Seattle, WA. Despite the added challenges of the COVID-19 crisis, Jubilee Women’s Center continues to offer refuge and hope for women experiencing poverty and homelessness in Seattle (photo of masked volunteers from the Rainier Ravens group, working in Jubilee’s garden). Established in 1983 as Seattle’s first transitional home for women, the non-profit’s guiding mission is to “support women experiencing poverty to build stable and fulfilling futures, one extraordinary woman at a time.” Each year, Jubilee provides affordable community housing and individualized support to approximately 60 women struggling with home insecurity and aids an additional 2000 low-income women with free referrals, job/life skills classes, and more; services that are especially needed now as the economic weight of the pandemic bears down heavily on vulnerable communities.
The inspiration behind Jubilee came from three sisters of St. Joseph of Peace who realized that to break the cycle of homelessness, women needed much more than the 90-day stay typically offered by local shelters. In response, they created Jubilee Women’s Center and a uniquely holistic service model to give women experiencing personal and financial hardships “the stability and time they need to heal, grow, and rebuild their lives” (jwcenter.org). Today, Jubilee Women’s Center carries on the sister’s legacy with its two-year transitional housing program that includes “holistic support services, on-site care managers, and a focus on employment preparation to advance each woman on her path out of poverty with a living-wage and a home of her own” (jwcenter.org).
Communications and Marketing Manager, Jen Zug shared that when the COVID-19 virus first became an issue earlier this year, Jubilee immediately began taking precautions to protect clients, staff, and volunteers from the virus. Mask wearing, physical distancing, and sanitizing protocols were introduced across each of Jubilee’s four residential sites. Fundraising efforts were reshaped for safety as well, she said, with the annual Fall Benefit event “expanded to a month of smaller in-person and virtual gatherings and peer to peer fundraising” throughout October instead.
Initially, the organization also closed its clothing boutique, which provides free clothing, accessories, and personal items to residents and women in the community. But more recently, Zug explained “we’ve adjusted to begin providing Boutique Care Packages. Women who call for shopping appointments can now place an order for the items she’s looking for, and a boutique volunteer will gather her items together into a custom care package she can pick up” (photo below of Jubilee’s Boutique, stocked with donations from the community).
Jubilee’s free clothing boutique.
While they look forward to reopening the boutique and other offerings to the public sometime soon, Zug and other organization leaders say they are simply glad that they have found ways of staying on mission in the meantime, continuing to serve and empower women in need. Those who wish to contribute to Jubilee Women’s Center can donate through the organization’s website, or volunteer as shoppers in the clothing boutique, assembling care packages for women in the community. Visit jwcenter.org for more information.
From Jubilee Women’s Center:
Jubilee Women’s Center supports women experiencing poverty to build stable and fulfilling futures, one extraordinary woman at a time.
Led by the guiding principle that women of all races and cultures are to be treated with respect and dignity, Jubilee provides programs and services that empower women to make positive life changes.
We believe women experiencing homelessness and economic crisis need time and space to heal while addressing the complex circumstances leading to their housing instability. Jubilee provides safe, affordable housing and holistic services to support women as they heal from their past and work toward self-sufficiency.
Seattle, WA. For 30 years, FareStart has offered food industry training and employment opportunities to individuals experiencing homelessness or poverty. During that time, their employees’ work has always gone directly back into the community, cooking and preparing meals for others in need across the greater Seattle area. Up until now, nothing has been able to stop FareStart or its employees — not even a pandemic.
FareStart kitchen employees prep sandwiches to deliver to the community.
“The pandemic has brought together the community, not just within the Farestart walls,” Stephanie Schoo, Marketing and Communications Director at FareStart, explained. “We’ve seen an outpouring of support from restaurant partners and donors and volunteers and other nonprofit organizations that are all wanting to join together to make sure people get the help that they need.”
Initially, the pandemic took its toll on the Seattle-based nonprofit, forcing an abrupt shutdown of restaurants and catering facilities in and around the community. With its largest employers unable to function through an economic shutdown, FareStart quickly shifted gears, re-deploying its workers and resources into efforts to provide emergency meals to underserved individuals.
