Join us for our Open Volunteer Day on November 23!
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Join us on Saturday, November 23rd for a multi-site
Open Volunteer Day
in
Seattle's Central District community!
Last month our "Building a Healthy Neighborhood" (BaHN) program event brought together volunteers and community members for 2-days of repairs and improvements to 8 homes and an urban farm within the Central District neighborhood.
Although we made tremendous progress, we still have a handful of projects to complete. Join us in our initiative to preserve home ownership and rebuild this community for longtime residents of the neighborhood.
Register
today and help #RebuildCentralDistrict!
For more details e
mail Program Manager,
Scott Sharba
with any questions. Hope to see you there!
**MORE ABOUT BaHN BELOW**
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Home for the Holidays
Campaign!
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Everyone deserves the chance to live in a safe and healthy home and 'tis the season to make that happen! Please consider making a year-end or early 2020 gift to Rebuilding Together Seattle's
Home for the Holidays
campaign. You ca
n help make sure our programs get off to a great start next year, as we celebrate 30 years of service to our neighbors in need!
Be on the lookout for our
Home for the Holidays
campaign card in the mail and email communications in the coming weeks! For more information contact Development Manager
Thembela Mavuso
.
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Each Quarter,
Fred Meyer will make a donation based on the accumulated spending of the rewards customers linked to us. So in addition to your rewards points, rebates, and fuel points, you will also earn the satisfaction of knowing that you are helping support your community.
Sign up for community rewards by linking your Rewards Card
HERE.
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10th Annual Beer and Wine Tasting raises over $95,000 to assist low-income homeowners!
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On Friday, October 4
th
, Rebuilding Together Seattle’s 10
th
Annual Beer and Wine Tasting fundraiser saw both new attendees as well as past supporters and volunteers come together at the iconic Museum of History and Industry in Seattle’s buzzing South Lake Union. This year's event not only celebrated 10 years of the Beer and Wine Tasting but also served as the official kick-off of the organization’s 30
th
anniversary year celebrations that will take place throughout 2020!
The night’s festivities included 4 incredible auctions with a unique catalogue of wines, exceptional vacation packages, one-off experiences and plenty more auction packages from local businesses in and around Seattle and some beloved out-of-town favorites. Guests were treated to an evening of mouthwatering food, wine and beer tastings from local wineries and breweries and a dessert dash full of treats to add a sweet note to the evening. With play-by-play commentary and comedy courtesy of our amazing auctioneer, Ian Lindsay, fun was the order of the night and a good time was had by all.
Guests also got a chance to hear from one of RTS’s program recipients, and this year’s homeowner speakers, Uvernia McCoy and her daughter Marilyn Fudge about the life-changing impact the organization, our volunteers, and supporters continue to have on neighborhoods, homes and lives in our community.
Finally, RTS recognized Mike Bailey as our Volunteer of the Year for his 5 year's of commitment to our cause and Swinerton
Builders with the inaugural Rebuilding Together Seattle “Partner of the Year” award for 2019, a tribute to a long standing partnership and ongoing support for over more than a decade.
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This year's fundraiser helped us raise nearly $100,000 to assist low-income households in need of home repair, housing rehab, and accessibility modifications and improvements.
A special thank you to all our guests, board of directors, staff, volunteers, sponsors and all the businesses and individuals who contributed to our auctions. All proceeds from the event benefit Rebuilding Together Seattle's home repair and community revitalization programs to help keep low-income homeowners safe and healthy in their homes.
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Thank you Again
To Our Event Sponsors!
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#BuildingaHealthyNeighborhood takes on Seattle's Central District
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On October 24th and 25th, nearly 300 volunteers and community members participated in a series of home repairs to
#RebuildCentralDistrict.
I
n conjunction with the Rebuilding Together National office, Lowe's Home Improvement, and CBRE, RTS embarked on a multi-day, multi-project event focused on eight homes and expansion of an urban farm within the Central District as part of Rebuilding Together's annual
#BuildingaHealthyNeighborhood
event.
Rebuilding Together Seattle was honored to be chosen for this year's project, and as a result of the funding have announced a sustained commitment to serving central area residents over at least the next year, through home repairs, small business spruces, community space improvements, and other neighborhood investments. Building a Healthy Neighborhood brings together national and local support to one affiliate each year to concentrate resources on a single neighborhood for community-wide impact. We chose to direct these resources toward work in the Central District, particularly in serving long-time residents and communities with historic ties to one of the oldest neighborhoods in Seattle.
