youth in DC and Maryland. This year, we held more than 60 sessions and successfully graduated two clients from the program as well as provided services to eight additional children and families. Other related services were provided to therapy clients as needed, including advocacy for a client attending court and providing information about food pantries and low-cost psychiatric services.
Throughout the year, we identified certain challenges with the volunteer clinician model. Volunteer clinicians have limited capacity and availability during after-school hours, which is when these services are most needed. TRUE Center made many efforts to recruit more volunteers, reaching out to qualified clinicians to understand the viability of the pilot program.
Our clinical services at a glance.
Approximately 80 hours of free clinical services provided
including 9 intakes
and 60 therapy sessions
with 2 children graduating from Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT)
Partnership Development
TRUE Center continued to build partnerships with community organizations throughout DC. This included participating in community events and meeting with organizations to understand how TRUE Center can work with other nonprofit organizations to mutually advance our missions.
Who benefits from your support?
Youth in Community
44.7%
43.9%
11.4%
Professionals who work with Children
Caregivers in Community
Staffing
In 2024, we hired TRUE Center’s first Executive Director, Dr. Renee Deboard-Lucas. This position provides additional oversight of our therapy program, builds relationships within the community, provides after school programming, and conducts presentations for the public.
Our Mental Health Director, Dr. Komal Sharma-Patel, continued to support the organization. Throughout her tenure at TRUE Center, Dr. Patel worked to identify and supervise volunteer clinicians, vet client referrals, and oversee our therapy program.
Board Growth
Amanda Roberts, Akreeti Pokhrel, and Trishana Grant joined the board in the FY2024. These individuals bring expertise with communications and organizational operations, finance, and connections with the local community. We held our second annual board retreat where the Board dived deep into the organization’s mission and services, and learned more about each other.
FY 2024 Board of Directors
The Board of Directors was comprised of the following individuals:
-
Renee DeBoard-Lucas thru 8/15/23
-
Brian Gardner
-
Trishana Grant starting 5/17/24
-
Joe Guidi
-
Alison Kramer-Kuhn
-
Emily Picon
-
Akreeti Pokhrel
-
Zachery Rizik thru 8/18/23
-
Amanda Roberts
-
Krishtine Rosenthal
>> Click here to view TRUE Center's Current Board of Directors
FY24 Strategic Priorities
Increase awareness about trauma among community members and professionals who regularly interact with and/or influence the lives of under-resourced children in the DC area.
Our main objective within this goal was to provide educational presentations to 100 individuals.
We far surpassed this objective, providing education to 138 individuals, including professionals, caregivers, and youth! Our strategies included: providing one-time presentations to groups such as CASA DC, Father Factor, My Sister's Place, and A Wider Circle; coordinating a 5-part Mental Health Minute webinar series, and engaging youth in a 6-week after-school educational group focused on coping skills and resilience in the face of traumatic and everyday stress. Those who attended the Mental Health Minute series and the after-school group often attended more than one, resulting in 247 educational services provided.
We also met a second important objective within this goal, which was to increase participants’ understanding of child trauma: 83% of survey respondents agreed that the presentation enhanced their understanding of an aspect of trauma, and 92% learned something new.
Finally, through conversations with and surveys to participants, we identified additional relevant topics that the community is interested in to guide our future efforts.
Strategic Goal #1
Reduce traumatic stress symptoms in DC-area children exposed to traumatic events.
We implemented this strategy through our pilot volunteer therapist program. We recruited therapists who were experienced in providing evidence-based child trauma treatment, to provide telehealth therapy directly to children. The program operated under a Mental Health Director, who recruited and managed the therapists, conducted outreach to referral sources, and screened and coordinated intakes for prospective clients. Our objective was to serve an average of 4 children per week, with 6 children graduating from treatment by the end of the year.
Despite our best efforts, we were unable to meet these objectives fully. Nevertheless, we are proud of our accomplishments. We served a total of 10 children and their families this year, on average serving 1-2 children per week. Two children successfully graduated from trauma-focused treatment.
A further objective, to demonstrate a decrease in symptoms and improvement in functioning in therapy clients, was met: Youth who completed clinical assessments at the mid- or end-point of treatment reported clinically significant reductions in PTSD symptoms.
Where needed, we provided additional services as part of this program, such as: case management services (information about a food pantry and low cost psychiatric services), advocacy in court, and referrals to other agencies based on their individual needs.
