The other Washington

Charity | Most of the news from the Capitol and the White House over the past year has been about government expansion measured in the billions or trillions. And yet, a short distance away from those historic building stand volunteer groups that–under the media radar–are making history of their own by tutoring children in the evening, educating them during the day, or giving respite to parents of kids with disabilities | Jill Lacey

Jill Lacey for WORLD

First you hear them coming: the squeak of rubber on linoleum, the squawk of excited voices in the hallway. Then comes the chaos of 40 elementary-school kids—yellow polo shirts and khaki pants in various states of disarray at this late hour—swarming the cafeteria. It's 6:30 p.m. and STEPdc's evening tutoring is about to begin. Children munch pizza and salad but keep an anxious eye to the door. "There's Miss Melissa!" A little girl's face bursts into a smile. Tutors in sartorial styles ranging from laborer to lawyerly file in, some with their ID badges dangling.

Operating on about $200,000 a year, and with only two full-time employees (but almost 200 volunteers), STEPdc—Strategies to Elevate People—has served the Petworth/Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, D.C., since 1992. There are 175 households in the government housing that surrounds Bruce Morton elementary school; only 11 are headed by men. STEPdc's goal is to build children's relationships with caring, committed adults. Its roster of programs includes Bible studies, summer book clubs, and camps and field trips around the city, but it's the tutoring that builds ties that bind, as adults make a year's commitment to a particular child, three Thursdays a month.