Five Years of Growing the Good Fire Together
- Jun 25
- 2 min read
There’s something magical about stepping into a cross-sector convening, the room abuzz with conversation, diverse perspectives, and shared values. Even better is celebrating what we’ve accomplished together—and imagining the good fires we grow from here.
That’s what we did at the 5th anniversary convening of the DC Social Justice Transformations Network on June 10, where I asked over 100 attendees to celebrate three significant achievements within our community.
The first was our progress to reverse a proposed 86% cut to DC’s Access to Justice Initiative. The day before the convening, the City Council had restored level funding to the District’s largest public investment in civil legal services for low- and moderate-income residents. (And just this week, that funding level remained restored in the second budget reading.)
The second achievement I asked folks to celebrate is an exciting DC Resource Bridge milestone. In addition to a helpline and website that have assisted over 2,300 DC residents and made over 1,500 referrals to 25 legal services providers in its first nine months, the DC Resource Bridge is now offering DC residents walk-in services at a new storefront at 1911 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. SE. I thanked leaders from Neighborhood Legal Services Program and Legal Aid DC for hosting the pilot and the program, respectively, and honored the many others in the room who helped create the strong community-informed foundation and partnerships behind the DC Resource Bridge’s breakout success.
Finally, I asked attendees to celebrate the DC Social Justice Transformations Network itself. We’ve come a long way since first launching the Network online mid-pandemic. The Network has fostered important connections between representatives of legal and social services providers, community-based organizations, government agencies, legal firms, and funders—all with a shared goal to make justice more accessible to DC residents facing legal, social, and structural barriers.
DC residents are already benefiting from this collaboration—through more coordinated services, stronger partnerships, and new initiatives shaped by shared insights and experience. (Read about some of them in this newsletter.)
But this moment is not just about what we’ve built. It’s an invitation to continue the work.
Whether or not you could join the last Network convening, I offer you the same encouragement I did there: Connect with someone new. Share your experience. Learn from your peers. And explore opportunities for collaboration.
This is how we move from helping DC residents one by one to building systems that work for everyone. I hope to see you at the next Network convening on October 14 to connect, learn from, and grow good fires with others committed to this essential work!
Sincerely,
Kirra L. Jarratt
CEO, DC Bar Foundation