LSS/NCA CEO and Board Chair to Be Guests at the White House
Contact: Summer Parrish
Tel: (703)698-5026 x. 138
Email: ParrishS@lssnca.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CEO and Board Chair of Lutheran Social Services to Be Guests at the White House
Graves and Folstad look forward to sharing LSS/NCA priorities with Obama Administration officials
(Washington, DC – October 26) Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area (LSS/NCA) CEO Melissa Graves and Board Chair of the organization Melanie Folstad will be a guests at the White House October 28 as part of a day‐long event with other leaders from Lutheran health and human service organizations across the country.
Lutheran Services in America, which helped organize the event, expects more than 160 participants from almost 30 states and over 50 different Lutheran organizations. The leaders are coming to Washington to receive briefings from Obama Administration officials, attend issue‐specific sessions with policy makers, and raise questions, concerns, and recommendations about social service provision.
“I expect us to get answers and have serious dialogue about how we can bring hope and better times to struggling families,” said Melanie Folstad LSS/NCA’s Board Chair and an adoptive foster parent. “We serve more than 3,000 neighbors each year, all of whom are in crisis. I hope the Administration will take our recommendations seriously. LSS and organizations like us work with people in need every day, and we see the cracks that need to be filled.”
Graves and Folstad hope to learn more about the Obama Administration’s priorities and raise key issues facing refugees, foster children, and families living with HIV/AIDS. LSS/NCA is particularly eager to learn:
• If the White House will continue to support the US Refugee Resettlement program that allows refugees forced to flee their homelands rebuild their lives in America. Some of these include refugees from Iraq and Afghanistan who were forced to flee because of their support of the American war effort.
• Whether funding to the foster care system will be sustained during this continuing economic crisis that has a disproportionate affect on vulnerable children and families.
• The White House vision for addressing children and families affected by HIV/AIDS, particularly those in the DC-Metro region, where the HIV rate is five times the national rate.
LSS/NCA is a member of Lutheran Services in America, a network of over 300 Lutheran health and human service organizations. Working neighbor to neighbor through services in health care, aging and disability supports, community development, housing, and child and family strengthening, these organizations together touch the lives of one in 50 Americans each year and have aggregated annual incomes over $18 billion.
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Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area (LSS/NCA) walks with those in need and mobilizes community partners to provide services that offer hope and rebuild lives. LSS/NCA is a registered 501c3 nonprofit organization that serves more than 3,000 families and children in crisis throughout the Metro-DC region through Adoption/Foster Care, Caregiver/Senior Services, Disaster Preparedness/Response, Refugee & Immigrant Services, and Youth Haven Camps for children and families affected by HIV/AIDS. LSS/NCA does not discriminate on the basis of ethnicity, age, race, creed, gender, sexual orientation.