Ultimately, we determined that the volunteer clinician program could not provide the availability and capacity needed to support this strategic goal. Given the relatively small number of volunteers, there was often a mismatch between the availability of our clinicians and of our clients. We aggressively pursued multiple avenues of recruiting additional volunteers, but with little success. Challenges related to scheduling and coordination made consistent attendance difficult, and unfortunately led to clients discontinuing therapy. Despite the use of volunteer clinicians, our paid staff ultimately put in substantial time and effort to keep the program afloat. Given that we weren’t satisfactorily meeting the community’s needs and the program wasn’t proving to be sustainable, we made the difficult decision to pause the program after the last client had discontinued.
We are disappointed that we have needed to pause the therapy program, but our Board is working hard to identify sustainable program models and to secure the funding that would be needed to take on new clients again.
Strategic Goal #2
Ensure sustainability of TRUE Center through strategic utilization of available resources and increasing resources.
We met our primary objective during this year, which was to hire an Executive Director. Founder Renee DeBoard-Lucas transitioned off of the Board and was hired as a part-time Executive Director in August 2023. Among a wide range of responsibilities, Dr. DeBoard-Lucas oversaw community outreach and programming.
We successfully added 7 new volunteers over the course of the year and implemented regular reports to the Board from our Volunteer Coordinator to keep the Board informed. Our volunteer efforts are ongoing to maintain a volunteer effort consistent with our needs, however, with turnover among volunteers fairly high.
With the addition of several new directors, the Board’s composition grew more racially/ethnically diverse and included a broader set of skills and expertise.
Strategic Goal #3
Sustain funding for operations and governance.
We recognize that a key to sustained funding is being able to demonstrating impact and effectiveness. Thus, we met several objectives within this goal by developing the infrastructure to track outputs and outcomes, and working towards making the organization more competitive for grants and contracts.
We secured several corporate sponsorships and applied to one foundation grant.
Through fund development strategies, we aimed to secure at least 85% of the funds needed to ensure that the objectives in our strategic plan were met, in accordance with our approved budget. We developed a comprehensive fundraising plan and increased our revenue by 73% compared to last year! Even with this large increase, the funds we raised only covered 34% of our expenses and we relied on existing assets to support the year's planned operations. This signaled the need to re-evaluate our strategy with an eye towards sustainability.
Strategic Goal #4
Financial Overview
Where did your contributions go
in FY24?
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Because of your incredible generosity, TRUE Center was able to continue our Child and Family Therapy Program and Community and Professional Training Program this year. Expenses associated with both programs are highlighted here, and include the salaries for our part-time Executive Director and Mental Health Director and the cost of Electronic Medical Record software. Indirect Costs supported all programs, and included insurance coverage, accounting fees, licenses/permits, and email/web hosting.
TOTAL EXPENSES: $100,880
TRUE Center Expenses in FY24
Expenses offset by in-kind donations of professional services
Child and Family Therapy Program
Indirect Costs
21.3%
40.0%
27.7%
Other Program Expenses
3.9%
Community and Professional Training Program
7.1%
TOTAL REVENUE: $48,432
TRUE Center Revenue Sources in FY24
Foundations
2.1%
Business Contributions
Other Revenue
< 0.01
6.9%
In-Kind Donations of Professional Services
44.5%
Individual Contributions
46.3%
Notes:
-
In FY24, Professional Services donated as In Kind Donations were pro bono legal services worth $11,974 and therapy services worth $9,560.
-
Due to a generous one-time donation in our first year, TRUE Center began FY24 with $108,548 in savings.
Thank you to
our volunteers.
Volunteer Leadership
Allaine Hontiveros
Social Media Manager
Mia Johnson
Volunteer Coordinator
Volunteers
Hermon Alemu
Jaiden Bluth
Calia Christie
Alexandria Curry
Tori Jowers
Alex Lucas
Katya Makkaveyev
Kayla Nalepa
Jenna Rammouni
Adi Segal
Maggie Webb
In-Kind Donors of Professional Services
Christy Bergstresser, Hunton Andrews & Kurth
Kaitlyn Brodar, PhD
Kristin Davis, Thompson HD
Renee DeBoard-Lucas, PhD
Christina Diaz, PsyD
Susanna McQuarrie, PhD
Emily Picon, LCSW-C
Lindsay Scharfstein, PhD
Rachel Singer, PhD
Additional Special Thank You To:
-
Edgewood Community Farm and David Sempe for hosting the “Infinite Breath” Fundraising Event on TRUE Center's behalf
-
Give a Hoot Comedy Club
-
So What Else
-
Mental Health Minute Co-Presenters:
-
Josiah Oakley, Safe from Online Sex Abuse (SOSA)
-
Eddy Ameen, A Wider Circle
-
Kevin Fields, Father Factor
-
Shari Thomas, M.D., Healthy Foundations Group
-
Mary Martin, DC Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA)
Thank you to
our donors.
