David's Corner

Last week, I had a Zoom meeting with Washington State Representative Tina Orwall to update her on LCSNW’s affiliation with Compass. Chief Development Officer Elliot Stockstad was also on the call, along with Compass Director of Advancement Liz Jarrard and COO Christopher Ross. Rep. Orwall has her MSW and more than 20 years of working in the public mental health system. As a legislator for the last 10+ years, her areas of focus have been housing affordability, sexual assault victims and trafficked youth, and suicide prevention. In other words, she cares about the very work we are doing in the community. We talked about the need to protect and expand behavioral health, which saw cuts during the Great Recession and hasn’t fully recovered, as well as the connection between supportive housing services and improved health outcomes. The conversation finished with an invitation to keep the lines of communication open. And this week we spoke with North Puget Sound donors along with NPS District...

Happy Friday everyone.    This week, our friends at Compass Housing Alliance opened a COVID-19-safe shelter (their preferred term is “enhanced emergency   housing”) for those experiencing homelessness in the   Seattle area. They remodeled four floors of their existing Compass Center building to create 150 individual living spaces that meet COVID-19 safety protocols, including at least six feet of separation and solid walls between living spaces, individual storage lockers, upgraded showers and restrooms, and an improved air system. They’ve named the shelter “Otto’s Place” after Compass Founder Pastor Otto Karlstrom.   On other floors of the Center, Compass offers housing navigation services, showers and restrooms,   medical care, banking, and mail services--the only trauma-informed banking and mail program of its kind in the U.S.   Otto’s Place replaces Compass’s First Presbyterian shelter program, ahead of its lease ending at the end of the year....

The day after Thanksgiving is a holiday. If you have to work today,  I’m so grateful for your service . If you are just checking emails or picked up work that can be done next week, please put it down and do something that brings you joy.   Brene Brown, researcher and author, tells us that gratitude can bring us joy. Today, try this: Say,  “I’m so grateful for….”  Maybe even repeat it a couple of times and see what happens. I hope it brings joy to your day.   See you next week David Health, Justice and Hope

This Friday's note includes a short video. We invited some people in our organization to say “thank you” in the language they grew up with and we put it together in a 3-minute video.  LCSNW Thank you video .  Thank you Kaeli and Steve for putting it together so quickly! #rockstars. Also, thank you to our staff that took the time to send us a video so fast.    At LCSNW  we have an extraordinary range of backgrounds, cultures and languages, as well as in the people we serve.  Now seems like a perfectly good time to thank you for what you do every day!  I grew up in Minnesota as a good Norwegian boy eating lutefisk and lefsa.  Well - lefsa.  If you know what lutefisk is - you will understand.  My portion of the video is partly in Norwegian  which was taught to me by my  dear Grandparents.  I was lucky that my family felt our traditions were important to pass down while also exposing me to others from around the world. ...

The election is over. As I send this   Note , the final results aren’t in. We are all invested in what the final results will mean to refugees and immigrants, our healthcare, the economy, and so many other issues that are important to us collectively and individually. I am praying for unity, peace, and calm as we try to heal from some of the divisions we have.   I am concerned about the impact of these issues on you. I know that many of you are weary.  You have that rare thing, which is that you do not turn your back on someone struggling. You love and serve, helping vulnerable people live and thrive in the community. You’ve been working hard and doing amazing work. The challenge is when our work raises feelings of both purpose and burden. It is deeply satisfying to connect someone to our services. The emotional and physical experiences can also strain even the most capable person . So,what do you do about your own burnout, depression, or anxiety?...

I committed to you to communicate, communicate, communicate. Starting today, I am going to send a Friday Note to keep the lines of our communication open. Welcome to Week 1! I’ve been thinking about COVID-19, as well as the fact that October is Domestic Violence and Breast Cancer Awareness Month. There isn’t much silver lining to those topics--until I thought about the fact that our mission to provide Health, Justice and Hope is in your capable hands.   We are just starting the third wave of the pandemic in the U.S. The silver lining is: We are taking this seriously and have prepared the best we can. Our work continues to move forward thanks to tools like telehealth that  allow us to connect people with our services. You have come up with creative ways to serve our most vulnerable. Thank you! The silver lining for breast cancer: Early detection can save lives. Health clinics have reopened for all levels of care, allowing all of us—women and men--to keep up with our r...