Save the Date

October 28, 2010

NUHSA Annual Meeting and Human Service Awards

Third Place Commons---17171 Bothell Way NE---Lake Forest Park

9:00-10:30am

Honey Bear Continental Breakfast Provided

Human Service Awards Nominiation Forms: Human Service Awards Nomination Form 1.pdf

Press Release: HumanServiceAwardPressRelease.pdf  

The North Urban Human Services Alliance, NUHSA, is pleased to announce a new and updated publication:   Report to Decision-Makers On Human Service Needs in North King County.

This is our second and updated Report to Decision-Makers.  You will find new categories, updated information and new charts and references to assist you in assessing and providing for the human services needs of our North King County communities.

This report is a companion to our recent publication Tools for Taking Action in a Tough Economy, with each document supporting the other with action ideas that dovetail with the new data provided.

Your membership support helped finance the research and printing of this publication. We thank you for your support.

Please click on this link for a PDF of this report:2010 Report to Decision Makers.pdf 

NUHSA is pleased to announce the acceptance of two new board members.

Anne Guthrie joins the board as a community member. Anne has a long history of supporting human services working in non profit agencies focusing on individuals with developmental disabilities.

Kim Thompson joins the board from the Shoreline Community College. She has been the Director of the Office of Special Services for the last 6 years.

NUHSA is grateful for the experience and expertise they bring to the direction of NUHSA.

NUHSA held its Annual meeting December 10th, 2009 at Third Place Commons. Members enjoyed breakfast while they listened to the results of the membership survey conducted in November 2009. The newest NUHSA document the Tool Kit was introduced and all members received copies of the document. The 2010 Work Plan was adopted as well as the new nominees for the NUHSA Board. We welcome Gary Kingsbury, Vision House, who will serve as Vice President and Amy Moe, King County Housing Authority, who will serve on the board.

NUHSA thanks King County Organizing and United Way for their support, as well as Sky Nursery for their donation of 4 poinsettia door prizes.

Links to the NUHSA 2009 Annual Meeting documents:

2010 Work Plan.doc

Nominations.2009.doc

Survey results.doc

NUHSA has created a short survey for its members because of your interest in human services in our community. We value your input. Please help us provide the information and opportunities that best serve your needs.

Click on the link below to fill out our 2009 membership survey. Thank you.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=7FDPnq43VsclX4Jeo5QgVw_3d_3d

Homelessness a problem in North King County

By Russ Doubleday
Enterprise reporter

Homelessness does exist in North King County, whether it is regularly seen or not. Seattle may be a big draw with its large number of emergency shelters and soup kitchens, but not all homeless people migrate to urban centers.

Many prefer to stay right where they came from.

That was the main point of a presentation from the North Urban Human Services Alliance on July 23 in the Third Place Commons in Lake Forest Park.

Every year, the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness (SKCCH) coordinates a one night count of the homeless throughout the county. The count started just covering Seattle, but it has grown over the years and now includes 13 cities. The count occurs between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. with volunteers scanning only pre-determined neighborhoods and specific locations, as well as night owl buses and parked cars.

This year, 2,827 people were counted on Jan. 30 sleeping on the streets, which is a 2 percent increase from similar years when comparing similar count areas.

And this is an undercount.

There’s no way for these volunteers to find every single homeless person in the county during a three-hour window in the dark, explained Alison Eisinger, the executive director of SKCCH. The number obtained from the count serves merely as a snapshot of the problem and not the full picture.

When people sleeping in emergency shelters and transitional housing were counted on that same night, the number of people living without a permanent home swelled to 8,961. This number is estimated to be only one-third of all the people who will be homeless during the course of the year.

Only 23 people were counted in the north end of King County, but not many areas were targeted for counting in the first place. And for those who were living in shelters or transitional housing, 161 households — 5 percent of the total amount — listed the north end as their last permanent residence.

The count targets areas in Shoreline and surrounding north end cities, but there were no resources focused on Lake Forest Park. SKCCH returns to count all the same areas they have targeted in previous years, and they expand to cover new areas when they receive tips. No new locations were added this year. Eisinger could not go into detail about where these count areas were for privacy reasons.

Eisinger is also working on a 10-year plan with King County Housing and Community Development to end homelessness in the county.

“We’re coming up more with reform programs at the moment,” Eisinger said when talking about their money source from the federal government and how nothing new has been invested in tackling the homeless problem for thirty years. “We use the money we get more efficiently (now).”

She hopes President Barack Obama will reverse that trend and invest money in preventing homelessness.

