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Seattle Human Services news and events

HSD Announces Results of the Seattle Sweetened Beverage Tax Public Awareness & Counter-Marketing Campaign Consultant Contract RFP

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The Seattle Human Services Department (HSD) is pleased to announce the results of the 2019 Seattle Sweetened Beverage Tax (SBT) Public Awareness & Counter-Marketing Campaign Consultant Contract Request for Proposal (RFP) that closed on October 2. The RFP sought consultants interested in developing a community-led public awareness campaign of creative and culturally relevant branding and messaging to communicate the impacts of sugary sweetened beverages on members of our community — including a special focus on youth.

The RFP guides the investment of up to $473,046 in 2019 and $236,523 in 2020 for an estimated 15-month contract. This funding is provided by the City of Seattle’s Sweetened Beverage Tax established by City Council.

HSD received four innovative and diverse proposals that were reviewed and rated by committees whose members work with focus and priority populations and/or have expertise in food access, marketing, communications, and government contracting in Seattle and King County. Members were relatively age-, gender-, and ethnically diverse. All four firms that applied for funding are registered Women and Minority Owned Businesses (WMBE) with the City of Seattle.

The rating committees recommended fully funding The Vida Agency in the requested amount of $547,347.

Some of The Vida Agency’s recent projects include developing a multilingual digital campaign for King County Metro to inform a broad audience of residents in Delridge about the upcoming RapidRide H line, website and content development for The Laurel Rubin Farm Worker Justice Project, and a multi-year relationship with the Latino Community Fund of Washington State.

“Our team breathes new life into projects; wrapping different perspectives around the same data and identifying metrics that matter. We broaden (or pinpoint) audiences, expand possibilities, ask new questions and amplify the voices of the unheard and underserved,” the team proudly proclaims on their website. “We join forces, make you laugh, push back (not check a box) and lead a process that reveals possibilities and strengthen bonds for the long game.”

The Sweetened Beverage Tax Community Advisory Board (CAB), composed of Mayor and City Council appointees, was established by the City Council ordinance which created the SBT to advise and make recommendations to the Mayor and City Council on programs and services supported by the tax. Members of the CAB consulted with HSD during the funding process by designing RFP questions, reviewing applications, and interviewing applicants.

“The CAB is enthusiastic to see this public awareness and counter-marketing project underway, and with a clear commitment to developing a campaign that is shaped and developed by youth of color who are most impacted by the predatory and manipulative marketing practices of the beverage industry”, said CAB member Lisa Chen. Ms. Chen is a food access representative on the CAB and participated in the RFP rating committee.

City of Seattle Proclaims October as “Domestic Violence Awareness Month” to Raise Awareness for Victims and Survivors of Abuse

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For Immediate Release

Contact: Michael Taylor-Judd, Public Relations Specialist, External Affairs, City of Seattle Human Services Department, 206-256-5225, michael.taylor-judd@seattle.gov or Cynthia Santana, Communications Manager, 206-256-5219, cynthia.santana@seattle.gov

Seattle – (October 14, 2019) – Mayor Jenny A. Durkan proclaimed the month of October as “Domestic Violence Awareness Month” to raise public awareness and support for victims and survivors of gender-based violence.The Office of Labor Standards (OLS) and the Human Services Department (HSD) mark this month as a time to remember victims and survivors of abuse and exploitation; to raise awareness of violence and its effect on families and communities; and acknowledge and highlight those working to address ending gender-based violence. 

Nationally, women lose eight million days of paid work each year due to domestic violence. Seattle’s Paid Sick and Safe Time (PSST) Ordinance provides more than paid sick leave. It also provides Seattle workers with paid leave for absences for critical safety issues arising from domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking.

The City of Seattle invests more than $10 million annually in gender-based violence services, including prevention, legal, intervention, housing, and offender accountability services. In Washington State, 41 percent of women and 32 percent of men report experiencing violence from an intimate partner. Additionally, language barriers, lack of culturally relevant services, threats of deportation, and fear of isolation put marginalized communities at an increased risk of experiencing gender-based violence. Women of color and Native women are two-to-three times more likely to experience a gender-based, violence-related fatality than their white counterparts.   

