March 2008:
Contact us:
24-Hour Crisis Line
(206) 461-3222
(866) 4CRISIS or
(866) 427-4747
(206) 461-3219 TTY
24 hours, daily
2-1-1 Community
Information Line
Dial 2-1-1 or
(206) 461-3200
(800) 211-WASH
(206) 461-3610 TTY
Temporary Reduced
Hours
M-F, 8am-6pm
Teen Link
(206) 461-4922
(866) TEENLINK or
(866) 833-6546
(206) 461-3219 TTY
6-10pm, nightly
Business Office
1515 Dexter Ave N
Suite 300
Seattle, WA 98109
(206) 461-3210
Fax: (206) 461-8368
M-F, 8am-5pm
Volunteer Services
(206) 461-3210 ext.
611
M-F, 8am-5pm
2-1-1 Would Like Your Feedback
In 2007, Information &
Referral Specialists on the 2-1-1 Community Information Line in King County
answered over 100,500 calls. Of
those calls, approximately 7% were from area professionals – case managers
and social workers working to help their clients. Your feedback is extremely important to us, and I’m hoping
that you will take just a few minutes to complete a short survey and let us
how we are doing. To access the
survey,
CLICK HERE.
Thank you in advance for helping us ensure that
2-1-1 provides the best
service possible!
Free Old Toilet Replacement for
Seattle Homeowners
Seattle Public Utilities will
replace toilets purchased before 1994 with water-saving efficient toilets to
help Seattle homeowners save money on their utility bills. Residents must
earn less than 50 percent of the area median income to qualify. Those making
less than 30 percent will not be charged for installation.
For details, click
here.
Seattle Youth & Families Summit
Thursday, March 13, noon-5
p.m.
330 19th Ave E, Seattle
Miller Community Center
Policy Change and the Future for Youth is being coordinated by the Children,
Youth & Families Coalition (a sub-coalition of the Seattle Human Service
Coalition). Participants will
discuss issues facing Seattle youth and policy work to address those issues.
All advocates for the success of youth in Seattle are invited. RSVP to Tyler Bosma by March 6.
Family Resource Center’s 11th Annual
Eastside Volunteer Fair
Family Resource Center, the Eastside’s human services campus, will
once again host its Eastside Volunteer Fair. Nonprofit organizations are
invited to participate with priority given to health, housing, and human
services organizations serving the Eastside. The cost for participation this
year will be $15 (shared table) and $20 (whole table) for registrations
received by March 21. After March 21, costs are $20 and $30. For details,
call (425) 869-6699.
Financial Literacy Class for Domestic Violence Victims
Tuesdays, 6-8:30 p.m.
March 25-May 27
Confidential location
The YWCA of South King County will
be offering a 10-week financial literacy class geared for victims of domestic
violence called “Hope and Power for Your Personal Finances.” Topics include
safety and finances, budgeting, improving your credit, and meeting financial
goals. Childcare is provided on site and transportation assistance is
provided. For details and to register, call (206) 799-6209.
Support Program for Caregivers
Thursdays, March 13-April 10,
1-2:30 p.m.
4063 148th Ave NE,
Bellevue
North Bellevue Community Center.
Providence
Hospice of Seattle is sponsoring a free, five-session program designed to
help caregivers cope with the challenges of caring for a loved one with a
life-limiting illness. Caregivers can attend any or all sessions.
Registration is required. For details, call (206) 749-7695.
Crisis Clinic Filling Volunteer Class
Tuesdays, Thursdays and
Saturdays, April 1-May 10
Crisis Line volunteer phone
workers must be at least 21 years of age, agree to serve a 4½-hour shift per
week for at least one year, and be available for one on-call shift per month,
and one holiday shift per calendar year. Training is scheduled five times per
year and volunteers are needed year round. All training and phone
shifts are located at our Seattle office. Volunteer phone workers complete
more than 55
hours of intensive training in subjects that include effective
communication, diversity, grief and loss, violence and abuse, suicide,
substance abuse and understanding the mental health system. They learn
effective listening and communication skills and master crisis intervention techniques.
For details, call (206) 461-3210 ext. 611
State Launches Traumatic Brain Injury Campaign
DSHS along with the Washington
Traumatic Brain Injury Strategic Partnership Advisory Council have launched a
campaign to raise awareness of traumatic brain injury issues and to provide a
way for people to get information about available resources. They have opened
a hotline – (877) 824-1766 – which is staffed M-F from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and have
created a Web site.
Presentation on Living Wills
Monday, March 17, 1-3 p.m.
