Holiday resource information available online at 211KingCounty.org

The holiday season is fast approaching, and King County 211 searched the county for holiday programs designed to provide gifts, parties and meal programs for local low-income residents. Utilize Crisis Clinic's Community Resources Online to access regularly updated holiday resource information:

• Go to www.211KingCounty.org
• Click on "Community Resources Online"
• Click "Start a Search"
• Under "Keyword" use any of these terms:
• Christmas Baskets
• Christmas Meals
• Christmas Parties
• Hanukkah Programs
• Holiday Adoption Programs
• Holiday Gifts/Toys
• Thanksgiving Baskets
• Thanksgiving Meals
• Use whatever zip code you prefer under the location tab.
• If you type these terms in exactly as they appear above, you should get all of our results. Most food basket and gift programs are very zip code specific. Be sure to open up the listings and check the eligibility field to make sure your client lives in one of the eligible zip codes. Check the application field as well, as some programs require that clients pre-register by a certain date to receive services.

If you are an agency representative and something about your listing is incorrect, please to contact the Crisis Clinic Resource Center at (206) 461-3210 to update your information. If you don't see your agency on our holiday listings and would like to be included, please to contact us with that information as well and we'd be happy to add you to our online database. As we hear about more programs we will add them to our online database, so feel free to check back for updates and additions every few days.

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New Online Tool Tracks Seattle's Electrical Outages

Seattle City Light just launched a public website that shows electrical outages throughout the city.

To navigate the website: On the left side of the page is a heading, "Outages," that has a summary of how many outages there are and how many customers are impacted. If you click on "Outages," you’ll go to a Google map that shows where the outages are. You can zoom in on the map and put your cursor on specific outage areas for information on how many clients are impacted and the status of when power is estimated to resume.

There are a few areas that will not show outages and they are noted above the map, and they are Downtown, First Hill and the University. These areas are on a Network Distribution so they have multiple feeder lines and a loss of one of the lines does not result in an outage. It takes a larger event to cause an outage for these areas and at this point it cannot be reflected on the map.

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City of Seattle's Utility Bills Program Offers Discounts to Qualified Applicants

Residents qualifying for the City of Seattle's Utility Rebate Program may be eligible to get 50 percent off their Seattle City Light and Seattle Public Utilities bills. Residents living in federally subsidized housing, including SHA (Seattle Housing Authority), Section 8, and KCHA (King County Housing Authority) are not eligible. Can't make it to an event? Contact one of the numbers below for ongoing signup opportunities at these locations.

• November 12-14: 9am - 3pm
  El Centro de la Raza at 2524 16th Avenue S, Seattle, 98144
  Translation available: Spanish
  (206) 957-4634
• November 19-21: 9am - 3pm
  International District Housing Alliance at 719 8th Avenue South, Seattle, 98104
  Translation available: Cantonese, Hindi, Kannada, Malay, Mandarin, Tagalog, Taiwanese, Toisanese, Vietnamese.
  (206) 623-5132
• December 10-12: 9am - 3pm
  Central Area Motivation Program at 722 18th Ave, Seattle, 98122
  Translation available: Amharic, Cambodian, Mandarin, Thai, Tigrinya, Vietnamese.
  (206) 812-4940
• December 17-19: 9am - 3pm
  Asian Counseling and Referral Service at Martin Luther King Jr. Way S, Seattle, 98144
  Translation available: Bhutanese, Nepali, Hindi, Nepali, Burmese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Spanish, Taiwanese, Lao, Thai, and Tagalog.
  (206) 774-2443
• January 14-16, 2011: 9am - 3pm
  Southwest Youth and Family Services at 4555 Delridge Way SW, Seattle, 98106
  Translation available: Arabic, Cambodian, Samoan, Somali, and Spanish.
  (206) 937-7680

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New Call Center Offers King County Veterans a Central Phone Number for Accessing Services

The King County Veterans Levy is increasing access to information and assistance for veterans living anywhere in King County. A $150,000 grant to the Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs' King County Veterans Information and Assistance Call Center is making the expanded access possible.

Veterans, military personnel, National Guard, Reserves and their families can receive information related to benefits and services at the county, state and federal level by dialing (877) 904-VETS to reach the King County Veterans Call Center. The Call Center is staffed M-F 8am to 5pm, and callers may leave messages after-hours.

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Critical Resource Updates 

ROAR (Referrals, Opportunities, Advocacy and Resources), a provider of financial assistance for eviction prevention and move-in costs, has closed. Supporters plan to continue applying for grants to support the program, and hope to reorganize and reopen in the future.

State to Reduce Cash Grants to Disability Lifeline Recipients
The Department of Social and Health Services announced yesterday that effective January 1, 2011 it will reduce the typical monthly cash grant from $339 to $258 for Disability Lifeline recipients in order to meet the recent 6.3 percent across the board cuts and the 2010 supplemental budget expectations. Washington State's Disability Lifeline Program provides cash grants to low-income adults without children who are unable to work due to a physical or mental impairment that is expected to last at least 90 days. A small number of disabled and elderly legal immigrants also receive help from the Disability Lifeline program. Earlier this month, a federal court issued a temporary restraining order to stop the time-limited benefit terminations from taking place. The order was based on 2010 legislation that provides that Disability Lifeline benefits cannot be discontinued based on time limits until a five-step case review process is conducted to ensure that a person does not meet the federal supplemental security income disability standard.

Working Connections Child Care
The income guidelines for Working Connections have been reduced to 175% of the Federal Poverty Level effective October 1, 2010:

• Family Size 1: $1,580
• Family Size 2: $2,125
• Family Size 3: $2,671
• Family Size 4: $3,217

Eligible families can still call (877) 501-2233 (option #4) for assistance in applying for child care. The Working Connections Child Care application has been updated, download the form at http://www.dshs.wa.gov/msa/forms/index.html

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November Resources
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

November Resources

• Puget Sound Energy - Natural Gas/Electric Services offers a winter disconnection moratorium from November 15 to March 15, allowing customers avoid disconnection by setting up a bill payment plan. Customers must provide written notice of inability to pay within five business days of late notice (unless there are extenuating circumstances) and follow detailed application process. Customers with a verified medical emergency, including dependency on a life support system, may apply for a 30-day extension of current electric or natural gas bill.

• The annual open enrollment period for Medicare Part D runs from November 15 through December 31. The Medicare Part D plan offers prescription drug coverage for Medicare beneficiaries through private insurance companies. Medicare beneficiaries who have not previously signed up for a Part D plan may do so during open enrollment.

December Resources

• Griefworks will hold its annual community-wide holiday service of remembrance in December for people in bereavement called A Night to Remember. Date and location have not been announced.

Crisis Clinic offers a variety of products to help connect people with critical resources. Information about purchasing Crisis Clinic's Where to Turn Directories, Where to Turn CD-ROMs, customized reports, customized mailing labels and holiday lists can be found online by clicking here.

Crisis Clinic respects the privacy of our Web site users.

For business purposes, please e-mail us at ResourceCenter@CrisisClinic.org or call us at (206) 461-3210. http://www.CrisisClinic.org

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