FEDERAL WAY COMMUNITY CAREGIVING NETWORK
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Mission Statement
The Federal Way Community Caregiving Network seeks to give hope to people in our community who are in need of basic elements of survival: food and shelter. In 2013 we served nearly 15,000 people in Federal way with our Emergency Services and Community Suppers programs. Emergency Services offers rent assistance, limited motel stays, gas vouchers and bus tickets, and limited food bank provisions. These services are offered through our location at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Federal Way. Days and hours of operation are Tuesday and Friday weekly, from 10:00 – 11:00 am each day. In 2013 over 450 families, over 1700 people in Federal Way received rent or shelter assistance. Community Suppers program serves three hot meal weekly at three Federal Way churches. Days, time and locations are: Monday at 4:30 atSteel Lake Presbyterian, Thursday at 5:00 pm at Calvary Lutheran Church, and Saturday at 1:30 pm at Church of the Good Shepherd In 2013, the Community supper program served over 9000 people.
About This Cause
Federal Way Community Caregiving Network (FWCCN) ORGANIZATIONAL EXPERIENCE A. Experience. For twenty five years the Federal Way Community Caregiving Network (FWCCN) has been providing services to people who are homeless and those who need help meeting basic needs within the boundaries of the Federal Way School District and in N.E. Tacoma. We are a tax-exempt nonprofit organization that is fully volunteer operated, drawing from local congregations, businesses, government agencies and individuals to staff our services. Since 1988 we have developed extensive experience working with people challenged with emergency survival needs. Our core values include a deep commitment to treating all of our guests with dignity and respect. We have three programs through which we serve people in need. We serve evening meals to people three times a week in three church locations. We operate our SOS program (Supper Outreach Services) in conjunction with our weekly meals, and we provide emergency assistance twice a week.. The full description of the Emergency Assistance program will be found in our response to Question 10. Below is information on the Community Meals and SOS programs. Community Meals are served on the following schedule: 1. Mondays at Steel Lake Presbyterian Church, 4:30-5:30 p.m. 2. Thursdays at Calvary Lutheran Church, 5:00-6:00p.m. 3. Saturdays at Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, in partnership with St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, 1:30-2:30p.m. There is no needs-assessment done at the suppers. All people who come are welcome to eat. All funding to support this outreach program comes from donations of food and funds. Through Supper Outreach Services (SOS), Federal Way Community Caregiving Network volunteers solicit, collect and distribute donated items such as: coats, hats, gloves, blankets, tarps, and person hygiene supplies to the homeless and needy community who attend the Community Suppers. B. Operational Structure. The Federal Way Community Caregiving Network is led by a board of directors, Governing Board and an Operations Group. Tthe governing board, is responsible for strategic planning, budgeting and financial oversight, fundraising and building partnerships in the community. The Operations Group, and its membership has responsibility for implementing the plans of the organization, assuring that services are delivered effectively. The Governing Board currently has a membership of nine, one being the official liaison between the Board and the Operating Group. The Board is focusing on recruitment at this time and expects to be adding three to six new members in the coming year. During this recruitment process the Board is especially targeting increased diversity among its members. As noted above, the Operations Group is composed of those volunteers who lead the work of the organization. It is composed of the Chairs for each service area and other interested volunteers. For the Community Suppers, there are 80 to 100 volunteers who rotate responsibilities for specific meals, using a team approach. Each meal location has a Program Coordinator and a Volunteer Coordinator. Other volunteers work as gleaners, cooks, greeters, servers and setup/cleanup. The SOS Chair also leads a group of volunteers who obtain donated goods and staff the suppers at which these goods are distributed. The Operations Group and the Board of Directors have determined an effective communications plan for reporting on the progress of services toward goals set for the year so that the Board can fulfill its oversight responsibilities. NEED FOR OUR PROGRAMS United Way of King County states on its website that: • Over the course of a year, about 24,000 people are homeless in the suburban cities, urban centers and rural towns in King County. • It's estimated that more than 70,000 people worry about food for themselves and their families. • A family in King County must earn about 2.5 times the minimum wage to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment. The Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness, in its report on the 2007 One Night Count, presents a clear, albeit discouraging, picture of the circumstances of those who are homeless or at risk of losing their homes. The One Night Count discovered that 7,839 people were on the street without shelter, in an emergency shelter or in transitional housing. Of those 2,159 were without shelter, 106 (5%) in Federal Way. Applying this percentage