Positive Force works with a number of other activist groups in the Washington, D.C. area. Below is information about some of these.

Justice For Janitors

Justice For Janitors is an important union organizing campaign. Over5,000 janitors in the Washington DC area earn below the poverty level, and most do not receive health benefits.

Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive (H.I.P.S.)

On any given night, several hundred women and men may work the street sex trade in Washington, DC. Often recruited as runaways fleeing abuse at home, they find themselves caught between police, pimps and johns, stigmatized, preyed upon and all-too alone.

Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive is a grassroots outreach and advocacy organization that defends prostitutes' humna rights, struggles to offer alternatives to life on the street, and critiques a system that perpetuates both the supply and demand in this harsh trade.

Community for Creative Nonviolence

The Community for Creative Nonviolence was formed in 1970 as an organization opposing the Vietnam War. Quickly recognizing the need for justice at home as well as abroad, CCNV opened a soup kitchen in 1972 and soon were feeding several hundred needy people a day. With a vision of the dignity and value of all human beings, no matter what their history or present plight, CCNV committed itself to the struggle to assur ethat all should have food, shelter and more.

Over a quarter-century after it began, CCNV remains one of the most powerful advocates for social justice in Washington DC. They have used creative, courageous, and often confrontational tactics to draw attention to the hunger and deprivation in our nation's capitol, exposing the shameful injustice and inequality that co-exists uneasily with the gleaming monuments to American idealism. In just one example, they occupied a large abandoned federal office building at 2nd and D Streets NW and, after years of struggle, were able to transform this ragged shell into a shelter that houses some 1500 women and men.

Today, CCNV provides not only shelter and food (through the Federal City Shelter and its affiliated DC Central Kitchen) but free medical services, jobs counseling, drug and alcohol recovery programs, legal advocacy and more. They could use your assistance.

CCNV can be reached at: 425 Mitch Snyder Place NW, WDC 20001 -- 202-393-1909

Community Family Life Services

Community Family Life Services is a non-profit agency which provides support to DC's poor and homeless through their Housing, Employment, Youth and Community Services Programs. Since 1969, they have helped thousands of people move from dependency to independence. In 1996, they served 10,343 people.


To find out about Volunteer Opportunities, contact:
Annemarie Sauer -- 202/347-0511 x306
Community Family Life Services, 305 E Street NW, Washington DC 20001
The Washington Free Clinic

The Washington Free Clinic is the oldest free clinic in the Washington DC area. Since 1968, it has operated by one simple yet revolutionary idea: that all people should receive quality health care, not just the rich. In 1992, the Clinic defied the Bush gag rule, refusing to compromise poor women's right to choose. Amidst a growing health care crisis, the Free Clinic sets a radically inspirational example.

The Arlington Co-op

Each of us can choose to withdraw our support, bit by bit, from our addictive, abusive corporate consumer society and start building alternatives to destructive lifestyles and institutions.

The Arlington Co-op represents one such alternative. Since the late '70's, the Co-op has provided healthy vegetarian food and organic produce at low prices to Northern Virginia. It is not like Safeway or Giant (for example) in that it is owned and run by its members -- which means that to the extent we support such institutions we begin to reclaim our lives. DC Metro Co-op's

There are a number of food cooperatives and Natural Food Stores in the greater Washington DC area where you can get healthy and/or organic food. Here are a few of them:


Beautiful Day, College Park MD -- 301-345-6655
Bethesda Co-op, Cabin John MD -- 301-320-2530
Brookland Co-op, NE Washington DC -- 202-269-3663
DC Farmers Market, NE Washington DC -- 202-547-3142
Glut Food Co-op, Mt. Ranier MD (near DC line) -- 301-779-1978
Takoma Park - Silver Spring, Silver Spring MD -- 301-588-6093
Uncommon Market, Arlington VA -- 703-521-2667
Univ. of Md. Food Co-op, College Park MD -- 301-405-1000 (ask for co-op)