HSD employees wear their color for #PurpleThursday and hold the Mayor’s Proclamation.

Join the City of Seattle in honoring the victims and survivors of domestic violence by wearing purple every Thursday during October. During Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Seattle City Hall lights will be purple, and on Thursday, October 24th City of Seattle staff will be joined by some other cities in the region for #PugetSoundPurpleThursday. Get your colleagues or loved ones together and join us by posting your photos online using the hashtag. For more ideas and action steps that you can take to end domestic violence, visit: https://endgv.org/ or https://wscadv.org/dvam/.

Please visit the OLS website for more information on the PSST Ordinance or call 206-256-5297; and visit the Seattle Human Services Department for more on supportive victim services. 

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What we’re reading: System that apportions homeless housing is limiting access for people of color

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Building Changes is calling on communities across the country to reconsider use of the VI-SPDAT, a widely used Coordinated Entry standardized assessment tool that helps determine who gets prioritized for housing referrals. A new study, funded by Building Changes, finds that use of the VI-SPDAT unfairly favors white people over people of color, thereby perpetuating racial inequities within the homeless system. 

Building Changes believes strongly that communities have an obligation to address inequities that negatively impact the efforts of people of color to transition successfully out of homelessness and into stable housing, including any barriers that restrict their access to services.

Cover image from the Coordinated Entry Systems Racial Equity Analysis report produced by C4 Innovations

The C4 Innovations study, released today, asserts that people of color—both single adults and families—experience system-level inequities from a tool specifically designed to objectively capture who among those experiencing homelessness have the highest levels of vulnerability. Under U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development rules, those assessed to be most vulnerable are given priority for receiving housing resources from the homeless system. Housing for people experiencing homelessness is scarce, and the resource therefore must be doled out equitably, free of any influence of racial bias. 

Building Changes enlisted Massachusetts-based C4 Innovations (formerly the Center for Social Innovation) for its expertise in developing research-based solutions that advance housing stability for people who are marginalized. Building Changes and C4 share the same commitment to eliminate racial disparities and achieve equitable outcomes in the homeless system. 

The VI-SPDAT consists of a series of uniform questions around 16 different indicators of vulnerability. Persons being assessed receive an overall “vulnerability score” based on their answers to the questions, and those with the highest scores are prioritized for referrals to housing programs, such as Permanent Supportive Housing or Rapid Re-Housing. 

This excerpt was published with permission. To read more about the study’s findings and how King and Pierce counties are working to create more equitable Coordinated Entry processes, please visit Building Changes‘ News blog at
https://buildingchanges.org/news/2019/item/1042-system-that-apportions-homeless-housing-is-limiting-access-for-people-of-color

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month

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Purple Ribbon symbolizing Domestic Violence Awareness

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and an opportunity to think about our relationships and those of our friends and family. Often, survivors of domestic violence turn to friends and family for help first, so it’s crucial that we know what domestic violence is and how to help others.

Domestic violence is an act or a pattern of acts of assault, threats, humiliation and intimidation, or other abuse that is used to harm, punish, or frighten a victim. Even though we have advanced in many ways as a society when it comes to acknowledging the prevalence of domestic violence, supporting survivors, and holding abusers accountable, we still have a long way to go. The statistics on domestic violence are disturbing. On a typical day, domestic violence hotlines across the United States receive approximately 19,000 calls, an average of close to 13 calls every minute. In Washington State last year, 32 people were victims of domestic violence homicide. Fifty women a month in the United States are killed by their intimate partners using guns.

Much of the abuse that happens never rises to the level of legal intervention, yet causes extreme harm and suffering, and affects over 10 million people in the United States every year. Domestic violence expert Dr. Evan Stark calls this abuse “coercive control”. It can be defined as “a range of acts designed to make a person subordinate and/or dependent by isolating them from sources of support, exploiting their resources and capacities for personal gain, depriving them of the means needed for independence, resistance and escape and regulating their everyday behavior.” This can include:

  • threatening to report an undocumented survivor to ICE;
  • gaslighting the survivor (lying and saying something didn’t happen when it did; causing the survivor to feel like they’re going crazy);
  • refusing to take a medically-dependent survivor to their doctor’s appointment or failing to administer their medication;
  • threatening to post intimate images of the survivor online without their consent;
  • taking and hiding an immigrant survivor’s legal documents;
  • installing spyware on the survivor’s phone to spy on and stalk them;
  • sabotaging the survivor’s birth control;
  • outing a survivor’s LGBTQ status to their family or employer;
  • threatening to take the survivor’s children away if the relationship is ended; and on and on.

