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Founded in 2013, Amelia Missieledies launched The Person Center to become a first-of-its-kind culturally specific organization that serves African Immigrants in Washington D.C.

The Person Center has relaunched October of 2021, determined to continue to fulfill this need and continue the legacy of the late Amelia Missieledies.

Mission

The Person Center is dedicated to serving the African Immigrant and Refugee community in Washington DC. To honor the legacy of Amelia Missieledies, the mission of TPC is to provide holistic support to survivors of domestic and sexual violence.

  • To offer comprehensive and inclusive case management, through competent and dedicated case managers and domestic violence advocates. To guide survivors through safety planning, crisis management, as well as accessing and fulfilling their social, financial, housing, and legal needs.
  • To facilitate evidence-based community education workshops to increase knowledge and awareness of domestic violence and its impact within the African Immigrant community.
  • To lead efforts in the expansion of inclusive service provision by other Domestic Violence Responders and Organizations so each can better serve and address the needs of African Immigrant survivors.
  •  To advocate for the survivors we serve, and ensure their needs are heard and that the call to remove all barriers they face is prioritized within the community and within the world of public policy on the local, state, and national level.

Vision

Our vision is a D.C. community that is equipped and prepared to serve as a haven of support for African Immigrant and Refugee survivors, one built upon the integral principles of equity, justice, and care. This vision encompases the upliftment and healing of survivors, and a vision that provides them all with the opportunity to see oneself as capable and worthy of overcoming both visible and invisible scars of the trauma of one’s past with violence, in a home country, or the new country they now call home. The Person Center is dedicated to the eradication of domestic, sexual, and dating violence from the homes and communities built and inhabited by the African Immigrant community.

Guiding Principles

Acceptance
Birds sing not because they have answers but because they have songs.
TPC honors the principle of acceptance, as it is imperative that all members of our community are included in our mission and vision. To accept every piece of every person as their whole. To love, embrace, protect, and fight for every one of us – and for all parts of us. To believe, and to accept the testimony of our survivors first. To protect and support no matter how unseen or unheard, wounded or scarred, and no matter how marginalized or demonized. We refuse to exclude or to confine humanity to arbitrary standards, or expect absolute perfection – one cannot call for light and reject the shadows that it cannot exist without. We must and we will accept all.
Trust
Hold a true friend with both hands.
TPC honors the principle of trust, as our community deserves to be and feel respected. Our team must prove to be worthy of their investment of time, valuable information, and access to the lives of the community. TPC is reliant upon the African Immigrant and Refugee community, this includes individuals and families who face a variety of injustice, trauma, and the challenging realities of everyday life. Building trust is a daily effort and a noble one indeed. TPC understands that trust is a living and breathing principle, utterly dependent on our actions and our words.Trust is a bridge between worlds – where one is welcomed by the people who own it with both hands.
Transparency
Truth should be in love and love in truth.
TPC honors the principle of transparency and it’s iterations from the individual, team, and organizational levels. Transparency predicates trust, and will be respected throughout our work from research, publications, community based projects, and all partnerships. We understand that organizational interests, when prioritized over community interests, have caused harm and damage to communities like the African Immigrant and Refugee community, here in the DC-area, in the US, and abroad. Transparency of the hearts and minds of leadership is non-negotiable, and the TPC board and organizational leaders are prepared and dedicated to embody this principle. Our expectation of transparency is an act of love and respect for a community we cherish, and are honored to serve.
Accountability
There is no beauty but the beauty of action.
TPC honors the principle of accountability, and this principle is a matter of courage and humility. We are dedicated to fulfilling this responsibility of honesty with our community. TPC requires all partners, community-level or organizational, to uphold this principle. Our work includes embodying the courage to push and support our community leaders and providers to accept this responsibility of accountability to the community members, and to our survivors especially.
Justice
If you think you are too small to make a difference, you haven’t spent a night with a mosquito.
TPC honors the principle of justice, and the pursuit of justice for every member of the African Immigrant and Refugee community. Justice is not solely a shining city on the hill, it is a way of life and justice must be incorporated in each step of the journey. TPC is dedicated to the pursuit and development of a holistically just society, where the principles of procedural, distributive, and restorative justice uplifts and defines the nature and function of our shared worlds. Whether it is a journey of recovery, reconciliation, or criminal and social justice – TPC will walk by your side.
Restoration
However long the night, the dawn will break.
TPC honors the principle of restoration, to aid the care and healing process of our community. Restoration is a journey as much as it is a principle, and for that reason it requires much to be learned. We are dedicated to supporting the individual and communal journey of healing ahead. However, this community is not a stranger to pain, and the many types of painful experiences that then lingers as trauma. TPC is dedicated to building our own understanding, and awareness of these traumas in order to prepare and offer sensitivity where it matters most. We will honor the various stages towards restoration, be it vulnerability, reluctance, confusion – whatever it may be and however long it may take.
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