For DV Awareness Month, the Seattle Great Wheel, Columbia Center Tower, and Lumen Field will go purple on Thursday, October 21, 2021 for #PugetSoundPurpleThursday. Please join us in raising awareness of domestic violence by wearing purple NEXT THURSDAY, and share your photo on social media with the hashtag. Include in your photo a sign stating why you are wearing purple on this day.
The National Weather Service has issued an Excessive Heat Warning for Seattle and surrounding areas due to forecasted high temperatures above 90 degrees. The warming trend will begin Wednesday and continue through Saturday. The City of Seattle is working together with our regional partners to prepare for these extreme temperatures including monitoring critical infrastructure like power systems, water systems, roadways, and bridges. In addition, the City of Seattle is monitoring the potential for moderate to unhealthy air quality levels on Wednesday to Saturday. A press release sent yesterday by the Mayor’s Office highlighted cooling centers and pools available across the city, and outreach teams are on the ground working with our most vulnerable residents to prevent heat illness in these extreme conditions. You can find a map of locations here.
In addition to the incredible challenges our City has faced due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our region has seen an increase in extreme weather events over the past year due to climate change, such as record-breaking snow fall in February, all-time record-breaking heat last month, and the severe drought we are currently experiencing across our state. The rising temperatures and dry conditions this spring and summer have contributed to a significant threat of wildfires along the West Coast and an earlier wildfire season than typical. These conditions also make Seattle more susceptible to the harsh impacts of wildfire smoke on the air we breathe. In preparation for a potential poor air quality event this wildfire season, the Seattle Human Services Department (HSD) is engaged in planning, in partnership with Office of Emergency Management (OEM) and Public Health—Seattle & King County (PHSKC), to support those living unsheltered by opening up cleaner air shelters if the need arises.
The City of Seattle recently released a report about the 2020-2021 emergency food response during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic and thanking the many partners involved in supporting our residents. Since the beginning, food security has been a top concern as the unprecedented health and economic crisis dramatically… [ Keep reading ]
In response to record-breaking heat over the last week, City of Seattle’s Human Services Department (HSD) employees were in touch with our unsheltered and aging neighbors, worked to set up and staff cooling centers and shelters, assisted in water distribution and logistics, and prepared to serve residents in need and respond to requests from emergency operations.
The Seattle Human Services Department (HSD) is pleased to announce the results of the 2021 Geographic Specific – Delridge, Georgetown, South Park – Food Bank Services Request for Proposal (RFP) which closed March 24, 2021. Four organizations will receive a total of $153,307 in 2021 to support food bank services for low-income individuals and families in the Delridge, Georgetown, and South Park neighborhoods. Agencies interested in funding were asked to demonstrate their community-centered program model and cultural responsivity in providing services.
Mayor Jenny A. Durkan and Fire Chief Harold Scoggins announced today the launch of a second Health One unit to expand regular service of the program to Ballard and the University District. The second unit begins operating on April 15 and will be staffed with a team of two specially trained firefighter/EMTs and a case manager from the Human Services Department Aging and Disability Services Division. The team will serve people with non-emergency 9-1-1 calls with issues like substance abuse, non-emergency medical issues and a need to access services. Health One continues to focus on providing alternatives to transporting individuals to hospital emergency departments.
The Seattle Human Services Department is pleased to present Age Friendly Seattle’s 2020 Annual Report, highlighting accomplishments from the past year. In addition, please read Age Friendly Seattle program manager Brent Butler’s article in the March issue of AgeWise, the monthly e-zine published by the Seattle-King County Advisory Council on Aging & Disability Services, “Age Friendly Seattle Increases Access and Inclusion Despite COVID.”
The “Be Ready. Be Hydrated.” campaign ran from July 15 – September 15, 2020. The bilingual public awareness and counter-marketing campaign received nearly 5.9 million impressions, a dozen media placements and grassroots support from Black and Brown communities across the City of Seattle. This blog post is a summary of a report written by The Vida Agency in October 2020 about their work to create a public awareness and counter-marketing campaign for the community, by the community, using revenues from the City of Seattle’s Sweetened Beverage Tax. Click here to read the full report with additional information, data, quotes, and examples of campaign materials.
The Youth and Family Empowerment (YFE) Division of the Seattle Human Services Department (HSD) is seeking applications from agencies to provide Geographic Specific Food Bank Services to low-income individuals and families in Delridge, Georgetown, and South Park neighborhoods including, but not limited to: 1) Basic food bank operations (required); and 2) Home delivery of culturally relevant foods, meal programs, weekend hunger or backpack programs, nutrition education, and social service navigation assistance (e.g. Community Connectors or similar services that assist individuals and families to attain self-sufficiency) as parts of broader culturally appropriate food bank operations. This Food Bank Services RFP shall fund a total of $113,808 in 2021 ($111,686 in Seattle Sweetened Beverage Tax (SBT) funding and $2,122 in City of Seattle General Fund) from July 1 – December 31, 2021. A total of $227,616 ($223,372 in SBT funding and $4,244 in General Fund) is available to support year-round work for a contract period of January 1 – December 31, 2022.
