From the desk of Sonja Allen Mari, Executive Director
Life at Guest House during the Summer doesn’t slow down — it just changes shape.
This summer, it looked like field trips to five Smithsonian museums, including the National Gallery and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. It looked like our women out at Alexandria Pride and the Moms Demand Action VA rally, tabling, logging volunteer hours, showing up for causes bigger than their own reentry. And on quieter afternoons, it looked like a book club working through Tiffany Jenkin’s High Achiever together, which is its own kind of reconnection — to reading, to conversation, to the version of yourself who used to have time for both.
None of that is casework in the traditional sense. But I’ve stopped believing reentry is only casework. Sometimes it’s a museum gallery, or a rally, or a paperback passed around a table. That’s what rebuilding a life actually looks like from the inside.
And none of this summer happened without help. Good Shepherd Lutheran Church has shown up with meals all season long — the kind of steady, unglamorous generosity that keeps a house running. Top Ladies of Distinction, Alexandria City, collected more than 100 pairs of shoes for our Clothing Closet, which sounds small until you’ve watched a woman walk into a job interview in shoes that actually fit. We don’t say thank you for this kind of thing nearly often enough, so: THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
Now the season’s turning, and September brings our biggest Reconnection event of the year: Friends & Family Day, Saturday, September 19th, from 12:00–3:00pm. It’s the one afternoon when our residents get to be hosts instead of clients, inviting the people who matter most to them to Guest House for a shared meal and to see for themselves how far things have come. If you’ve never been, I’d love for you to come see it.
Fall also has us looking hard at the parts of this work: repairs to our houses, vehicle maintenance, making sure we have enough warm clothing in our Clothing Closet, and all the less-than-glamorous things that will help more than 500 women on their reentry journey this year.
Thank you for being part of this with us — in the quiet months and the busy ones alike.
Sonja