People of color, transgender people, gender non-conforming people, lesbians and gays, immigrants, refugees, people with disabilities, and women are at elevated risks for domestic violence and experience increased barriers to accessing services.

Recent immigration laws and policy changes have placed barriers to safety and justice in the way of immigrant and refugee survivors of all forms of gender-based violence. One of the clearest impacts has been a chilling effect on survivors’ willingness to seek help for domestic violence. In May, domestic violence advocates across the United States were surveyed, and 75% reported that immigrant survivors are expressing increased fear of calling the police or going to court to get help for domestic violence because they are in fear of deportation, retaliation by their abusers, and separation from their children. The result is that more survivors are trapped in relationships with abusive partners and no way to get out. According to the Alliance for Immigrant Survivors, “these rollbacks of hard-earned and life-saving protections will condemn thousands of survivors to deportation, sending them back to environments where they may be subjected to further violence or even lose their lives.”

In addition to policy barriers, a lack of language access within the systems we have set up to help survivors continues to be a very real barrier to safety for limited-English-proficient (LEP) survivors across the country. In some incidences of law enforcement response to domestic violence, police fail to contact an interpreter for LEP parties, or inappropriately use children as interpreters. This may result in increased trauma for children and inaccurate information being relayed, which can result in wrongful arrests and/or prosecution. Advocacy organizations may also fail to arrange for interpreters when working with LEP survivors, or may not provide culturally competent or representative staff, making it more difficult for immigrant survivors to get the help they need. Sometimes courtrooms do not have interpreters available, meaning that access to justice is limited for those survivors. In so many ways, immigrant survivors are at a disadvantage when it comes to attaining safety and justice.

Among women in the United States who have experienced rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner, women of color are disproportionately represented. Of multiracial women surveyed, over half–53%–had experienced at least one of these forms of abuse, followed by 46% of American Indian or Alaska Native women, 43% of Black women and 37% of Hispanic women. Asian/Pacific Islander women were underrepresented, but this may be inaccurate due to a number of factors; in other surveys, 21-55% of Asian women reported experiencing domestic violence.

The effects of domestic violence are devastating. They may include: post-traumatic stress disorder, contraction of sexually-transmitted infections, depression, suicidal ideation, physical injuries, negative reproductive health effects, loss of a job, home, or one’s children, susceptibility to developing addictions to alcohol or drugs, and even death. When survivors try to leave and are unable to find housing, they often stay with their abuser to avoid homelessness and are then forced to endure further abuse. Others become homeless and may spend years building up the resources to attain stable housing again. From 2016-2017 in Washington State, there were almost 20,000 requests for emergency shelter that went unmet due to a lack of capacity.

For all of these reasons and more, this is a crucial time to support efforts to end domestic violence in all forms. The City of Seattle invests over $8 million annually in a comprehensive network of social services and a specialized criminal justice response to domestic violence that addresses the needs of survivors and holds abusers accountable for their actions. Funded services include: advocacy, shelter, housing, therapeutic services, legal assistance, outreach, prevention, batterer intervention and systems enhancement. The coordinated network of providers has served over 6,000 survivors of gender-based violence in 2019 alone. The City of Seattle is aiming to target racial disproportionality in gender-based violence by investing in a wide array of services that represent and serve traditionally under-resourced communities. In the Human Service Department’s 2018 Request For Proposal for Gender-Based Violence Survivor Services, Black/African Americans and Indigenous/Native Americans were identified as focus populations, given the high disparities in the investment area. In addition, when Mayor Jenny Durkan announced an additional $100,000 in funding for prevention of gender-based violence on July 9, 2019, the funding was allocated for programs focusing on marginalized populations most impacted by gender-based violence, including African American and Indigenous communities.

