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I’m Maisha Pinkard, and for the past six years, I have been a proud member of the
Friendship Place team, serving now as the Director of our Drop-in Welcome Center on Wisconsin Avenue.

The Welcome Center is where Friendship Place started, and where many of our participants’ journeys begin. Here we offer basic needs such as food, personal hygiene supplies, clothing, and access to free medical and mental health services. The Welcome Center staff offers people who come here off the street supportive case management, and help them achieve the goals they have identified for themselves.

Most of all, the Welcome Center is the heart of Friendship Place and offers hope. Friends like you allow us to operate the Welcome Center and serve the community. I want to tell you about two of the people you have helped.

Darlesha thinks of the Welcome Center as her special place of refuge. It was the Welcome Center where she first got help getting an ID and a clean place to take showers and do laundry. She knows she can come here to talk with staff who care about her and will try their best to help.

For Darlesha, finding stable housing as well as good medical and mental health care are key to reaching her much-wished-for goal—having her children together under one roof.

With help from you and Friendship Place, Darlesha now has an apartment. She receives regular medication and mental health care. And, through Friendship Place’s AimHire program, she is gaining the skills she will need to go back to work.

Learn about Greta here.