News

King County community comes together to support Latinx youth

October 4, 2022

This Latinx and Hispanic Heritage month is a special one for many Latinx King County community members. Neighborhood House, community partners, parents, and youth celebrate being awarded 5 years of CDCs Drug-Free Communities program to support the newly created Latinx – King County Dream Coalition (La Coalición de los Sueños del Condado del Rey in …

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Holidays at Neighborhood House

July 1, 2022

Neighborhood House (NH) is committed to becoming a fully inclusive, anti-racist, multi-cultural organization. As such, we are reevaluating our policies, including our holiday structure, so that we can continue to create a more equitable organizational culture. Today NH has 306 staff members who speak over 40 languages. 72% of staff members identify as Black, Indigenous, …

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Being present for the first Juneteenth federal holiday

June 1, 2022

June 19th, 2022 will be the first year that many people will receive the day off in honor of Juneteenth, commemorating the day that enslaved people in Galveston, TX learned slavery had been abolished. They’d toiled in the hot sun for years under chattel slavery, and this year we will celebrate their freedom by taking …

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Multicultural principles for early childhood leaders

May 3, 2022

Head Start published these Multicultural Principles back in 1991. They have since been updated and continue to provide research based guidance to Head Start programs around the nation. They are also relevant principles that can be applied to other Neighborhood House service areas and approaches. You can find these principles and many other resources on …

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Putting People First – The King County Wage and Benefits Survey

April 1, 2022

Content from this article was adapted from the King County Alliance for Human Services press release after the publication of the King County Wage Survey. The hourly wage that one adult, one preschooler, and one school age child in King County needs to survive in 2020 was $38.85/hour, and adjusted for inflation, that amount is …

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My refection on power sharing

March 1, 2022

I recently got a new job at a government agency and this job puts me at the top of the organization. As such, I have been reflecting a lot on the meaning of leadership and leadership power.  Often, when we hear that a person “comes into power”, what is means is the person got a …

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Neighborhood House staff on celebrating Black Joy

February 1, 2022

Too often, many of the stories discussed during Black History Month are tragic.  One does not have to look too hard to uncover the many times in US history that humanity was not extended to those from the African diaspora.  On top of that, many stories of Black excellence are undercut by tragic ends of …

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Racial equity and social justice – How are we doing? What NH staff say…

January 3, 2022

Neighborhood House has been engaged in a multi-year effort to identify key racial equity goals and actions to move the organization towards becoming a fully inclusive, anti-racist, multi-cultural organization in a transformed society. As a part of this effort, we committed to implementing an organizational assessment to establish a baseline understanding of the current state …

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Native American Heritage Month

December 1, 2021

Note: this post has been updated to reflect that Neighborhood House decided in 2022 to move away from land acknowledgments. Land Acknowledgements were meant to raise awareness and to invite people in to learn more about the land you live on and the indigenous folks whose land was stolen. Now there are many feelings that …

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Elections, democracy, and equity

November 1, 2021

November 2nd, tomorrow, voters in Washington state will have an opportunity to have their voices heard. We are lucky that in Washington, voting is easy. Our ballots are 100% mail-in, with plentiful drop boxes, free postage for mailing the ballots, and several weeks from the time ballots are received in the mail to when they …

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National Hispanic Heritage and Latinx History: “Latinx or Hispanic?”

September 30, 2021

Hispanic Heritage Month began as a commemorative week when California Congressman George E. Brown first introduced it in June of 1968. In 1987, U.S. Representative Esteban E. Torres of California proposed expanding the observance to cover its current 31-day period that goes from September 15 to October 15 to properly observe and coordinate events and …

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Digital access is an equity issue

September 8, 2021

“Those who access and need our government services expect and deserve usability,” said Kendrick Stewart, Washington Department of Commerce’s deputy director. In a public performance review meeting on July 28, 2021, the deputy director went on to say that according to agencies that provide direct services to the public, those who are most likely to …

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Improving equity in schools and beyond

September 1, 2021

COVID has changed how young people have had to learn and care for themselves over this past year and a half. They’ve been away from friends and family, impacted by financial hardship, illness or loss of loved ones due to COVID. Going to school has meant logging on to Zoom, trying to focus on class …

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Relational vs. Transactional

August 2, 2021

The following is an excerpt from Erin Okuno, (former NH board member and Executive Director of Southeast Education Coalition) published on her Fakequity blog. I thought this article was timely as we live our values (one of our core values is relationships), and do the important work of building community and increase access to housing, …

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Celebrating Loving Day

June 1, 2021

Fifty-four years ago is not long at all. For many of us here at Neighborhood House, our parents had already taken their first steps on this planet’s soil. By 1967, satellite television had sent signals to separate continents, bubble wrap became a bored child’s favorite toy, and you could turn your tongue blue with a …

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Pride Month

June 1, 2021

“A riot is the language of the unheard.” – Martin Luther King Jr. The month of June has come to be known as Gay Pride Month. This has not always been the case. There was a time when being LGBTQ was not celebrated in such a public way, not only by those in the community …

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Celebrating Asian Diversity

May 3, 2021

The Neighborhood House Celebrating Asian Diversity Affinity Group centers on the lives and experiences of Asian and Asian American staff. We envision an organization where Asians and Asian Americans thrive. We will build a community that empowers, elevates, and celebrates our diverse social identities and cultures. The month of May is Asian American and Pacific …

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White people, we’ve got work to do

April 1, 2021

When events like the recent murder of six Asian American women in Atlanta occur, it’s not unusual to have an emotional response. We may feel grief, fear, confusion, anxiety, hopelessness, anger, and more – and sometimes all at once. We grapple with difficult questions, asking ourselves, “How could this happen, and what can I do …

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Speaking up for equity

March 1, 2021

COVID-19 has revealed the huge economic and health disparities perpetuated by racism and inequitable systems. At Neighborhood House, we see these disparities firsthand. Critical information and access provided only in English and maybe Spanish, access available only online, and major donors of health care systems “cutting the line” to get the vaccine before their phase …

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