The issue of domestic violence is widespread and is perpetuated in silence. This Domestic Violence Awareness Month, the City of Seattle Human Services Department Mayor’s Office on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault is inviting staff in all City departments to wear purple on Thursdays in October in solidarity with survivors of domestic violence.

Seattle Human Services Department staff gather for Purple Thursday in 2018.

To get involved in raising awareness about and taking action to end domestic violence, help break the silence by recognizing #PugetSoundPurpleThursday on Thursday, October 24th along with our City of Seattle staff. Post your photos online using the hashtag. For more ideas and action steps that you can take to end domestic violence, visit: https://endgv.org/ or https://wscadv.org/dvam/.

If you need free, confidential support and assistance, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at: 1−800−799−7233. For help in other languages, call the Peace In The Home Helpline at: 1-888-847-7205.

On the Homelessness Response Blog: HSD Releases Performance Data for First Six Months of 2019

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Did you know that the City of Seattle has a blog dedicated just to the city’s homelessness response?

Recently, the Human Services Department (HSD) released the first half of 2019 performance outcomes of programs that received funding from the City of Seattle to serve people experiencing homelessness. Investments are focused on programs that help households move to permanent housing.

We continue to be grateful for our homeless services provider partners who are working hard to ensure that we are continuing to make progress — together.

When compared to the same time period in 2018, The City of Seattle’s investments have continued to do more:

Graphic images showing some highlights of Q2 2019 Homeless Data

These are just some of the highlights that continue to make us cautiously optimistic that things are changing for the better. Instead of simply duplicating the blog post over here, we want to encourage you to check out more graphics and more details on our progress in the second quarter of 2019 by visiting the entry posted earlier today on the Homelessness Response Blog.

ICYMI: Engaging African American Males in Ending Gender-Based Violence (Video)

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Did you miss last week’s MODVSA-sponsored event, “Engaging African American Males in Ending Gender-Based Violence: Increasing Pathways to Safety, Justice, Reconciliation and Healing” at Seattle City Hall, featuring a panel of speakers including Dr. Oliver Williams, professor at the University of Minnesota with 35 years in the field of domestic violence, and Bettie Williams-Watson, Executive Director of Multi Communities and 33 years in the fields of domestic violence and sexual assault?

No problem! Seattle Channel has video here, and you can follow along with the event program.

The Seattle Sweetened Beverage Tax Public Awareness & Counter-Marketing Campaign RFP

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The Youth and Family Empowerment (YFE) Division of the City of Seattle Human Services Department (HSD) is seeking applications from consultants interested in developing a public awareness campaign about sugary drinks by supporting two strategies recommended by the Sweetened Beverage Tax Community Advisory Board:

  • Mass media counter-marketing campaign led by a community-based organization (CBO) – Support a CBO to develop and test messages and design a paid and earned media sugary drink counter-marketing campaign. Then, implement the campaign in multiple communication channels (e.g. ethnic/community specific radio, TV, newspaper and social media channels, CBOs, youth organizations)
  • Youth-led counter-marketing campaign led by a community-based organization (CBO) – Support a CBO to develop and design an approach to engage youth in developing and leading a peer-to-peer sugary drink counter-marketing campaign. Then, implement the campaign in multiple communication channels (e.g. ethnic/community specific radio, TV, newspaper and social media channels) and through coordinated work of CBOs and youth.

Up to $473,046 in 2019 and $236,523 in 2020 of contract funds are available through this RFP. Funding awards will be made for the period of October 15, 2019 to December 31, 2020, for an estimated 15-month contract, or until work is completed.

This is an open and competitive process. Completed application packets are due by 4:00 PM on September 30, 2019. For more information, and all application materials click here.

If you have any questions about this Safety RFP, please contact: Amaury Ávalos at (206) 386-1561 or by email at amaury.avalos@seattle.gov.

HSD Announces Results of the 2019 YFE Safety RFP

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The Seattle Human Services Department (HSD) is pleased to announce the results of the 2019 YFE Safety: Addressing Impacts of the Criminal Legal System Request for Proposals (RFP) that closed on June 13. Applicants were invited to provide systems navigation and address trauma for 18 to 24-year-old people harmed by the criminal legal system in Seattle. The RFP guides the investment of more than $4 million in HSD General Fund dollars for the January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020 contract period.