Since then, FareStart has helped orchestrate over 1.5 million emergency meals to shelters, housing facilities, and Seattle Public School sites across the city.
Wayne, an employee at FareStart, prepares emergency meals during COVID-19.
“We were able to see right away the impacts of COVID — folks who are low-income, or even students that used to be getting meals in one place could no longer get those meals,” Schoo said. “We want to make sure those meals get to high-need communities.”
Recently, Farestart launched its COVID-friendly education program to begin providing those experiencing homelessness or poverty with culinary courses once again. The online training also reintroduced former students who lost their jobs at the start of the pandemic.
A little over a month later, on the morning of Oct 29th, fourteen students went on to graduate from FareStart’s inaugural remote learning program.
“Creating a virtual curriculum is very new territory for us,” Schoo said. “This has been a stressful time for all of us, no matter your background or socio-economic status, And to have students stick with the program and come back reinvigorated — I think it speaks to that resiliency and hope.”
From FareStart:
For those looking to support FareStart in guiding clientele through gradual workforce reentry programs, or perhaps provide reheatable meals to students without easy access to school lunches, it’s not difficult.
“People in poverty struggle to escape the cycle they are in and often face other compounding barriers to getting and keeping a job. At FareStart, we help people overcome those barriers by teaching them work and life skills they need to succeed in the foodservice industry — and in life.”
Seattle, WA. Nine leading Seattle arts organizations have received welcome news at a critical time. On October 20th, 2020 the Friday Foundation announced philanthropic gifts totaling more than $9 million to honor the lives and legacies of late art enthusiasts Jane Lang Davis and Richard E. Lang (pictured above).
“These gifts are a shining example of what community support for art and art institutions looks like, and it reflects and furthers the incredible legacy of the Langs,” said Amada Cruz, director and CEO of the Seattle Art Museum. “The gift to our Closure Relief Fund was the single largest gift to that fund, and it arrived at a crucial moment in April as we faced the crisis directly, enabling us to support all museum operations.”
Aaron Fowler’s “Into Existence” exhibit, Seattle Art Museum.
The Langs believed in the power of the arts to embrace new ideas, foster quiet reflection, and promote community. The gifts are intended to inspire others to discover and engage with Seattle’s many cultural communities and opportunities in the visual and performing arts and find lifelong engagements as the Langs did themselves. Whether it is attending a concert or performance, volunteering with an organization, or discovering art, the hope is to remind the Seattle community that there are so many places and organizations for people of all ages to find inspiration.
With lights dimmed in most theaters and museums this year due to COVID-19, these gifts enable five major Seattle arts organizations – Seattle Art Museum, Seattle Symphony, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Seattle Opera, and the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington – to acquire or present new works for audiences to enjoy from home or in person when it is safe to do so.
“My mother and stepfather were dedicated to the arts, to Seattle, to the stability of these critical civic gems, and to the inherent promotion of human connection,” said Lyn Grinstein, daughter of Jane Lang Davis and president of the Friday Foundation. “Through the Friday Foundation, these gifts will help fulfill these wishes, by funding new activities and initiatives, as well as provide stability through financial assistance to operations hard hit by the pandemic shutdown.”
The Langs, who lived in Medina, are best known for their internationally recognized art collection with a focus on Abstract Expressionism. Richard joined the Seattle Art Museum board in 1972 and served until his death in 1982. Jane, who died in 2017, joined the SAM board in 1985 and in 2000 became a lifetime trustee, and served for a time as the chair of the Honorary Trustees. Always true to her devotion to abstraction, emerging artists, and the newest work, Jane was an early and active member of the Contemporary Art Council (CAC), advocating for and supporting Seattle Art Museum’s early initiatives in its contemporary collections and exhibitions. She served on CAC and all its subsequent forms for four decades and was an active participant in all major fundraising campaigns.
