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Last week, the City of Seattle Human Services Department (HSD) hosted a conversation about the importance and interconnection of results, racial equity and capacity with guest speaker Dr. Michael McAfee from PolicyLink. “HSD is one of the largest investors in the Seattle safety net whose work involves partnering closely with nonprofit agencies, other funders, and the community in order to ensure healthy communities and healthy families," said HSD Director, Catherine Lester. "I believe that this vision calls upon each of us to commit to results and racial equity, and to invest in our capacity to do so.”
Catherine shared her five reflections from the Symposium:
We must be clear about how we are in service of a result. I have been reflecting on what it really means to be in “service of a result”. In my reflection, I realize that too often we engage in circular conversations that have nothing to do with being in service of, or contributing to a result. Michael referred to this as “work avoidance”. I am challenging myself to being very clear about how my leadership is always in service of a result, and I hope that you will join with me in this commitment.
We must connect our heart and our heads. Our work cannot solely rely on our hearts or our heads, it takes both. Michael talked about this in his acknowledgement that he needs his work to be grounded in love. This may sound funny to some of us, especially because we are not often encouraged to talk about or express love in the workplace. And yet this connection is so important and often cements our success when we act courageously in the name of results and racial equity.
We must embrace our creativity in this work. Our creative talents are one of the gifts we have to support our work towards results and racial equity. The Our Moment video that was produced by PolicyLink was previewed at the Symposium and is an example of how creative arts can be a powerful additive in our work. I hope you will take a moment to view or re-view, and to share with others.
We must celebrate and build from our solid foundation. Too often we only focus on what is broken and needs to be fixed, without celebrating our achievements and contributions. Michael reminded us that communities across the country often look to Seattle to learn from us and our journey. I hope that together we will celebrate and build on our successes, while also taking an honest look at how we continue to get and be better in achieving results and racial equity.
We must lead with race. The importance of leading with race has never been more critical than it is today. Not a day passes when we are not confronted with the images of how institutional racism has and is affecting our community and our world. Michael shared with us his own experiences as a young person and how he has had to navigate his personal truth with the realities of our world.
You can learn more about this journey and the City of Seattle’s Human Services Department’s work on the HSD website.
 United Way of King County’s Director of Ending Homelessness, Vince Matulionis, passed away on Monday night after a long illness. “Many of you have worked with Vince over the years and know that he was instrumental in launching United Way’s efforts to end homelessness more than 16 years ago,” said All Home Coordinating Board member and United Way of King County’s Vice President of Community Services, Sara Levin. “We knew him as a colleague who deeply cared about United Way's mission and working with the community’s most vulnerable individuals, families and young people. He was a creative and strategic thinker who brought humor to his work. He was also a leader with an ability to balance and navigate the complexity of our environment without losing his passion. To many of us inside and outside of the office he represented the heart and soul of United Way.”
Gretchen Bruce, a long time staff member at All Home (formerly the Committee to End Homelessness) during the 10 year plan, shared her reflections from years of working with Vince, “I grew to treasure his ability to communicate so clearly about urgent issues. He brought things down from being rocket science and ivory tower issues to common sense.”
“Vince was a guy who truly cared about people on the streets, who went to bed thinking about them and what he had and they didn't and what we can do to make things better,” said Mark Putnam, Director of All Home. “He was a mentor to me and a champion in our community for cutting through the bureaucracy and getting to real solutions for real people suffering.”
As a great partner to All Home and a fearless champion for people experiencing homelessness in our community, we are deeply saddened by this loss. Our condolences are with Vince’s family, friends and colleagues. Thank you Vince for all you did over the past 15 years. We'll keep up the good fight in your memory.
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Our community is committed to expanding housing solutions
for people experiencing homelessness. Rapid access to permanent housing is the
foundation to which recovery and stability can begin. In two recently released reports by Focus
Strategies and Barbara
Poppe and associates, diversion and rapid re-housing are identified as primary
solutions to ending the crisis of homelessness our community currently faces.