HSD received 24 eligible applications from organizations reviewed by a committee whose members represented and worked with the focus and priority populations of this RFP. Reviewers also had content expertise addressing the impacts of the criminal legal system in the City of Seattle, King County, and Washington State. Raters were age, gender, and ethnically diverse and represented multiple cultures and communities: Black, African American, Native, Black/Mexican, Black (mixed), Brown (mix), South Asian, Asian/Filipino, Asian, African American/Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, Hispanic/Latino, LGBTQ, bilingual, and white. 

HSD and the review committee recommended funding 14 proposals from the following applicants:

  • African American Leadership Forum
  • CHOOSE 180
  • Community Passageways
  • Consejo Counseling and Referral Service
  • Freedom Project
  • POCAAN
  • Progress Pushers
  • Public Defender Association
  • ROOTS Young Adult Shelter
  • Somali Family Safety Task Force
  • Southwest Youth and Family Services
  • Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle
  • Walk Away City Collaborative
  • YMCA of Greater Seattle – Accelerator

The funding will support a number of activities such as healing and accountability circles for incarcerated men and trans women; leadership training for community leaders directly impacted by systems of violence; training on nonviolent communication, mindfulness, and racial equity; peer support programs and family-integrated transitions; peacemaking circles; and felony diversion for a diverse range of communities in Seattle.

Student Orientations and Dorm Life the Next Step for Upward Bound 2019 Grads!

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New student orientations on college campuses are nearly finished as many students across the nation prepare to start their college campus lives. Upward Bound will have 23 graduating seniors this year heading to a wide variety of post-secondary schools in Washington State: including University of Washington, Seattle University, Western State University, Eastern Washington University, Seattle Pacific University, and Bellevue College.

I think orientation is something all incoming freshmen should do because it allows them to view the campus and their future dorm, as well as shows the students who they will be going to school with.

2019 Garfield graduate Khabirah had selected Eastern Washington University as her school, but she wasn’t sure about attending student orientation.  Fortunately, her Upward Bound counselor strongly encouraged her to attend and ultimately, she was able to go.  Smooth transitions to campus life can play an important role in a student’s success.  Being oriented to dorm life, the idea of roommates, campus resources, etc. is all part of it.  As Khabirah said after her orientation last week, “I think orientation is something allincoming freshmen should do because it allows them to view the campus and their future dorm, as well as shows the students who they will be going to school with.” 

Photograph showing a page from Carleton's freshman welcome brochure showing a picture of Hermela along with a brief bio paragraph.
Click to view larger image

One student, Hermela, has participated in Upward Bound from 9th grade through to high school graduation. With program guidance, she earned a full-ride scholarship to Carlton College in Minnesota. She also received a Seattle School District Scholarship of $3,500. Hermela was highlighted in Carleton’s brochure as an incoming freshman.

Seeing Upward Bound graduates go off to college is exciting and bittersweet.  She recently shared that, “Upward Bound is like my second family.  From the start of freshman year to now, they have always been there for me, whether it was to celebrate or to comfort.” We will miss Hermela, but we look forward to hearing about the continued personal journey of all our graduates!

Engaging African American Males in Ending Gender-Based Violence

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Forty-five years since the first U.S. domestic violence shelter was opened, 25 years since the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was passed in the U.S., and 13 years since Tarana Burke founded the #MeToo movement, gender-based violence remains a sadly and stubbornly common occurrence in our society. Compared to women of other races, African American women experience a disproportionate rate of gender-based violence. According to the 2010 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, 43.7% of non-Hispanic Black women have experienced rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime. The disproportionality of their experience is reflected in study after study: A study of confirmed sex trafficking survivors in the U.S. found that 40% were African American, while the percentage of African-Americans in the U.S. population is approximately 12.7%. From 2005-2010, data shows that African American girls and women 12 years old and older experienced higher rates of rape and sexual assault than white, Asian, and Latina girls and women. Of particular concern is the finding that Black women are two and a half times more likely to be murdered by men than are white women.

