A recap of news & happenings.

2010

YMCA launches new brand to roll out over the next year.  See NY Times article "YMCA is Downsizing to a Single Letter" and St. Petersburg Times article "YMCA Launches New Brand to Draw Attention To What It Can Do for Communities." (July)

YMCA Independent Living Conference for young adults is June 27 at The 2100 Building. (Jun)

The Friends of the College Success Program's Off-Broadway play 'A Gulag Mouse' is June 4-6 at Seattle Central Community College.  Proceeds benefit former foster youth. (Jun)

YMCA to partner with Children's Hospital and University of Washington on a five-year research study to evaluate and improve sexual health risk behaviors in foster youth. (May)

YMCA young adult volunteers emcee the annual Passages event celebrating foster youth graduating from high school or earning a GED. The event was sponsored by the Transition Collaborative. (May)

New grants through Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP) expand YMCA's emergency rental assistance program.  The grants amount to more than $10K. (May)

YMCA Young Adult Services WAGES program featured in RE Store blog.  RE Store provides internships and employment readiness to Y youth transitioning out of unstable living situations. (May)

Teens receive mental health counseling and other services through new partnership between the City of Kirkland and the Bellevue Family YMCA. (May) 

The YMCA was featured in the West Seattle Herald articles "Former Foster Child Educated in Several West Seattle Schools" and "Foster Care Youth & Grads Served by YMCA in WS." (Apr)

Thank you, PopCap volunteers!  The PopCap team painted the YMCA's youth Triangle Art Gallery and added a mural in the process.  The gallery showcases art from local youth and young adult groups including Young Adult Services. (May)

YMCA receives $141,685 from King County to provide permanent housing subsidies to formerly homeless young adults exiting YMCA transitional housing. (May)

YMCA staff Paula Carvalho-Johnson and Shawli Hathaway were 2010 Award Honorees at the Passport to College Conference in Seattle.  Both were nominated "for their continued effort to provide exemplary support toward the retention and graduation of alumni of care students." (May)

The YMCA partners with Fostering Media Connections to sponsor a Media Mixer at the UW School of Social Work on April 1.  The event builds awareness around foster care issues and highlights the work Fostering Media Connections is doing to speed the implemenation of foster care legislation in the country. (Apr)

YMCA is an event sponsor of the CD Forum for Arts & Ideas Which Way Seattle? series: Too Old for Foster Care on March 25 at 7pm at the Northwest African American Museum.  YMCA staff member Aaron Fox is a featured panelist. (Mar)

YMCA receives a $100K award in partnership with YouthCare and UDYC to provide employment services to homeless youth and former foster youth through a City of Seattle grant. (Feb)

This month is the YMCA's annual Partners With Youth Campaign.  Donate now to support youth in foster care, homeless young adults, low-income families and more. (Feb)

See the Downtown Seattle YMCA's 2010 Advocacy Priorities, which support funding for foster youth, affordable housing, and well-being programs. (Jan)

2009

Downtown Seattle YMCA positions on November 2009 ballot are consistent with our mission, programs and values: YES on housing levy (maintain affordable housing), NO on initiative 1033 (protect funding for needed services), YES on referendum 71 (support domestic partnership).

YMCA permanent housing and therapeutic housing programs for homeless youth featured in 2009 King County Council report. 

YMCA awarded $299K in stimulus funds from City of Seattle for housing stability services that prevent homelessness.  The award was announced August 2009 with services beginning late fall or early winter. (Jan)

Member Advisory Board testifies in October before King County Council about need for housing and other needed services.  See YMCA members speak from the 2:55-3:06 marks.

YMCA Foster Youth participate in Boeing employee's Spirit of the Holidays program, which adopts families in need.  Read a summary of last year's (2008) successes.

YMCA foster youth participate in Walk-A-Mile program, which encourages understanding between community members by pairing current and former foster youth with local community leaders and businesspeople for a month. Each pair commits to share experiences and activities weekly.

Microsoft Day of Caring volunteers give time and talent to rehab a YMCA shared home for former foster youth in Bellevue during August.

New Stimulus Grant is funding summer jobs for youth with foster care or homelessness experience.  The Downtown Seattle YMCA and the Metrocenter YMCA are collaborating with local government programs to offer part-time youth internships and education. See a recap here.

YMCA awarded $300K Individual Development Account (IDA) and financial education grant for foster youth, former foster youth and homeless youth.  The grant greatly expands a pilot IDA program begun in 2006.