As the reports have emphasized, expanding rapid re-housing for all people
experiencing homelessness requires resources in the form of rental assistance,
supportive services and housing location. Particularly in the housing climate
our region faces today, the search for affordable and creative housing
solutions is particularly challenging. In addition to our region’s efforts to
expand access to and build more affordable housing, we need strategies that
will identify and expand affordable solutions for people experiencing
homelessness now. We can’t wait to build new properties. We need action now!
In that vein, we are excited to announce two resources
specifically to build local capacity in housing location and landlord
engagement strategies, supporting our rapid re-housing efforts and expanding
housing solutions for all people experiencing homelessness:
King County Landlord Liaison Project
King County Department of Community and Human Services has
announced an RFP with approximately $465,000 of joint funds from King County,
the City of Seattle and United Way of King County for landlord engagement
strategies. The RFP builds on lessons learned by the YWCA Landlord Liaison Project
and promising landlord engagement strategies from other communities. Details of
this RFP can be found on King County’s procurement
website.
Building Changes Washington Youth and Families Fund
System Innovation Grant
Building Changes is committing an additional $400,000 to
landlord liaison and housing locator activities in coordination with All Home,
King County, the City of Seattle, and United Way of King County.
These resources come at a critical time. Local providers are
expending tremendous effort to assist people experiencing homelessness find and
keep housing options that are safe and affordable. And the numbers show this.
In 2015, 1008 households were housed through RRH. We are making it work despite
the housing crisis our community faces. That said, in order to expand housing
solutions to even more people and to do so quickly in order to assist the
people sleeping outside today, we need to expand our community’s efforts to
build partnerships with landlords and other housing partners. These resources
do that.
For questions, please reach out to
Triina Van.
The Youth and Family Connection Network (YFCN) provides case
management services to youth/young adults who are experiencing homelessness or
are in a crisis that could lead to homelessness, with a goal of engaging the
caring adults in the youth’s lives. YFCN’s case managers help youth to engage
with the natural supports in their lives and to stabilize in a safe
environment, whether that be the family home or another positive living
situation.
Working with youth and young adults ages 12-25, YFCN
services support young people in identifying goals, addressing housing
instability, and developing positive communication and problem solving skills
within their families. Achieving permanent, stable housing is a key component
of our work, as is ensuring that youth and families are connected to appropriate
community resources.
YouthCare operates the YFCN in partnership with Auburn Youth
Resources and Friends of Youth. To learn more or enroll, please call (206) 792-5558 or email yfcn@youthcare.org
Please register now for the 20th Annual King County Behavioral Health
Legislative Forum, on December 7, 2016 from 6:00pm to 8:30pm at Town Hall Seattle. This
annual event brings the community together to celebrate recovery and connect
with elected officials about key issues in mental health and substance abuse.
A special clinic on HUD’s New Assessment of Fair Housing
requirements with guidance for public and private housing providers,
developers, elected officials, government planners and social service providers
will be held on Thursday, October 6 as part of Housing
Washington 2016.
Esperas provides technology training internships to people
that have experienced homelessness. Internships with Esperas provide twelve
months of intensive technology training in full stack web development. Dedicated
interns that start with basic computer skills learn how to build interactive
websites and mobile applications. Esperas provides its interns with housing and
living expenses stipends for the duration of their training. Learn more at www.esperas.org/intern.
The
Pledge is a collective of 12 businesses and growing who are helping the
homeless one small gesture at a time. The concept is simple. Businesses are
encouraged to do whatever they feel comfortable doing to help – offer a glass
of water, a hot drink, a place to charge a device, etc. Be:Seattle offers free
stickers that allow businesses to let
folks know what they offer and provides maps to people on the streets, as
well as service providers who request them. Folks can then stop by Pledge
businesses to utilize services while feeling like a welcomed member of the
community. It’s simple, but can really help make a person’s day brighter.
The Pledge is hosting a Happy Hour & Food
Drive/Fundraiser on Friday October 7th. Please
register here to attend. |