6522 Fremont Ave N
Cancer Lifeline
Cancer Lifeline and Providence
Hospice of Seattle will hold an informational presentation on Five
Wishes, a living will that lets you specify your personal, emotional,
spiritual and medical directives for you and your loved ones. Registration is
required. To register, call (206) 297-2500.
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Seattle
Housing Authority to Rebuild Section 8 Waiting List Through
Lottery Selection
Scott Freutel, Communications Specialist, Seattle
Housing Authority
This month, as it did in 2006, Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) will
create a new waiting list for its Housing Choice Voucher Program (Section 8)
by means of a mail-only lottery. The federally subsidized program subsidizes
a portion of the rent of very-low-income families who rent houses and
apartments on the private rental market.
SHA’s 2006 lottery produced a waiting list of 4,000 households chosen
at random by a computer program. All households on that list have been
contacted, and so a new list is needed.
Asked why the agency is again conducting a lottery to create a waiting
list for the popular program, Barbara Strayer, Section 8 program manager,
said, “We feel it’s the fairest way. Nobody has to rush down to get
first-come, first-served forms; everybody who mails in the form will have an
equal chance.”
Printed lottery sign-up forms will be available beginning Tuesday,
March 25 at these SHA offices and facilities:
• PorchLight, 907 NW Ballard Way, Suite 200 (open
Tu-F, 9:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.)
• The Central Office, 120 6th Ave N (open M-F from
8 a.m. until 5 p.m.)
• All Low Income Public Housing apartment buildings
across
the city
• Management offices at Yesler Terrace (open M-F, 7
a.m. until 5 p.m.), NewHolly (M-F, 9 a.m. until 6 p.m.) Rainier Vista (M-F, 8
a.m. until 5 p.m.) and High Point (M-F, 8 a.m. until 5:30 p.m.)
• The Operations Center at 1300 N 130th St (open M-F,
from
7 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.)
Starting on Tuesday, March 25, the lottery sign-up form will also be
available for downloading and printing from the SHA website, www.seattlehousing.org.
Sign-up forms will be also be available beginning Tuesday, March 25 at
every Seattle Public Library branch, Seattle Neighborhood Service Center, Seattle
Community Center, and DSHS Community Service Center located in Seattle city
limits, and at other locations to be determined. SHA will post information on
its Web site about other places across Seattle that will stock lottery
sign-up forms.
Any person 18 years old or older (or an emancipated minor) may sign up
for the lottery no matter where he or she lives. Only one person per
household may sign up.
After the mail-in deadline, SHA will send a postcard acknowledging
receipt to everybody who has sent in a sign-up form. Once all forms have been
processed, at least 4,000 names will be selected at random. These will form
the new Section 8 waiting list.
SHA will send a letter by May 9 telling lottery winners that they won a
position on the lottery, and what that position is (1/4,000, 150/4,000, etc.)
and how, when, and where to actually apply for housing.
For a household to be entered into the waiting list lottery, its
sign-up form must be mailed to the post office box designated on the form;
and to be entered into the lottery, the envelope containing the sign-up form
must be postmarked no later than Tuesday, April 8.
SHA will not accept faxed or e-mailed sign-up forms, and sign-up forms
may not be dropped off at SHA offices; they must be mailed. Photocopies of
the sign-up form are acceptable.
For updated information on the
lottery, call SHA’s recorded Waiting List Lottery Hot Line, (206) 239-1674. •
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King County FACT Team Taking Referrals
King County, along with Sound
Mental Health, has started accepting people who are homeless, mentally ill
and are “high utilizers” of jails into a new program that hopes to end the
cycle of homelessness and institutional confinement through supported housing.
The program is called Forensic
Assertive Community Treatment, or FACT, and is a partner to an existing
program that began last summer and is targeting the homeless and mentally ill
that are the high utilizers of psychiatric hospitals. This program is known
as PACT, or Program for Assertive Community Treatment and will eventually
serve 180 people. FACT has agreed to serve 50 people.
Both are based on the national
Assertive Community Treatment model that uses a multidisciplinary team
approach, small caseloads and community-based services for as long as the
services are needed. More
than 25 research studies demonstrate that Assertive Community Treatment
reduces hospital stays and improves housing stability while being more
satisfactory to consumers and their families than standard care.
