Volunteer Opportunities at New Homeless Shelter
Over this past winter, a group of about 40 dedicated UUC volunteers partnered with Lake City Partners Ending Homelessness ( LCP) to provide dinners and breakfasts at the Lake City Winter Shelter several times a month. A new enhanced 24/7 homeless shelter operated by LCP has now opened, and we are recruiting more volunteers to provide meals to the larger number of homeless individuals the new shelter can accommodate.
After many months of preparation, The Oaks homeless shelter opened on March 31, at N 165th and Aurora in Shoreline. The Oaks is an “enhanced” shelter, which means it operates year-round, 24 hours a day, and provides supportive and appropriate health and housing services to help guests transition to stable, permanent and safe living situations. A renovated former nursing home, The Oaks is well-suited to function as a homeless shelter. Guests at the Oaks have their own rooms in which to live and store their belongings, and the facility has clean, light-filled community spaces to socialize, eat, and recover from life on the streets.
Lake City Partners Ending Homelessness is a coalition of organizations and faith groups addressing the homelessness crisis in North King County (see https://lakecitypartners.org/). LCP contracted with the non-profit Hunger Intervention Program to provide weekday meals, but weekend meals are still needed, and we have signed up to provide dinners and breakfasts on the second Sunday of every month.
We welcome more volunteers to help with this project, and we need more volunteers! While the Winter Shelter housed 20 people a night, The Oaks has the capacity to house 60 adults—triple the number of people and triple the food!
Hot, home-cooked, nutritious meals are a real source of comfort to guests, and they are deeply appreciated. Providing wholesome food has been a concrete, fun and satisfying way to express our UUC values and be in community with each other, especially during the difficult, isolating COVID times. And it’s easy: volunteers sign up online for cooking (at home) and/or purchasing as few or as many food items they want to be responsible for on a particular night, and then deliver them to the facility directly or to a closer drop-off point. Many hands make light work! We hope you’ll join us.
To learn more or get involved, please contact Sallie Dacey at Dacey.sallie@gmail.com or 206-409-4749.
With gratitude,
Sallie Dacey, Judy Oerkvitz and Cynthia Salzman, for the UUC Economic Justice Team.