Category: News

Press Release

For Immediate Release

Contact Information
Kevin Mundt, kevin.mundt@seattle.gov

HSD Announces Over $3.8 Million to Support Families in Seattle

Awarded agencies will each receive up to $300,000 in funding to strengthen Seattle’s support system in culturally responsive ways for families and youth who live, work, or attend school in Seattle.

Seattle – The Seattle Human Services Department (HSD) is pleased to announce the results of its 2023 Family Support Request for Proposals (RFP), which is funding organizations that help low-income families create connections with each other and their communities, while building on cultural strengths and community assets.

The funding process resulted in 22 proposals receiving annual awards ranging from $86,000 to $300,000. Contracts will begin January 1, 2024, and organizations are eligible for renewal over four years. Funded programs have expertise providing culturally specific services to communities including Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) families, refugees and immigrants, fathers, kinship families, and families experiencing trauma or homelessness.

Programing will include workshops or classes about culturally specific child and youth development, adjustment to life in the United States for refugees and immigrants, and self-actualization principles and practices for parents and families. This funding will also create opportunities for families to gather for mutual support and resource sharing, learn about culturally specific parenting practices, build resilient family relationships, and for youth and families to suggest, create, or facilitate cultural activities or learnings that are of particular interest to families.

“Coming out of the COVID pandemic, we know it’s critical to focus on supporting families,” said HSD Director Tanya Kim. “For families, and especially children, to thrive they need connection—connection to cultural traditions, their communities, and their practices. This connection builds resilience, it improves educational and life outcomes, and it helps counteract the racism and discrimination many children experience outside their families.”

“This is an investment in services rooted in community and often led by community,” said Shukri Olow, HSD’s Youth & Family Empowerment Division Director. “Many of the 22 programs funded are new HSD partners with deep connections to BIPOC families, and their work will result in improved access to resources.”

In response to this RFP, HSD received 35 proposals, a 37% increase from the most recent family support RFP in 2018. The 35 proposals totaled $9,488,750 in requests—more than double the amount of available funds. Of the awardees, 15 programs are receiving first-time Family Support awards from HSD.

The increase is owed in part to expanded, deliberate outreach to community-led programs—including City Councilmembers, culturally relevant media, the WA State African American Council, and the Mayor’s Inaugural Native Summit. Intentional efforts were made to reach Native and Indigenous community organizations with assistance from the City’s Indigenous Advisory Council Liaison.

The 13-member rating panel reviewed proposals and recommended funding that aligned with the RFP’s goals. The rating panel included community members, parents, a grandparent, staff from community agencies and Seattle Public Schools, University of Washington graduate students, and former City staff. Many raters brought multiple perspectives and combined lived experience, work experience, and academic qualifications.

Here is what some of the awardees are saying:

“The funding from HSD allows the Native Family Learning Lodge to provide language resources to support our multi-language immersion program, nature-based curriculum, and food sovereignty activities for family engagement,” said Leanne Rye Brock and Alayna Eagle Shield, who serve as co-Executive Directors at the Native Family Learning Lodge, a childcare center serving Native children in South Seattle. “This funding ensures our children, and their families have access to these resources and will strengthen our communities.”

“These funds will enable us to strengthen the threads that connect our Native youth to their cultural roots,” said Esther Lucero (Diné), President and CEO of Seattle Indian Health Board. “This connection is imperative to our preventative behavioral health work and ensuring the overall wellbeing of our youth.”

“This is a major step forward to strengthen families and community at a grassroots level in South Park,” said Crystal Brown, Director of Cultivate South Park. “We’ll embark on an inter-cultural, multi-generational arts experience called ‘Walking Together: All Our Relations’ that enriches, enlivens, and sustains solidarity. By merging the indigenous wisdom of elders with modern stories and events, we will honor seven generations beyond Chief Seattle and the original Duwamish settlers right in Seattle’s oldest, most forgotten territory.”

“Voices of Tomorrow is both honored and thrilled to use the Family Support RFP funding as a resource to help implement our Community Centered Healing Program (CCHP),” said Rhea Panela-Caoile, Communication and PR Manager for Voices of Tomorrow. “90% of the families we serve are East African immigrants and refugees, and 100% are low-income. CCHP will serve parents and extended family caregivers from the East African immigrant and refugee community, with a focus on Somali families. With the help of the funding from the City of Seattle, we hope to bring families together to learn about culturally responsive trauma healing and mental health support.”

Congratulations to all of the 22 agencies receiving funding awards:

• African Community Housing & Development
• Atlantic Street Center
• Black Star Line ACFEC
• Children’s Home Society of Washington
• Chinese Information and Service Center
• Communities of Rooted Brilliance
• Cultivate South Park
• Divine Alternatives for Dads Services (DADS)
• Eritrean Association of Greater Seattle
• Families of Color Seattle (FOCS)
• Hummingbird Indigenous Family Services
• InterCultural Children and Family Services
• Mary’s Place
• Native Family Learning Lodge
• Neighborhood House
• Open Doors for Multicultural Families
• Seattle CARES Circle of National Cares Mentoring Movement
• Seattle Indian Health Board
• Solid Ground
• Southwest Youth and Family Services
• Voices of Tomorrow
• Washington Therapy Fund Foundation

The Employees Community Fund of Boeing Puget Sound awarded a $40,000 grant to Seattle CARES Mentoring Movement this month. The funds will be used to purchase a new 8-passenger vehicle van to transport youth and mentors to community events and activities in Seattle and King County.

