News – Page 2 – A Way Home Washington

My Story: Elsa St. Claire

Posted on April 1, 2021 in Anchor Community Initiative, Behind the Scenes, Equity, Lived Experience, Pride, Youth and Young Adult Engagement, Youth Homelessness, Youth Leadership

Hello, my name is Elsa St Clair and I am 24 years old. My journey of homelessness began in 2017 and has been an ongoing battle since I came to Spokane in January 2020 and landed at Hope House Women’s Shelter, where I stayed there for 5 months. Afterwards, I was able to move into […]

Diversion: Flexibility Fosters Creativity in Housing Young People

Posted on April 1, 2021 in Anchor Community Initiative, Centralized Diversion Fund, Reducing Homelessness

Centralized Diversion Fund (CDF) program houses nearly 170 young people since launch! There is an underlying misconception in a lot of youth work: People need a whole myriad of services before they can be housed. But in its first 7 months of being launched, the Centralized Diversion Fund (CDF) program is already proving that to […]

Zooming Along: The 2021 Legislative Session & A Way Home Washington

Posted on March 22, 2021 in Anchor Community Initiative, legislative advocacy, Uncategorized

We recently received great news for the future of the Anchor Community Initiative – and it’s all because of you. For the past two months, you’ve been organizing, contacting your legislators, and making your voices heard. And our champions in the legislature were listening. Both the Senate and House have joined Governor Inslee and included […]

Yakima: The First Community to Use Student Stability Innovation Grants

Posted on February 26, 2021 in Anchor Community Initiative, Student Stability Innovation Grants

We are so excited to let you know that we recently launched our newest project to end unaccompanied student homelessness – Student Stability Innovation Grants. YAKIMA is the FIRST community to submit a grant request and it has been APPROVED!!!! Yakima Neighborhood Health Services will test the use of peer social media influencers to outreach […]

ACI: Pierce County– Increasing Housing Placement Rates By 30%

Posted on November 30, 2020 in Anchor Community Initiative, Centralized Diversion Fund, Reducing Homelessness

Congratulations to Pierce County on achieving the of their first reducing process measure—increasing housing placement rates by 30% by the end of September 2020. With assistance from the ACI Coaching team, Pierce County set this goal and began working on it in mid-June. A big factor in choosing this goal was the level of success […]

Housing More QTBIPOC

Posted on November 4, 2020 in Anchor Community Initiative, Equity

Anchor Communities are entering the second stage in the work to end youth and young adult homelessness: Reducing homelessness. Two communities, Pierce and Walla Walla, have achieved quality, real-time data, and Yakima and Spokane aren’t far behind. This incredible milestone also contributes to the advancement of our racial and LGBTQ+ equity plan. With quality data, […]

Education and My Experiences

Posted on October 27, 2020 in Equity, Lived Experience, Youth and Young Adult Engagement, Youth Homelessness, Youth Leadership

Currently in my fourth year at Walla Walla University, I’m truly proud of myself for making it this far. Growing up, my family and I lived off social security, food stamps, and section eight housing. So, the fact that I’m going to college to have a career to provide for myself is truly a dream. […]

Walla Walla’s Data Journey

Posted on October 1, 2020 in Anchor Community Initiative, Behind the Scenes

Quality, real-time data is the cornerstone of the Anchor Community Initiative. Our Data & Evaluation Manager, Vishesh Jain, shares how Walla Walla achieved this milestone. In February, Walla Walla became the first Anchor Community to complete the Youth and Young Adult By-Name List Scorecard. This meant that Walla Walla could definitively say that their community […]

Youth-Led Activism in Walla Walla

Posted on August 18, 2020 in Equity, Youth Leadership

The year 2020 has been a year of events that are unexplainable and out of this world. COVID-19 has forced the world to reshape how we go about our everyday lives and how we interact with one another. Being a college student, my spring quarter was online due to COVID-19. Then, George Floyd’s murder took […]

Spokane Tests Improvements to Coordinated Entry

Posted on August 17, 2020 in Anchor Community Initiative, Reducing Homelessness

Now that all Anchor Communities are on a path to achieve quality, real-time data, communities have started testing new strategies to reduce homelessness. In Spokane, the community’s Coordinated Entry Diversion Workgroup and Youth Advisory Board (YAB) are collaborating to test simple changes to the Coordinated Entry process and measure their impact on reducing homelessness. Coordinated […]