The 10-year plan, which went into action about four and a half years ago, calls for more housing units built specifically for homeless families, for discharge programs from jails and hospitals to be strengthened and for health care services and job training to be more streamlined to help link the homeless with more opportunities to flourish.

“We’ve made some very good progress, but we’re behind in the number of units for rehab to reach goal of 10,000 new units in 10 years,” Eisinger said.

The plan also focuses on preventing high-risk individuals from becoming homeless in the first place.

The plan is ambitious, especially during these economic times, Eisinger said. She’s hoping her efforts can curb and prevent homelessness throughout King County and the north end.

She also stressed that local cities, King County government, and the Washington State legislature all have important roles to play in establishing affordable and homeless housing.

NUHSA Brown Bag Lunch Presentation

One Night Count of the Homeless in North King County

                                                                             July 23^rd, noon-1:30pm

Third Place Commons—in front of the stage

17171 Bothell Way NE, Lake Forest Park

NUHSA members and Public Invited

The North Urban Human Services Alliance invites you to attend a special presentation on the 2009 One Night Count of the Homeless. Guest speakers Alison Eisinger, Executive Director of the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness and Kate Speltz, King County Homeless Housing Program Planner will describe the results of the 2009 count, with special emphasis on the trends in North King County, and answer questions.

Time allowed for agency networking. If your agency has new staff or program changes to announce come and share with fellow NUHSA members. If you can’t attend but want to know more about the One Night Count, please go to www.homelessinfo.org for a copy of the 2009 Report.

Bring a brown bag or buy your lunch at one of the Common’s restaurants, coffee and lemonade will be provided. Join us for an update on a critical human service problem.

Pastor Geoff Ehtelston is congratulated by Lake Forest Park Mayor Dave Hutchinson on March 12 after receiving a proclamation for being the first recipient of the North Urban Human Services' first annual award.

North Urban Human Service Alliance (NUHSA) presented the first annual Human Services Award to Pastor Geoff Ethelston from Kenmore's Church of the Redeemer on March 12 at the Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Shoreline. The award is a recognition program for individuals advocating for human services.

For many years, Ethelston was actively involved in the Religious Leaders Task Force, the King County Alliance for Human Services and Eastside Forum, the United Way North Community Council and an active board member on the North Urban Human Services Alliance.

A constant source of information and creative ideas, Ethelston often served as a much-needed liaison between these advocacy groups and attended meetings with a regularity seen in few. He provided a voice for low-income people to local and state lawmakers, helping to secure additional funding and support for human service programs across North King County. At the end of 2008, he retired from many of these boards and coalitions for personal reasons.

"I am honored to have been selected as the first recipient of this service award as well as humbled," Ethelston said. "My reward is really to know that NUHSA has achieved authority and maturity to be accepted as the voice of human service needs in north king County and to be a catalyst for getting help where it is needed."

The new award recognizes an individual who is instrumental in creating positive change; identifies and meets unmet needs in the community; supports human services by devoting resources (financial or otherwise) to the development, continuation or advancement of human services work; creates a better community and improves the quality of life for the citizens of North King County; and fosters public awareness to the importance of human services.

NUHSA is composed of representatives of non-profit service providers, the faith community, county and local governments and the United Way, who seek to build the community's capacity to respond to human service needs in north King County. NUHSA's mission is to build the community's capacity to respond to human service needs in North King County, encompassing the cities of Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, Kenmore, Bothell and Woodinville.

North Urban Human Services Alliance (NUHSA) is looking for members interested in becoming involved in NUHSA by sitting on one of NUHSA's Committees.

The committees meet as necessary to carry out NUHSA business and facilitate its functions. A Chairperson for each committee is appointed by the Board; the person need not be a member of the Board. Each Chair will report on the work of his/her committee at Board Meetings.

NUHSA has two standing committee charges:

Membership and Program Committee:  Is responsible for planning, scheduling and facilitating the membership meetings. Topics of the meeting will be determined through NUHSA member input and from recommendations by the Board. The Committee will ensure the meetings are relevant, interesting and further the goals of NUHSA.

The Committee will facilitate the Annual Human Services Award Program in collaboration with the Board and staff.

The Committee will work to ensure the membership is representative of the communities NUHSA serves.

If you are interested in the Membership and Program Committee please contact Diane Kolb at:  diane@childrenscountryhome.org

Policy Committee:  Is charged with representing the viewpoint and interest of the North King Sub-region before private and local, county and state government planning and resource allocation bodies. The Policy Committee will also develop NUHSA positions on legislative and public policy issues.