To continue the Lang’s legacy, the Friday Foundation is funding The Richard E. Lang and Jane Lang Davis Acquisition Fund for Global Contemporary Art at the Seattle Art Museum with a $2 million gift. Amid the COVID-19 global pandemic, the Friday Foundation also gifted the Seattle Art Museum an additional $2 million in emergency funds to help offset economic losses when the museum closed to visitors in March. Amanda Cruz, SAM’s director and CEO stated that “This endowment will help shape the future of SAM’s collection, as we continue our focus on emerging artists from all over the world. We are extremely grateful for the generosity of the Friday Foundation.”
The Seattle Opera
Christina Scheppelmann, general director of the Seattle Opera, said, “This extraordinary gift from the Friday Foundation allows us to create the Jane Lang Davis Creation Lab, which cultivates the next generation of storytellers in opera. This new multi-year initiative will contribute to the operatic repertoire at large — and bring new stories to our community — by supporting the talents of a diverse group of composers and librettists (ages 18-30). Opera needs new and varied perspectives to thrive into the future—and to complement great works of the past. The impacts of this gift will reverberate in Washington State, and far beyond. We are humbled by this investment in the future of opera.”
“The Langs transformed the arts landscape throughout our region with their stewardship, advocacy, and extraordinary support,” said Sylvia Wolf, John S. Behnke Director of the Henry Art Gallery. “With these gifts, their impact will live on, in perpetuity. The Henry has a long tradition of inviting artists to consider the museum as a laboratory for new ideas. This extraordinary gift will allow us to expand this practice and to deepen our service to artists, audiences, and the field at large. It will also connect our UW community and students of all ages with living artists and their creative processes. We are deeply grateful to the Friday Foundation for establishing the Henry’s first endowed fund specifically geared towards supporting newly commissioned work.”
In addition to the $2 million SAM acquisition fund, the new endowments include $1.5 million to support the development of the Richard E. Lang and Jane Lang Davis Living Music Program at the Seattle Symphony, $1 million for the creation of the Jane Lang Davis New Works Fund at Pacific Northwest Ballet, $1 million to support the launch of the Jane Lang Davis Creation Lab at the Seattle Opera, and $1 million to support the creation of the Richard E. Lang and Jane Lang Davis New Works Fund at the Henry Art Gallery.
The Seattle Symphony
“The Seattle Symphony is honored to receive this grant from the Friday Foundation recognizing the legacy of Richard and Jane,” said Seattle Symphony president and CEO Krishna Thiagarajan. “The Symphony is known for its imaginative programming, from our [untitled] series to our just-launched The Essential Series. The Richard E. Lang and Jane Lang Davis Living Music Program allows us to expand this transformative work by creating a pathway for sustained success within our bold programming choices, while also giving us the possibility of re-envisioning the concert experience for audiences within and beyond Benaroya Hall.”
Peter Boal, artistic director of Pacific Northwest Ballet, said, “Through the gift of the Friday Foundation, Jane and Richard Lang’s legacy continues by helping the creation of new choreography. Because of this generosity, Pacific Northwest Ballet will be able to fund an original new work every season. When I choose the commission every season, I will recall Jane’s willingness to embrace risk and innovation in order to bring inspired art and dance into our lives.”
In addition to the new works, other Friday Foundation gifts announced today include $270,000 to ArtsFund’s COVID-19 Arts Emergency Relief Fund, and $100,000 each to ACT – A Contemporary Theatre, Seattle Rep, and the Seattle Chamber Music Society.
“The Langs understood the transformational power of the arts – a power we need today more than ever,” said Michael Greer, president and CEO of ArtsFund. “Their vision and legacy, honored by these gifts from the Friday Foundation, will have an immediate impact on arts and culture in our region and will resonate for years to come. These gifts serve as a significant reminder of the impact of philanthropy, and how we can and must all work together to secure the future of cultural organizations that help our community thrive. These generous gifts are inspiring and set a profound example for us all.”
Pablo Schugurensky, adviser to the Friday Foundation, said, “As well as sustaining and strengthening these nine institutions, we hope these gifts spur others to join the arts community, inspired by the examples of Jane Lang Davis and Richard E. Lang and their deep commitment to the arts and their love for Seattle. Whether it is creating art, enjoying a performance, attending exhibitions, or supporting artists and art organizations in their city, we all have an important role to play.” This gift honoring the Langs’ legacy is the first of several. Additional announcements will be made in 2021.
