Homes for the Holidays

The University of Mary Washington community raised about $5,500 last fall to help provide permanent housing for Fredericksburg-area homeless families. UMW’s efforts, spearheaded by Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology Leslie Martin, were part of a statewide initiative to get 740 Virginia families housed in 100 days.

Martin asked UMW faculty, staff,  and students to donate to the “Home for the Holidays” campaign of the Central Virginia Housing Coalition (CVHC), which coordinated the Fredericksburg region’s initiative. With the funds it collected from groups like UMW, CVHC placed 58 Fredericksburg-area families in permanent housing in time for the holidays.

For each $3,500 raised, CVHC covers a first month’s rent, a security deposit, and utility deposits for one area family. Agencies that work with the homeless, including the Thurman Brisben Center and Hope House, provide services aimed at keeping families in the homes. The money donated by the UMW community helped one family.

UMW faculty and staff raised about $4,500. Students raised $400 more through solicitation in residence halls and at

Leslie Martin

Leslie Martin

the annual Thanksgiving dinner in Seacobeck Hall. President Richard V. Hurley added to what students raised to bring their total contribution to $1,000.

“I am constantly struck by how giving and concerned all of the members of our UMW community are,” said Martin, who researches the rhetoric of homeless service providers and serves on affordable housing and homelessness task forces.

When sociology major Kimmy Slater ’14 heard about Home for the Holidays, she thought of the residents she’s met at the Thurman Brisben Center, where she has volunteered for the past two years. With the help of fellow students, Slater decided to ask others on campus to donate to the campaign.

“Homelessness has been near and dear to my heart since [I took Martin’s] freshman seminar on homelessness and housing,” Slater said.

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