to the total would indicate that 385 people in Federal Way are homeless. This does not take into account those at risk for losing their homes, a number to be expected to grow as our economy worsens. A significant fact reported in the Coalition’s report is, “Among those who were ‘at risk,’ a little over a third said that they had been in a place of their own the previous month.” B. Target Population. Our Emergency Services Program serves people with low, often poverty-level, incomes who reside or are somehow present in the geographic area matching the Federal Way School District and NE Tacoma. Included are families with children who are homeless, victims of domestic violence or child endangerment situations. PROGRAM/SERVICES A. Program Description The Emergency Services Program provides funds for rental help, limited motel stays, gasoline vouchers and/or a bag of food. Clients come to our “walk-in” facility, located at the Church of Good Shepherd at 345 S. 312th Street (Tuesdays and Fridays: 10:00a.m.-11:00a.m.). A volunteer interviews each client and an assessment is made. All clients must initially meet the following criteria: - Live within the Federal Way School District or NE Tacoma. - Has not been helped by FWCCN Emergency Services in the last 12 months Rental assistance is based on the actual rent the client pays plus the client situation. Guidelines are as follows: Maximum - $200.00 Families/single parents with children and total rent over $400.00. Maximum - $100.00 Singles and couples without children or families/single parents and rent under $400.00. Motel Assistance Families with children; 2 nights maximum Those seeking rental assistance are (within available funding) given a promise of rental assistance as long as they return with documentation that they have obtained the balance of the funds needed to pay their rent. Clients are referred to the FWCCN Emergency Services Program through resource lists maintained by churches in the Federal Way area, the Multi-Service Center, the City’s “Finding Help” brochure, the Crisis Clinic Community Line, the Senior Assistance Program as well as our Community Suppers. Maintaining our up-to-date information with all these locations is our outreach activity. Our services are intended to be “front-line” support for those who are homeless or about to be homeless. We do not aspire to fully address the needs of the homeless and near-homeless in our community. Rather, it is our purpose to provide temporary support for those in immediate crisis in the hopes that the respite will provide them at least a brief opportunity to address their housing needs more fully. To this end, we also provide resource referrals to those coming to us for emergency services. In order to serve the growing Hispanic population in Federal Way, we have an on-site volunteer at each Emergency Services session to act as an interpreter for our Spanish-speaking clients. We work with other programs and agencies in several ways. It is our practice to assure, as much as possible, that we have and distribute current information that is of value to our clients. To this end all the volunteers in the Emergency Services Program stay aware through contacts, newspapers articles, participation in other similar organizations, etc. of other programs/agencies that may provide services that would be of assistance of our clients. Our referral information is updated on an on-going basis, and we provide several pamphlets and flyers to clients regarding housing, shelter, food programs, legal, clothing and other resources. We also gather information on one time events such as training classes, job fairs, tax services and prescription programs. Our hours of operation are set to follow immediately those of St. Luke’s Operation Blessing (9 to 10 a.m.). St. Luke’s is only 1 block from our location and offer a similar rent assistance program. This makes it very easy for clients to visit two agencies in a short time. Because the MultiService Center Food Bank is not open on Tuesdays, we obtain food bags from them and have them available for our clients. We work to make sure that local agencies also know of our services. We know this is working because, when we ask our clients how they heard of us, the answers frequently are DSHS, Community Help Line (211), Multi-Service Center, area churches, etc. – the groups to which we provide information. Staffing Plan and Evaluation The Federal Way Community Caregiving Network Emergency Services Program is an all-volunteer staff. The volunteers come from many walks of life and all are interested in providing help to those in need within our community, by giving back to the community with our time and experience. At each shift there are four to six volunteers, the equivalent of a .5 FTE All contacts with clients are kept on a detailed log during each one-hour session that the walk-in facility is open. The information from that log is then transferred to a spreadsheet, which is provided to the program coordinator and to the organization’s treasurer. The program coordinator prepares a monthly presentation to the Board. The report provides a monthly accounting for the prior month of the following: number and dollar amount of promises given, number and dollar amount of checks written for rent, number and dollar amount of gas vouchers, number of families/and total number of motel nights. Quarterly reports are prepared and submitted to the City of Federal Way of numbers of rent assistance provided and total number of shelter nights provided. The Board of Directors and the Operations Group use this information to plan future years’ services.