Seattle, WA. Life for community colleges has not been easy throughout the course of COVID-19, which has thrown a particularly heavy wrench into an already overwhelming workload for students, many of whom are juggling school, jobs, family obligations, and now a global pandemic. Still, Seattle Central College has taken the novel coronavirus in stride, keeping students engaged in a supportive scholarly community with a variety of remote resources.
A student at Seattle Central College fills out a ballot.
“We have increased the frequency of messages to students and set up several virtual forums to update them on the changes,” Roberto Bonaccorso, Seattle Central College’s Director of Communications, said via email. “One key initiative has been to offer chromebooks and WiFi hotspots to students who lack the equipment at home. Our resources for these are limited, but we are reaching out to local partners to help.”
One of the more particularly devastating impacts of COVID-19 has been the toll its taken on the international student population. With pandemic restrictions still looming overhead, alongside stringent ICE policy directives, international student enrollment dropped nearly 40%, from 1,034 students in 2019 to 625 this year.
Still, Seattle Central has done everything in its power to transition equitably and effectively to 100-percent online instruction for all students in under two weeks, providing accessible resources for every student capable of attending. Of course, having undergone such unprecedented challenges itself, the school knows life isn’t easy for anyone right now.
A computer lab sits empty at Seattle Central College during COVID-19.
With widely available counselors — both academic and therapeutic — and a faculty dedicated to flexibility, students have a broad assortment of support systems as they juggle work and school amidst the uncertainties of a pandemic and an ongoing battle for racial justice.
“Since we know many students will need help in person, we have set up meetings for student services by appointment and held walk-in access for two weeks before and after the start of the quarter, with strict safety protocols,” Bonaccorso said. “[The pandemic] demonstrated that our college is strong, resilient, and that we can change quickly when we need to.”
Moving forward, Seattle Central College is focused on building back better, exploiting this opportunity to review safety protocols and investigate the need for more collaboration across departments. Staff and management have considered potentially reevaluating physical infrastructure and institutional policy, pinpointing strategies to maximize equity and safety for all students.
“This crisis has tested us, but I’m confident Seattle Central College will emerge leaner, stronger, and more focused to help all our students reach their goals and to succeed in work and life.”
From Seattle Central College:
“For more than 50 years, Seattle Central has been educating the citizens of Seattle and the surrounding region with the best programs of their kind anywhere, including college transfer, career training, continuing education and basic studies.”
Seattle, WA. Although the COVID-19 crisis forced FEEST Seattle to pause nearly all of its usual activities, the youth-led, health justice organization quickly shifted gears to bring much-needed nourishment to the homes of students in South Seattle and South King County through a grocery delivery program. As Community Engagement Manager Leigh Thomas explained, pandemic-related school closures and job losses have amplified food insecurity, especially for the low-income, youth of color served by FEEST. “We saw a gap in families getting groceries,” Thomas said, “and we decided to bring the food to the students.”
Staff, donors, and volunteers rallied to fill this gap by purchasing and delivering groceries to over 600 families that requested assistance between March and June of 2020 (see above photo of FEEST staff and volunteers purchasing groceries). Currently, FEEST is offering grocery assistance in the form of pre-paid gift cards for eligible families in the Sea-Tac, South Seattle, Skyway, Tukwila, White Center, Burien, and Delridge areas. More information about this program can be found on the grocery gift-card page of the FEEST site and those who would like to contribute can do so through the donation link.
Youth gather around the table at a FEEST community dinner (pre-COVID-19).
Founded in 2008, FEEST is a non-profit organization focused on bringing Seattle youth of color together to build community and organize around issues of food access and health justice. Prior to COVID-19, community dinners, where young people prepared and shared a meal, were the heart of the organization’s mission “to set the table for young people to transform the health and equity of their community by gathering around food & working towards systems change” (see photo above of teens at a FEEST dinner). According to the organization’s leaders, “the FEEST kitchen creates space for young people to reclaim their health, celebrate ancestral food traditions, and share radical joy. In addition to the practical skills youth learn in the kitchen, breaking bread together builds lasting community connections that become a foundation for long-term organizing.”