$1,000 and over
American Online Giving Foundation
(through employee matching donations)
Dwayne Calton
Laura and Pete Cartwright
Charles P. Ferro Foundation
Renee DeBoard-Lucas
Michael Fried
Anonymous Donor
$500-999
CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield
Brian Gardner
Barbara and Joe Guidi
Alison Kramer-Kuhn
Nate and Alison Pedder
Design Scout
Amanda Roberts
Denicia Titchner
Whole Story Studio
$100-499
Maria Alzate
Anxiety & Behavioral Health Center
Christopher Buck
Jenna Calton and Family
Sandy Cannon-Brown
Jamie Crowne
Jennifer Crowne
Bernadette Curtis
Mark Curtis
Paul Curtis
Mary DeBoard
Emily Farrell Picon
Ann Gardner
Mary Gardner
Richard Gardner
Vicki and Ron Gariffo
Give A Hoot Comedy Club
Michael Goncharsky
Emma and Sam Sterile
Joe Guidi
Deborah Heath
Karen Jacobs
Annaliese Kiesnowski
James Kramer
Jack and Kathy Kuhn
Joe Kuhn
Richard Leighton
Alexander Lucas
Susan Mallonee
Arati Pathak
Janet Phillips
Jason Piasecki
Akreeti Pokhrel
Norberto Rodriguez Muniz
Ronald Rosenthal
Teresa Rothermel
Lindsay Scharfstein
Masaharu Shimizu
Rachel Singer
Sadie Smith
Mary Stein
Maria Suarez
Robert Sumner
Lisa Wagner
Pam Wolf
$50-99
Eddy Ameen
Stefanie Angles
Joe Bond
Peter Bonet
Charlie Bonnell
Cindy Crosswhite
Brenda Curtis
Gail DeBlass
Drew DeBlass
Jessica Driscoll
Jeremy Fisher
Patrick Gunderson and Family
Topraj Gurung
Matthew Hollosy
iGive.com
Rebecca Koontz
Larry Laffer
Lindsay LaRocque
Mary Ann Leighton
Elizabeth Leighton
Rion Ley
Junhua Lin
Stephanie Mace
Matthew Nielsen
Shannon Porter
Susant and Raveena Poudyal
Helen Pozos
Dylan Rosenthal
Phil Saines
Natalie Siregar
Ellen & Tim Sosinski
Joe, Erica, Libby & Danny Stasio
Michelle Sykes
Rog & Krit Thoman
Heather Wong and Family
Amanda Wurzbach
$1-49
Smriti Adhikary
Peter Adland
Debra Alvarado
Sarah Anderson
Virginia Arroyo
Roshan & Suvy Bhattarai
Jacob Bond
Diana Bowen
Zachary Buckingham
Brianna Cebello
Heather Curtis
Julie Curtis
Stephania & Fred Cushing
Mia Deguzman
Demarcus DeLaCruz
Jim Dickson
Erin Duffy
Aaron Ehle
Thomas Flood
Darren Halverson
Caitriona Hayes
Allaine Hontiveros
Scott Iskow
Alana Jennifer
Victoria Jowers
Maria Kuznetsova
Michael Lacy
Patty Lai
Amanda Lee
Sushma Limbu
Claire McMahon
Petra Mdanat
Bridget Meagher Shatzer
Alison & Sean Mehravari
Melissa Melissa
Mariejean Miyar
Grace Nissao
Cailin Phebus
Judy Michelle Radwanski and Family
Kim Randol
Krishtine Rosenthal
Stuart Sargent
Grace Sigona-Phillips
Nora Simon
Allyson Wagner
Elissa Waldman
Amount Not Disclosed
Manuel Angles
Serena Lao
Mellanee Montgomery
Gabriella Segalla
Recurring Monthly Donors:
Maria Alzate
Jenna Calton
Jamie Crowne
Jennifer Crowne
Renee DeBoard-Lucas
Michael Fried
Mary Gardner
Michael Goncharsky
Joe Guidi
Annaliese Kiesnowski
Rebecca Koontz
Alison Kramer-Kuhn
Susan Mallonee
Janet Phillips
Emily Picon
Akreeti Pokhrel
Amanda Roberts
Teresa Rothermel
Ronald Rosenthal
Rachel Singer
Lisa Wagner
Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Superstars
Heather Curtis
Renee DeBoard-Lucas
Jessica Driscoll
Mary Gardner
Kathleen Kuhn
Jauni Marie Leary-Sims
Lindsay Scharfstein
and TRUE Center Board members