2016 Major Grants Recipient - New Bethlehem Family Day Center - Kirkland

Major Grants Committee Report 5/6/16

My Co-Chair Francine Weaver and myself want to recognize the following people:

• Colin Radford
• Tom Leonidas
• Steve Roberts
• Tom Miller
• Scott Sadler
• Madeline Gauthier

We would like to thank the committee members for their hard work.

We have selected a $7,500 grant for the New Bethlehem Family Day Center which is a remodel of a old Lutheran Church called Salt house (in the basement) across the street from the Lake Washington High School. This will provide a day center for Homeless Families to be able to meet and get a warm meal, take showers, wash their clothes, and use computers to find work. They are planning on having case management with  counseling and mentor-ship to transition back to find long term housing.

The New Bethlehem Family Day Center will be just for Families slated to open 8/15/16 to ramp up for the children’s school in September.

The Sophia Way which we also looked at is only for woman and not only can handle about 50 people each day but also has a dormitory which houses up to 22 women for up to 18 months.

As you know Congregations for the Homeless has a Day center in downtown Bellevue that can handle about 5o Men only and has showers, laundry facilities, computers and case management in order to be a positive force for change for the homeless. There is also a winter shelter that houses up to 65 men.

We looked at proposals from nonprofits on the Eastside and most of them have been around for many years and doing a good job on the whole. They wanted money for repairs or to update equipment, New TVs for Life wire for example.

We decided by far the most bang for the buck would be this remodel We will attempt to get a match from the district to make the $7,500 double to $15,000.

Homeless is becoming a big problem in Seattle and also there is some spillover to the Eastside. If treated with an overall suite of services including counseling, job search, drug & alcohol dependency counseling and one on one case management the families can get back to enjoying a life with dignity with a roof over their head.

Respectfully Submitted   Steve Peters