In the past, this organizing has generated several successful youth-led campaigns. Motivated by the belief that “all students deserve to have access to fresh, hot, nutritious, and culturally relevant meals whenever they need them” (FEEST website), a group of FEEST youth leaders worked directly with school administrators to add new, healthy, culturally relevant foods like squash curry and lentil stew to the lunch menus at Highline Public Schools. FEEST youth also created two innovative healthy snack pilot programs that brought free, nutritious snacks to students at Evergreen and Chief Sealth High Schools. Watch FEEST youth talk about their participation in FEEST and their roles as “food justice leaders” in the video below.
This school year, Thomas shared that FEEST plans to continue the grocery gift-card program, and also to bring back some additional programs, beginning with a “youth fellowship program” where students will discuss social justice issues that concern them, and identify causes that they would like to rally around. The best way to support FEEST at this time is to donate, which can be done through the link here.
FEEST is an organization led by youth of color in South Seattle and South King County working to improve health in our schools. Focusing on the need for more healthy, affordable, and culturally relevant food at school, FEEST centers young people as leaders toward concrete changes in our food systems. Youth are in the lead at FEEST because change is not effective unless those most impacted by health inequities are the decision makers. When young people lead the way with creative solutions, the whole community benefits. Fierce youth who speak truth to power are essential in a time when our communities are constantly under threat by a political system that directly threatens our survival.
We seek health justice: the elimination of all barriers for people to live physically, mentally, socially, culturally healthy lives.
Our mission is to set the table for young people to transform the health and equity of their community by gathering around food & working towards systems change.
Seattle, WA. Around the country, athletes have taken advantage of their elevated platforms to push for positive change in social justice, education, and global health. Former players are no exception. Cliff Avril (pictured above in the center), now retired from the offensive line as a defensive lineman for the Seattle Seahawks, has used his extended time off to make an impact in communities in and around Seattle.
Cliff Avril was named the 2020 Seahawks Legend of the Year for his commitment to the community, presented by American Family Insurance.
Recently, the Seahawks awarded Avril the 2020 Legend of the Year, recognizing the former player for everything he’s done to make an impact on individuals and communities in need. The award promises a donation of $10,000 to a foundation of Avril’s choosing.
“I just feel like I’ve been blessed with a platform,” Avril said. “I’ve been blessed to play for a great organization that supports all their players in different avenues.”
Before he retired, Avril developed the Cliff Avril Family Foundation to enlighten youth on the importance of a healthy, active lifestyle to avoid diabetes and other preventable diseases. Collectively, his organization has now received beyond $2.5 million in support from donors since its conception in 2014.
Cliff Avril donates blood prior to the COVID-19 pandemic
Avril and his nonprofit have been hard at work, putting some of that revenue to work in the past few months. Since the start of the global coronavirus pandemic, the retired athlete’s foundation has provided youth-based organizations with $50,000 in relief funding to remain afloat during COVID-19.
Outside of the U.S., Avril has partnered with fellow retired Seahawks to erect three education facilities in Haiti, the nation in which he would’ve been raised had his parents not migrated before his birth.
“I could’ve easily been one of those kids in Haiti,” Avril said. “So, as I took back on that, I want to inspire and give kids hope and give kids opportunities to be able to dream, and hopefully capitalize and achieve those dreams.”
Avril’s work stands as an exemplary beacon of hope and generosity during the oft-bleak outlook of the coronavirus. While most lack the luxury of a former professional athlete’s bank account, even the smallest contribution can help the 2020 Legend of the Year continue to make an impact in the Seattle community through donations to his nonprofit and those like them across the region.
Health workers honor Cliff Avril’s jersey during the coronavirus pandemic.
From the Cliff Avril Family Foundation:
“The Cliff Avril Family Foundation mission is to increase the awareness of Type 2 diabetes in youth and to encourage healthy living through nutrition and exercise. As well as provide educational support and opportunities to youth in Haiti, along with various community-based organizations in Jacksonville, Seattle and Charlotte.”
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