In King County, individuals who are mentally ill and
homeless are four times more likely to be jailed and three times more likely
to be hospitalized than individuals who are mentally ill and have homes. Homelessness is the norm in county’s
jails; 50% of all inmates using Jail Health reported they were homeless. Incarceration often results in loss
of housing and benefits, separation from treatment, and disqualification for
future housing. If legal
competence is questioned, the inmate faces protracted jail stays and
hospitalization to resolve that issue, frequently languishing in jail ten
times longer than comparably-charged individuals without a mental illness.
Both teams are enrolling participants at a rate of about
four to six people per month. The FACT team began enrolling in January.
For
more information about FACT Contact Jessie Benet, King County SHIFTS Program
Manager, or Dave Murphy, Criminal Justice Initiatives Project Director, for
more information about the FACT program. Jessie Benet can be reached at (206)
263-8956 or jessica.benet@kingcounty.gov. Dave Murphy
can be reached at( 206) 263-8954 or dave.murphy@kingcounty.gov. •
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Critical
Resource Updates
Compiled by Resource Center
Staff
It is
always recommended to check Community
Resources Online for additional information and for the most current
information updates of the following resources.
Starting March 5, the Aloha Inn
will move to a new application site. They will no longer provide applications
at the YWCA, but will instead be at the Plymouth on Stewart Building, 116
Stewart St, 98101. Their application days and times will remain the same.
They still require that applicants provide valid, legal picture ID; they also
request that people bring proof of income, though that is not required at time
of initial application.
Street
Outreach Services will not be providing client-based services as of March 1.
The University District Needle Exchange will be operated by People’s Harm
Reduction Program and the Clean Dreams program will be operated by People of
Color Against AIDS Network, and will be known as CURB, Communities Uniting
Rainier Beach.
Tent City 3, a program of SHARE/WHEEL, has moved to Our Redeemer
Lutheran Church, 2400 NW 85th St. It will be at this location
until April 26. •
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March
and April Selected Resources
Compiled by Crisis Clinic’s
Resource Center Staff
This column
highlights timely resources in the community information database that might
otherwise go unnoticed by our users. It is always recommended to check Community Resources Online
for additional information and for the most current information concerning
the following resources.
March Resource Highlights
Overlake Service League
Camp and summer school scholarships are available for children in low-income
families and for children with disabilities in the Bellevue School District.
Must apply starting in March.
Special Olympics – Washington
Athletes with disabilities are invited to participate in this year’s
Winter Games, with events including basketball, downhill skiing, Nordic skiing,
figure skating and speed ice-skating. This year the games will be held
Feb. 29 – March 2 in Wenatchee.
Kent Parks, Recreation &
Community Services
Holds its annual Community Resource Fair, which allows people living in South
King County the opportunity to learn about the many organizations that assist
and support individuals and families with special needs. The fair will be
Thursday, March 6, from 5-7:30 p.m. For details, call (253) 856-5030.
University of Washington –
Women’s Center
Awards an annual nursing scholarship for $250 to financially needy nursing
students in western Washington. Interested nursing students may call the
Women’s Center after March 15 for an application. Submit completed
applications by June 1. Scholarships are awarded in the fall.
April Resource
Highlights
PlantAmnesty
On April 9, Washington State Arbor Day, about 20 certified arborists will
volunteer their time to prune majestic old trees in the King County area.
Trees can be on public or private property. To nominate a worthy tree(s), or
to find out when and where an event is taking place, contact PlantAmnesty and
request a nomination form for Arbor Day Tree Prune.
Rebuilding Together Seattle
Volunteers provide free home repair assistance to low-income homeowners in
the city of Seattle who are unable to perform the work themselves due to
physical or financial limitations. Local businesses provide material
donations, financial support and majority of volunteers. Annual Spring
Rebuilding Day will be April 28; call or apply online now to receive or
donate service.
Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission
Coordinates a youth summer day camp with outings, activities, and optional
Bible studies and Christian fellowship. Program also offers weeklong
residence camps. Serves youth, ages 6 through 18, who are currently in
school, kindergarten through 12th grade. Focuses on city youth living in the
Rainier Valley area. Registration usually begins mid-April.
Coyote Central
Young artists work with professional artists to create public art, usually in
the Central Area. Participants learn job and vocational skills and earn a
savings account stipend for their work. Applications are available through
Coyote Central in late spring from April-May.
Return to the top
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Talk,” Crisis Clinic’s free monthly e-newsletter, provides critical resource changes,
community events, feature articles on important health and human service
topics and updates to the annual publication of the Where to Turn Plus
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mailing labels and holiday lists can be found online by clicking here.
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users.
For business purposes, please e-mail us at ResourceCenter@CrisisClinic.org
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This Newsletter was last updated on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 10:57 AM
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