Founded by three Georgetown football teammates, the Washington, D.C.-based organization enters its second decade prepared to deepen its impact in Southwest D.C. and expand its place-based model globally.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — GOODProjects is celebrating its tenth anniversary, marking a decade of work alongside youth and families to address the interconnected challenges of race, poverty, community violence, educational inequity, and limited economic opportunity. 

GOODProjects began in 2016 on the campus of Georgetown University through the vision of Darius Baxter and two of his fellow classmates at Georgetown University. What started through their conversations and early community work has blossomed into an internationally recognized place-based nonprofit organization serving families in the largest public housing community in Washington, D.C. 

For Baxter, a native Washingtonian who experienced the violent death of his father to a murder-for-hire plot and periods of housing instability while being raised by a single mother, the work was deeply personal. While attending Georgetown, he began mentoring young people from a public housing community just minutes from his campus and discovered a calling to help children and families overcome the conditions he faced as a child that prevent so many from reaching their full potential. 

While he initially focused on creating opportunities for young people, as the organization’s relationships with residents deepened, GOODProjects recognized that lasting progress for children required sustained investment in the stability and economic mobility of their entire families. 

That realization shaped the organization’s long-term, place-based approach.

A MODEL BUILT AROUND FAMILIES 

As GOODProjects expanded, so did its understanding of what families needed to thrive. The organization learned that helping a student succeed in the classroom meant little if their family was struggling with housing instability, unemployment, food insecurity, or the effects of community violence. 

Instead of creating disconnected programs to address each challenge individually, GOODProjects built an integrated, place-based model that supports families at every stage of their journey. Today, the organization works alongside residents through family coaching, year-round youth development, community violence intervention, workforce development, and civic leadership initiatives—all designed to create long-term stability rather than short-term solutions. 

That approach has become the foundation of the organization’s work in the region. Rather than asking families to navigate multiple systems on their own, GOODProjects brings those supports together in one coordinated continuum, helping residents build safer neighborhoods, stronger families, and greater economic opportunity. 

“Our philosophy has always been simple,” Baxter said. “Communities don’t need more disconnected programs—they need partners willing to stay long enough to help families build lasting change.” 

TEN YEARS OF GROWTH AND IMPACT 

Over the past decade, GOODProjects has grown from a student-led initiative on a Georgetown University campus into an organization with an FY2026 operating budget of approximately $1.83 million. 

During that period, the organization has secured more than $6.9 million through 87 grants from 56 funding partners to support youth development, family stability, community safety, workforce development, leadership, and advocacy. 

Crime Data in their working area reports that violent crime declined by 45% within their “GOODZone” since 2022. That result has helped establish the organization’s community violence intervention strategy as an important part of its broader neighborhood-based model and opened opportunities to partner with local governments. 

“Family Success Planning” now supports more than 300 families annually across areas that include housing, economic mobility, health and wellness, education, and family well-being. 

GOODProjects has also expanded educational and developmental opportunities for young people through its afterschool, summer, tutoring, athletics, workforce, and leadership programs. 

Complementary initiatives—including GOODSports, GOODCamp, the Black Justice Fellowship, and the youth-led Period Equity Action campaign—have extended the organization’s impact into athletics, summer enrichment, racial justice leadership, civic engagement, and health equity advocacy. 

The organization remains focused on its long-term goal of working with the Southwest public housing community and its partners to help 500 families achieve self-sufficiency by 2030.

Black Justice Fellowship Award 

FROM WASHINGTON, D.C. TO NAIROBI 

In addition to deepening its work in Washington, D.C., in 2019 GOODProjects began adapting its place-based approach internationally. 

The organization launched the Baxter Family Kids Center in Kawangware, Nairobi, to expand access to quality education for children in the community. The initiative has since grown into a full-time school serving more than 200 young people daily. 

The Nairobi expansion represented an extension of the principles that have guided GOODProjects in Washington: listen to the community, understand the barriers families face, and build solutions around local strengths, priorities, and leadership. 

Rather than applying an identical program in every location, GOODProjects uses its place-based framework to help communities develop strategies responsive to their own circumstances. 

GOODProjects visit to Naiorbi in 2019.

PREPARING FOR THE NEXT DECADE 

As GOODProjects enters its second decade, the organization is focused on strengthening the systems required to sustain and expand its work. 

In Washington, D.C., that means continuing to build a coordinated network of programs and partnerships capable of helping families move toward lasting economic stability while ensuring that young people grow up safe, supported, and prepared for adulthood. 

Internationally, it means continuing to invest in the Kenyan school and determining how the lessons developed through the GOODZone model can support other communities without losing the resident-driven approach at the center of the organization’s work. 

“GOODProjects began on Georgetown’s campus with three teammates who believed we had a responsibility to use our education, relationships, and experiences to serve communities like the ones that shaped us,” said Darius Baxter, President and CEO of GOODProjects. 

“Over the last ten years, residents have trusted us to walk alongside their families, learn from them, and build something that responds to the full reality of their lives. This anniversary belongs to our community, our team, and every partner who believed that families should not have to navigate poverty alone.” 

Baxter added that the organization’s next chapter will remain grounded in the principles that shaped its beginning. 

“Our goal is not simply to operate more programs. It is to build a model that helps families achieve lasting stability and gives communities the resources and power to create their own futures. We have learned a tremendous amount in our first ten years. Now we are preparing to deepen that impact in Washington and thoughtfully carry those lessons into other communities.” 

GOODProjects invites residents, alumni, funders, government agencies, businesses, and community partners to join the organization as it celebrates its first decade and prepares for the work ahead.

ABOUT GOODPROJECTS, INC. 

GOODProjects, Inc. is a place-based nonprofit organization headquartered in Southwest Washington, D.C. Founded in 2016 by Georgetown University football teammates Darius Baxter, Troye Bullock, and Danny Wright, the organization works alongside youth and families in the James Creek, Syphax Gardens, and Greenleaf public housing communities. 

GOODProjects provides an integrated continuum of support focused on family stability, youth development, education, community safety, workforce development, leadership, and economic mobility. The organization is working with the Southwest public housing community and its partners toward a goal of helping 500 families reach self-sufficiency by 2030. 

In 2026, GOODProjects’ work includes its Washington, D.C. GOODZone and a growing international education initiative serving more than 200 young people in Kawangware, Nairobi, Kenya. 

Learn more at goodprojects.org.