Tag Archives: Chief Seattle Club

News

Health Through Housing Initiative and Chief Seattle Club to Provide Housing With Culturally Competent Social Services

by Lauryn Bray

In December 2022, King County and Chief Seattle Club announced that the Salmonberry Lofts in Pioneer Square became the fifth Health Through Housing building to begin moving tenants in. The Health Through Housing initiative is a “regional approach to address chronic homelessness at a countywide scale.” Introduced by King County Executive Dow Constantine in his 2020 budget speech, the Health Through Housing initiative dedicates one-tenth of a cent of sales tax revenue to the purchase and renovation of motels, hotels, and other buildings to be converted to emergency and permanent housing. 

Continue reading Health Through Housing Initiative and Chief Seattle Club to Provide Housing With Culturally Competent Social Services →
Community

How to Celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day in the South End

by Amanda Ong

Indigenous Peoples’ Day is this Monday, Oct. 10, a day to recognize the Indigenous peoples on whose land Seattle was built, and to come together and celebrate them and their cultures. 

Continue reading How to Celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day in the South End →
News

Local Indigenous Food Sovereignty Efforts Uplift the Importance of Traditional Foods

by Vee Hua 華婷婷

Home to individuals from a number of tribal nations, the Puget Sound region serves as fertile ground for conversations and movements towards Indigenous food sovereignty. While many definitions of food sovereignty exist, the Indian Education Division at the Montana Office of Public Instruction defines it as “the ability of an Indigenous nation or community to control its own food system and food-producing resources free of control or limitations put on it by an outside power (such as a settler/colonizer government).”

Continue reading Local Indigenous Food Sovereignty Efforts Uplift the Importance of Traditional Foods →
News

Colleen Echohawk Joins YouthCare as Interim CEO

by Ben Adlin

Youth housing and services provider YouthCare, which operates an emergency shelter for young adults in Rainier Beach, announced Wednesday, Sept. 15, that longtime affordable housing advocate and former Seattle mayoral candidate Colleen Echohawk has joined the organization as interim CEO. 

Echohawk, who last May stepped down from a seven-year stint as executive director of the Chief Seattle Club, a Native-led housing nonprofit based in Pioneer Square, said she’s “honored” to step into the leadership role at YouthCare.

“To me this seems like a very natural fit, to jump in alongside the staff and the executive team and the board at YouthCare to support their work [and] to provide some leadership, especially around the areas of diversity and inclusion and racial justice,” she told the Emerald. “That is the heart of the work that I get to do, and I’m excited to join a team that has been providing some of the most essential care for youth here in Seattle.”

Continue reading Colleen Echohawk Joins YouthCare as Interim CEO →
News

Homeless Outreach Providers Say New Rules Would Put Them at City’s ‘Beck and Call’

by Erica C. Barnett

(This article originally appeared on PubliCola and has been reprinted under an agreement.) 

Homeless outreach agencies that contract with the City’s Human Services Department have threatened not to sign their 2021 contracts over new requirements that they argue would harm their relationships with clients and give unprecedented new power to the City.

Agencies that provide outreach and engagement to homeless encampments, including the outreach that happens before the City removes an encampment, have been operating without contracts since January. Late last month, HSD sent out new contracts that included requirements — not included in previous contracts — that would effectively subordinate the agencies to HSD’s HOPE Team (formerly the Navigation Team) and require them to create detailed “supplemental daily outreach reports” about who they contacted and what services they offered each day.

Continue reading Homeless Outreach Providers Say New Rules Would Put Them at City’s ‘Beck and Call’ →
Voices

Seedcast: Colleen Echohawk on Family and Inspiration

by Felipe Contreras

Since time immemorial, Indigenous people have celebrated storytelling as a way to connect the present to past lessons and future dreaming. Narrative sovereignty is a form of land guardianship, and Nia Tero supports this work through its storytelling initiatives, including the Seedcast podcast, as well as in this column for media partner the South Seattle Emerald.

On March 24, my colleagues and I on Nia Tero’s Seedcast team will release the first episode of our new season of the podcast, featuring an interview with Colleen Echohawk, executive director of Chief Seattle Club. Colleen is an enrolled member of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, and she is also adopted into the Ahtna/Athabaskan community where she grew up in Mentasta Lake, Alaska. I was honored to interview Colleen for the episode, which is focused on Colleen’s exploration of what shaped her into the leader she is today, with an emphasis on her Indigenous heritage.

Continue reading Seedcast: Colleen Echohawk on Family and Inspiration →
News

In Announcing Mayoral Run, Colleen Echohawk Promises “People-First Approach” to Seattle Politics

by Marcus Harrison Green

For too long, Colleen Echohawk says that Seattle politics has lacked a “people-first approach.”

With a vow to bring one to City Hall, Echohawk officially announced her mayoral run on Monday morning.

Continue reading In Announcing Mayoral Run, Colleen Echohawk Promises “People-First Approach” to Seattle Politics →
Features

A Hard Year for Those Without Shelter: Death Rates Rose and Pressures Increased for the Homeless During the Pandemic

by Ashley Archibald

In a video posted to YouTube, a woman in a blue surgical mask stands in the corner of a walled-off yard, a puffy, slate gray jacket zipped against the cold. To her right is a table draped with a white cloth holding 19 votive candle holders. Slowly, deliberately, the woman reads a list of names.

“Azhane Mitchell.”

“Charles Lingenfelter.”

“Christopher Mann.”

In the silence following each name, a man lights a candle.

Continue reading A Hard Year for Those Without Shelter: Death Rates Rose and Pressures Increased for the Homeless During the Pandemic →
News

Ten Non-Profits Receive Grants From Port of Seattle’s South King County Fund to Improve COVID-19 Economic Recovery

by Jack Russillo

Nearly $1 million in grants from the Port of Seattle will be dispersed to ten organizations to help lead equitable economic recovery from the impacts of COVID-19 in South King County.

The move comes after the Port of Seattle Commissioners approved a recommendation at their meeting on December 15. The funds will be dispersed by the end of January.  

Continue reading Ten Non-Profits Receive Grants From Port of Seattle’s South King County Fund to Improve COVID-19 Economic Recovery →
News

The Morning Update Show — 11/24/20

The Morning Update Show — hosted by Trae Holiday and The Big O (Omari Salisbury) — is the only weekday news and information livestream that delivers culturally relevant content to the Pacific Northwest’s urban audience. Omari and Trae analyze the day’s local and national headlines as well as melanin magic in our community. Watch live every weekday at 11 a.m. on any of the following channels, hosted by Converge Media: YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, Periscope, and whereweconverge.com.

We’ll also post the Morning Update Show here on the Emerald each day after it airs, so you can catch up any time of day while you peruse our latest posts.

Morning Update Show — Tuesday, Nov. 24

Today on the show:

The City Budget Is in the Books; Kevin Schofield of SCC Insight | LIVE; Colleen Echohawk of Cheif Seattle Club | LIVE; Native American Heritage Month; Cannabis Equity With Aaron Bossett; and Coronavirus Updates with Nikki Barron.

Continue reading The Morning Update Show — 11/24/20 →