“We are so grateful to the employees of Boeing Puget Sound for this grant,” said Don Cameron, Seattle CARES executive director. “It opens the doors for us to do so much more for our scholars, both educational and just for fun. Some of our future field trips include a visit to Seattle’s WOW Gallery which highlights women artists of color, a University of Washington basketball game or practice session, maybe even attending a legislative session in Olympia.”

Boeing’s Employees Community Fund is one of the largest employee-managed funds of its kind in the world. Each chapter is led by a committee of employee volunteers who decide what areas of funding to support. In 2021, the 20 nationwide chapters invested $8.3 million in their local communities.

Seattle CARES, founded in 2008, offers innovative programs that provide critical skills and positive support systems to help Black youth and their families succeed and flourish. Guided by the latest research on education, mentorship, race and opportunity, the organization’s results-oriented approach was created by some of the nation’s top educators, wellness professionals, counselors and advocates.

Every June, the Seattle CARES team assesses how well the program performed during the school year and how much progress the students are making. The students also get to comment, providing their own evaluations as they answer three important questions:  Why are you here? What does The Rising mean to you? What do you hope to gain?

Here are some of their comments, edited for clarity and length.

The Rising means that I will learn how to grow up and become stronger. I come here to learn. What I hope to gain is friends.  – Noble, Denny International Middle School

The Rising means getting to the top because I want to go to the next level because it seems fun and empowering. I want to be happy and more popular and learn more. I want to be proud of my ethnicity and my culture. – Boryad, Meany Middle School

To me, The Rising means that people are here to see us rise up. I am here because you guys help me and my mom with money for food.  I hope to be the best I can be. – Isaiah, Denny International

I am here because I want to learn more about change in the world. It is good because we learn about our Black heroes. – Eyosias, Meany

The Rising is a community that helps us. I am here because my brother attended earlier and he thought it would be good for me. He said it is nice and he was not lying. They give us food and gift cards, and they help us out a lot.  – Yunis, Denny International

 I like being in this group because it’s fun. I really like the super hero project and I want to get leadership skills. I will stop playing around in this class and will take it seriously.  I will share my work and listen. – Kyle, Meany

 I am here because my mom signed me up and because my brother was there.  My brother and I are gaining knowledge about the Black community.  I hope to gain respect, kindness and love. – Houd, Denny International

 

 

Seattle CARES just completed a full school year of The Rising for Girls at both Meany and Denny International middle schools.

The program was tested last year as a pilot project at Denny only and it was held virtually because of the pandemic. Last September, we launched the girls-only option at both schools in person and enrolled 38 girls – 19 at each school.

“Once school leaders saw the positive effects from The Rising for Boys, we were asked repeatedly to inaugurate a girls-only Rising,” said Don Cameron, executive director, Seattle CARES Mentoring Movement. “The Rising for Girls addresses the specific needs that young women face in today’s challenging world.”

The Rising for Girls is customized to enhance their cultural pride and self-esteem while developing their critical thinking and literacy skills. Women facilitators and mentors, such as Ronnae Redmond, were recruited to work in a group setting.

“Based on the program’s success, we are looking forward to continuing The Rising for Girls in the upcoming school year,” said Cameron.

Super heroes were a big hit among Rising scholars again this spring!

Students in The Rising at Denny International and Meany middle schools used this innovative curriculum to spark meaningful conversation and learn what character traits are important to live a quality life. The program was launched in 2020.

The Rising scholars created and named their own super heroes, designed super hero costumes and gave each crusader a super power – a force they used for good and to make the world a better place. For example, Tonka made people disappear into a universe called “the back room,” replacing them with alternate beings. Crowbend could fast-forward or stop time, and Rizz was a shape-shifter.

Working in small groups, the scholars created back-stories for their super heroes. Vilo ran away from home and lived in an abandoned factory where he built a machine that gave him super powers. Crowbend lived in a crime-filled neighborhood in New York. Thanks to his super-power, if someone sets off a bomb, he could stop time to disable it.

The super heroes program allows the scholars to discover and express their inner creativity. “In the super heroes project, I created my own hero,” said Ben (left, in photo with friend Joey) who attends Meany Middle School. “It was a way for us to use our imagination and to focus on completing an assignment. I felt like I was free again, after living in the pandemic.”

Several graphic designers helped the students translate their creative ideas into comic-book format. At the end of June, the scholars turned in a PowerPoint presentation to tell the story of each super hero.

“We hope the students will remember the lessons they learned from their super heroes project,” said Don Cameron, executive director, Seattle CARES. “We want to inspire our scholars to have courage and to serve their community.”