If you are interested in the Policy Committee please contact Kelsey Beck at:  KelseyB@fll.org

The North Urban Human Services Alliance (NUHSA) is a membership organization of non-profit social and health service agencies, staffs from King County and local cities, the faith community, United Way and interested citizens and organizations which support the mission of NUHSA which is:

“to build the community’s capacity to respond to human service       

 needs.”  

The geographic area served comprises the North Shore and Shoreline School districts and encompasses the cities of Woodinville, Bothell, Kenmore, Lake Forest Park and Shoreline.

Summary of Organizational Accomplishments

1. Organized and presented “Human Services 101,” a forum for the elected officials of the five cities explaining how human services are organized and funded.
2. Formed an Ad-hoc organizational structure committee, chaired by Vice President Karen Sluiter, to examine how the organization can be more effective and economically sustainable. The Committee recommended a membership dues structure, which the board adopted for implementation in 2009.
3. Created a new website that enables members to have access to meeting notices, minutes of board meetings, a calendar of events and frequent updates on a variety of human service topics.
4. Jointly sponsored with the Eastside Human Services Forum, a June 12^th Forum for elected officials on the “Changing Funding Landscape for Human Services”.
5. Received a  $12,000 grant from the King County Council to further the work of NUHSA, a $5,000 grant from United Way for organizational support and $1,000 grant from the King County Mental Health, Chemical Abuse and Dependency Services Division, to help fund the creation of the website. Our fiscal agents are: the City of Lake Forest Park for the King County Grant; and Friends of Youth for the United Way Grant.
6. Advocated maintaining current funding for human services in the King County Budget and for the inclusion of human service delivery sites in the redeveloped Bothell Downtown Plan and in Phase 2 of the Fircrest Campus Master Plan.
7. Jointly sponsored with Public Health,/ Seattle/King County an October 23rd forum on equity and social justice. The program examined how racial and economic disparities influence a person’s health and overall life opportunities. By changing public policy, programs and ways of delivering services, disparities can be reduced.
8. Contracted for part-time staff support resulting in a huge improvement in organizational effectiveness. NUHSA also had its first student intern from the U.W. School of Social work, who assisted on a variety of projects.

Organizational Achievements by Goal

Goal 1: Provide a strong voice and leadership role in local and regional human service decisions.

The Policy Committee actively participated on the King County Alliance for Human Services, particularly concerning proposed cuts to human services in the King County Budget. Members of the board were also active on key groups including: the Committee to End Homelessness, the Northshore/Shoreline Community Network, Community Resource Team, Interfaith Task Force on Homelessness and the United Way North Community Council.

The Policy Committee also participated in the planning for the redevelopment of downtown Bothell helping to survey human service agencies concerning their interest in having a physical presence in the new development. The Policy Committee continues to participate in the Master Planning process for the surplus land on the Fircrest campus, advocating for space for human service agencies to locate on the redeveloped portions of the campus.

The Policy Committee thanks all NUHSA members who took time to write letters, send emails, attend hearings, testify at meetings and otherwise assist in our advocacy efforts.

Goal 2: Identify and communicate emerging community human service needs.

NUHSA endorsed the One Night Count of the Homeless in North King County and several members participate on work groups of the Committee to End Homelessness, charged with implementing the Ten Year Plan To End Homelessness. A NUHSA Board member was one of the presenters at the June 24^th United Way Hunger Summit. Recommendations from the Food Summit included making hunger more visible to decision makers and the general public, improving communication to the public about expanded eligibility for the basic food program and how to increase the supply of quality food to the food banks. The Program and Membership Committee planned the April 22nd “Human Services 101” presentation to elected officials of the five cities featuring Marilyn Mason-Plunkett, CEO of Hopelink and Mayor Mark Lamb of Bothell as speakers. The program and Membership Committee also helped plan the social and economic equity program held on October 23rd.

Goal 3: Support cooperation, coordination, and collaboration among providers, funders, and the community to enhance resources and the ability to respond to needs in the community;

NUHSA will participate in 2009 on a new task force on older adult issues sponsored by the Eastside Forum. NUHSA continues to work with the United Way to support better understanding of and use of the Earned Income Tax Credit as an anti-poverty strategy. The new website is also used to share information on best practices, training opportunities and information relevant to the human service community.

Goal 4: Advocate for a continuum of care that increases access to services.

The board advocated for maintaining the current level of funding in the King County human services budget. NUHSA identified more than 3 million in county funding that flows to agencies in North King County.  Members testified at budget hearings and a letter outlining NUHSA’s position was sent to the county council and local cities. Key services at risk were the North King County Public Health Clinic, 2-1-1 telephone information and referral, Food Lifeline and Health Point, the community clinic serving North King County.