As Seattle's legacy of redlining is slowly dismantled, and previously dis-invested areas like the CD are becoming gentrified and densified, RTS is concerned with the loss of homeownership for our low-income neighbors and community preservation. The central area's Black community has been particularly impacted, but across Seattle, we have seen African-American homeownership fall from above 40% in 2000 to now under 20%. The 8 households participating in this first phase of our deeper work in the CD were all African-American homeowners who have been a part of the central area community for 30, 40, 50+ years, across multiple generations. Along with our work at Yes Farm, a start-up urban farm led by the Black Farmers Collective, Building a Healthy neighborhood allowed us to demonstrate our neighborhood-level approach to community revitalization and focus on new preservation and anti-displacement strategies.
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In her comments at the event kick-off reception, held the night before at the new Black arts and cultural space Wa Na Wari, Caroline Blakely, President and CEO of Rebuilding Together National said, "We serve communities across the country facing a lack of safe, affordable, and accessible housing. Our program, Building a Healthy Neighborhood, in partnership with Lowe's Home Improvement, demonstrates the positive effects of home and neighborhood revitalization on the overall health of homeowners, families, and communities".
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Critical health and safety repairs such as handrail installation, wheelchair ramps, wall paint and repairs, new flooring, and other accessibility modifications were performed by RTS volunteers and teams from Lowe’s Home Improvement and CBRE. And further repairs such as re-piping, window replacements, and new siding will all be completed soon. In addition to helping with home repairs, our volunteers at YES Farm assisted in building a greenhouse and clearing land for future expansion. The farm is dedicated to the development of sustainable food systems production and community engagement, including with residents of the Yessler Terrace redevelopment who lost vegetable gardening space when their townhouses were replaced with high-rise apartments. Residents will now be able to utilize a community garden and equipment in an area where healthy produce can be difficult or expensive to come by.
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"We have been blessed with the gifts of so many volunteers who have made our home safe, and we are grateful for their sacrifices, commitment and work ethic,” said Central District homeowner Marilyn and her mother Uvernia. “Thanks to their kindness, I know I’ll be able to leave this legacy—our family home my sister and I purchased 40 years ago—for the next generation.”
We thank all the incredible volunteers who joined us for Building a Healthy Neighborhood this year for all their hard work and our partner's in supporting our mission for safe and healthy . Through home repairs and community engagement you helped us preserve and strengthen the Central District, supporting home ownership for many more years to come!
If you would like to learn more about our future plans in the CD, or your company is interested in joining the efforts, please contact
Caleb Marshall
.
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Homestead Community Land Trust creates home buying opportunity in West Seattle
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Rebuilding Together Seattle's staff and volunteers as well as the CoHo team of Windermere agents joined forces with Homestead Community Land Trust on September 28th and October 12th for an incredible 2-days of renovating a West Seattle home to create a first-time home buying opportunity for a l
ow- to moderate-income
household.
Homestead CLT (Community Land Trust)
makes homes in Seattle and King County possible and affordable by developing new home-ownership opportunities through housing development and partnerships with other housing organizations. By retaining ownership of the land a home is on, CLTs are able to remove that part of the equation from the cost of homeownership. Homestead supports over 210 active homeowners who are members of the trust, and provides purchase assistance grants to low-income home-buyers, serving families who make less than 80% of area median income (of which more than half are people of color). As a result, Homestead’s growing portfolio of homes serves multiple families over time and gives affordability a perma
nent address in our community.
Volunteers assisted with removing old carpeting, clearing out the home and garage, installing flooring, interior painting, appliance installation
and other repairs and maintenance to get the home ready for a new family. Thank you to all our RTS volunteers and the amazing teams and staff at Homestead CLT and CoHo Realty
who turned out to help with this project!
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New Staff Introductions:
Thembela Mavuso & Hannah Nagy
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Thembela joined RTS in August, after graduating with her Masters in Marketing from the University of Cincinnati. She brings with her a wealth of knowledge and experience in fundraising and event coordination, donor prospecting and relationship management, having worked in the non-profit and corporate philanthropy sectors in prior roles.
As Development Manager, Thembela wants to dedicate her time to strengthening existing partnerships and helping cultivate new support for Rebuilding Together Seattle's programs!
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Hannah recently graduated from Pacific Lutheran University with a BA in Global Studies with concentrations in Development, Social Justice, and Trans-nationalism. She is passionate about the capacity of community members to work together to support their neighbors and make positive change. She is very excited for her term as our AmeriCorps Program Coordinator!
In her free time, Hannah enjoys going to concerts and shows, drawing and painting, and spending time with her friends and family.
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Thank You to our Fall 2019 Sponsors
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Northwest Regional Trauma Council
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