DASH is honored and grateful to be a grantee of Freddie Mac in the coming program year. Freddie Mac, also known as Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC), is a public government sponsored enterprise (GSE), headquartered in Tysons Corner. It was created in 1970 to expand the secondary market for mortgages in the US. This secondary mortgage market increases the supply of money available for mortgage lending and increases the money available for new home purchases.

With its dedication to community programs and affordable housing, Freddie Mac has partnered with DASH in 2012 on a $125,000 grant initiative supporting our scattered-site Empowerment Project. Participants in the project are able to sign an apartment lease that meets their familial, financial and safety needs. DASH provides the rental subsidy along with intensive support services and resources that enable the woman to become economically independent over the course of two years. This level of support allows DASH to increase the project to house an additional 10 families and help women to develop the tools to be fully financially supportive of their families and to develop real skills that ensure their economic independence.

The outcome of this grant will be that the women and their children served will have exited homelessness, secured stable homes, and be prepared to retain permanent housing through rental assistance, supportive services, and intensive education and advocacy around establishing economic self-sufficiency.
DASH partners with Wider Opportunities for Women in this work (link), an organization that helps women learn to earn, with programs emphasizing literacy, technical and nontraditional skills, the welfare-to-work transition, career development, and retirement security. Since 1964, WOW has trained more than 10,000 women for well-paid work in the DC area.

We are honored to have such generous, visionary partners in the important work to help survivors of sexual and domestic violence secure safe, long-term housing and live free from violence. We believe that DASH is a visionary organization that takes a holistic approach to serving survivors. Through research and listening we have developed a number of proven best practices we share with other organizations addressing domestic violence and homelessness. Without our corporate and organizational partners we would not be able to have the lasting impact that we do.

For more information or to pursue corporate sponsorship of the Empowerment Project, contact Peg Hacskaylo at 202/462-3274 x110.