We all buy into it. The advertisements for a pill that will make us skinny, the body spray that will attract women, and the car that will take us to our dream destination. Advertisement is a great way to grow your business. You sell the unspoken dream through words and pictures for a desperate audience. We know it is a lie when we see it, or do we? What are we really buying into? Advertisements sell us our fantasies. Completely harmless, right? Or, is it? Many decades ago we were sold on cigarettes; even doctors recommended them! Now we know better but how many people has this lie affected in a negative manner? I will spare you the history of advertising and get right to my point. The websites that advertise Crossway Community and Crossway Community Montessori. Crossway-Community.org advertises an excellent program for disadvantaged single mothers and their children. The selling points are promises of shelter, education, life-skills training, and community support and involvement. Sound great, right?! Well, it would be great if that is what actually happens within the walls of 3015 Upton Dr, Kensington, MD 20895. What the buyer, (mothers and children), actually gets is harassment and intimidation from staff, pressure to NOT speak to other residents to ensure the individuals success in the program, (community-what?), education and life-skills training, (non-existent unless you are enrolled at one of Maryland's many fine colleges or trade centers outside of Crossway Community), a fine education for your child, (in which your child will be treated differently than the "paying" parents, and if you complain or threaten to take your child out of the school you will be threatened with loss of housing when in fact on has nothing to do with the other and is in fact illegal), donations will be collected for your benefit, (although you will never actually see the fruits of that labor except for maybe Christmas), and my personal favorite, the computer lab, (the room with four computers and two printers that don't actually work they are just there for show when potential donors come and tour the building). This post can go on for pages, but I will spare you. The point is, Crossway Community's website for both the Family Leadership Academy and the Montessori School are nothing but pretty words to make you feel warm and fuzzy inside if you believe what you are reading. Don't worry, if you have donated to this company, your blessings will come because you did the right thing, you didn't know you were being lied to. However, let me assure you that what is advertised does not actually happen. Maybe it happened in the past, who knows, but I can honestly say within the past several years, that has not been the case. When I attended the orientation led by the CEO herself, she said that for every resident that is accepted, she must raise $60,000 per year for the resident to be a part of the Family Leadership Academy and all it offers. I am confused at her statement to this day. First, the cost of housing is covered by HOC. Education, such as college for example, is covered by federal aid (FASFA anyone?), payment for the child to attend the Montessori school is covered by Child Subsidy/Purchase of Care, (in order to receive the funds the mother must be involved in 40 hours of work/school/volunteer each week), utilities are paid out of the resident's pocket, (please read the post on electric bills!), food is covered by either food stamps, WIC, cash earned from working, or a combination of all three. Other fine things such as a car, gas, diapers, shampoo, household furnishings, internet, cable, etc. are provided for the resident by the resident in which ever way she can make it happen. My point is, where is this $60,000 that you are supposedly raising each year? Where is it going? Was the money not raised? Where did this magic number come from? It seems to me that much of the help that residents get is the same help that is available to all Montgomery County residents if they qualify on an income level. Maybe I am missing something. Surely I am missing something. I must have missed something. The fine print perhaps? We all are guilty of failing to read the fine print in advertisements, right?
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