African American survivors of gender-based violence disproportionately experience other negative outcomes, including: being more likely to be criminalized for defending themselves against violence, being less likely to call the police for help partly due to fear of police brutality against their abuser, being less likely to reach out to supportive services due to a lack of culturally-appropriate services or due to previous experiences of discrimination by service providers, and being at a higher risk of removal of their children by the state.

For girls of color, an additional horrifying outcome of experiencing sexual abuse is entering the sexual abuse to prison pipeline. As described by “The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline: The Girls’ Story”, “…in a perverse twist of justice, many girls who experience sexual abuse are routed into the juvenile justice system because of their victimization. Indeed, sexual abuse is one of the primary predictors of girls’ entry into the juvenile justice system. A particularly glaring example is when girls who are victims of sex trafficking are arrested on prostitution charges — punished as perpetrators rather than served and supported as victims and survivors. Once inside, girls encounter a system that is often ill-equipped to identify and treat the violence and trauma that lie at the root of victimized girls’ arrests. More harmful still is the significant risk that the punitive environment will re-trigger girls’ trauma and even subject them to new incidents of sexual victimization, which can exponentially compound the profound harms inflicted by the original abuse.”

There is good news, however, and that is that gender-based violence is preventable, and everyone has a role to play in its prevention. We know that engaging men and boys to end gender-based violence is an essential part of the work. Some people still think that ending domestic violence, sexual violence, and commercial sexual exploitation is a “women’s issue” and interpret that to mean men and boys don’t need to care about it or get involved in ending it. We need every voice speaking out against gender-based violence. Most men do not abuse their partners and do not sexually assault others, but many men are uncomfortable speaking out against the harmful attitudes and beliefs that underlie abusive behavior.

For African American men and boys, speaking out against gender-based violence may be more difficult than for men and boys of other races. This is because they have experienced violence when interacting with the same systems that African American gender-based violence survivors (overwhelmingly women and gender non-conforming people) do. The organization Men Stopping Violence offers all-African-American classes for men interested in ending gender-based violence, with a focus on the intersectionality of racism and sexism in the lives of African Americans.

This is also what stops and silences many African American women from seeking help when they are being abused by their partners or when they have been sexually assaulted. They are trapped between potentially exposing another African American person to the discrimination in the criminal justice system or suffering in silence. It is a terrible choice that no one should have to make. Without African American men joining in the discussion around how to keep African American women and girls safe, a huge opportunity for change and transformation is lost.

The City of Seattle is responding to gender-based violence by investing over $8 million annually in local programs and services, including: advocacy, shelter and housing, therapeutic services, legal assistance, batterer intervention, outreach, prevention and systems improvement. In the Human Services Department’s 2018 Request For Proposal for Gender-Based Violence Survivor Services, one of the focus populations identified was Black/African Americans, given the high disparities in the investment area. In addition, when Mayor Jenny Durkan announced an additional $100,000 in funding for prevention of gender-based violence on July 9, 2019, the funding was allocated for programs focusing on marginalized populations most impacted by gender-based violence, including the African American community. By investing in a wide array of services that represent and serve traditionally under-funded communities, we know that we will be able to empower more survivors to lead the way for change and, ultimately, to end gender-based violence.

Images of Bettie Williams-Watson and Dr. Oliver Williams who wil be the featured speakers at the September 4th event on gender-based violence in the African American community.

We are excited to co-sponsor an event on September 4, 2019 featuring two incredible experts: Bettie Williams-Watson and Dr. Oliver Williams. They will offer their combined 60+ years of experience and expertise on engaging African American men and boys in ending gender-based violence at the event, co-sponsored by the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office and the Seattle University School of Law. Ms. Williams-Watson and Dr. Williams will speak to the importance of addressing racism, healing trauma that men and boys have themselves experienced, and bringing communities together protect African American women and girls. There are pathways to safety, justice, reconciliation and healing, and the speakers will discuss these issues and help attendees to build upon the expertise that already exists in the community to engage African American men and boys in ending gender-based violence.

This event is open to anyone interested in learning more about gender-based violence in the African American community. Click here to register on Eventbrite for FREE tickets. Refreshments will be served.