YMCA awarded $370K Independent Youth Housing Program grant for former foster youth to prevent homelessness.  The grant was awarded by the State of WA (CTED) and begins fall 2009.

Passages 2009 (June) celebrates foster youth graduating from high school, earning a GED or aging out of foster care.  The YMCA sponsored Passages 2009 with community partners including Casey Family Programs, Mockingbird Society, Children's Administration and Treehouse.  

May is National Foster Care Month.  The YMCA of Greater Seattle appreciates all of the foster families, volunteers, donors, professionals and community members who together work to make a difference in the lives of foster youth.

Downtown Seattle YMCA Annual Campaign raises record $509,000 (and counting) to support vital programs like Young Adult Services.  The Partners With Youth campaign helps fund housing and services for youth leaving foster care or homelessness.

The article "Reviving the Amy Yee Orchard" was featured in the Spring 2009 Solid Ground newsletter Lettuce Link.  Young adults from the YMCA helped restore the orchard near the YMCA Center for Young Adults.  See page 3 of the newsletter to read the article. 

The article "Slings and Arrows" was featured in the April 2009 edition of The Mockingbird Times.

The 2009 Independent Living Conference for young adults is Saturday, April 18 from 9am-4pm at the 2100 Building (Block Party 4-6pm).  This year's theme is "Get a Clue!"  Come solve the mystery of independent living through great life skills workshops, resources, games, food and fun.  

Civic engagement!  The YMCA supports HB 1961 (youth stay in foster care while attending college or vocational school), HB 1492 (provides independent housing for former foster youth) and HB 1938 (siblings maintain contact post-adoption).  We encourage legislators to keep Educational Advocacy in the state budget.  Visit our partner The Mockingbird Society for the latest updates on these bills.

2009 Partners With Youth Campaign runs February 2-March 27 to raise funds for YMCA programs that address poverty, health and other community needs.

Join the 2nd Anniversary celebration of the YMCA Center for Young Adults on February 25, 2009 in an open-house format from 2:00-5:00pm. Refreshments provided. Young adult participants, foster parents, youth providers, funders and general community are welcome.

YMCA receives 10 section 8 vouchers in January from Seattle Housing Authority through the King County Homeless Youth Housing fund.

New partnership with Emergency Feeding Program provides groceries to YMCA young adults in need beginning January 2009. 

1994-2008

The YMCA Foster Youth IDA Program is featured on page 8 of the United Way Asset Development Annual Report for 2008.

YMCA highlighted in KIRO Radio feature in December 2008.  Interviews took place during a holiday dinner at the Young Adults in Transition housing program.

A YMCA Global Center of Excellence award was given to the YMCA of Greater Seattle, recognized among 11 YMCAs nationally for working to expand opportunities to include diverse communities in our YMCA.

Foster youth at the Passages graduation event (co-sponsored by the YMCA) were featured in the Seattle Times article "A Ceremony That Beat the Odds" in June 2008 and the Seattle PI article "Foster Grads Will Celebrate Twice" in June 2007.

As part of National Foster Care Month, former foster youth Deshawn Upham spoke about how YMCA Young Adult Services and Downtown Seattle fitness resources helped him find success on his own on KUOW 94.9 in May 2007. 

The Seattle P-I article "College Divide Threatens to Keep the Poor in Poverty" addresses education disparities in the local community and features post-foster youth from the YMCA.

The Seattle Times article "Study: Ex-Foster Children Face Big Hurdles" discusses the challenges of aging out of foster care and spotlights a young woman living in YMCA supportive housing.

The Seattle Times article "Growing Out of Foster Care" traces the life of a YMCA-involved young woman preparing to age out of foster care in October 2004.

The Seattle Times article "Program Guides Youth Into Adulthood, Provides Stability" was part of the paper's 2003 Fund for the Needy campaign.

The Seattle Times/Seattle Post-Intelligencer article "Happy Anniversary, Seattle YMCA" discusses the YMCA's work with young adults on its 125th anniversary.

The Seattle Times article "Y Helps People in Transition Get on Their Feet" features the Young Adults in Transition program just after the Downtown Seattle YMCA's 2000 rennovation.

The Seattle Times/Seattle Post-Intelligencer article "Adults in Training--Learning Together to Live on Their Own" in 1994 was one of the earliest press pieces about the YMCA's programming for foster youth.


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