The Seattle Housing and Resource Effort (SHARE) nonprofit organization moved the "Tent City 4" next door in partnership with the Seattle Mennonite Church. Throughout May, we saw them set up tents for the unhoused people living in Lake City and currently, they have over 50 tents available, and they are supplying meals, necessities, and a safe place to shelter for their residents. This last Wednesday, we got to learn more about our new neighbors and SHARE's efforts to combat homelessness at the Tent City 4 open house. We toured the set-up, met some current residents, and learned more about how the community self-organizes.

Also, at the open house was Tony Sparks, the author of Tent City, Seattle: refusing homelessness and building a home, discussing how the residents of Tent Cities self-manage their community through collective care efforts to reclaim their dignity and make a home for themselves. He became interested in researching the Tent City model and it combats homelessness, while SHARE's Tent City 3 was currently residing in Capitol Hill, near Seattle University. Tony was working on his graduate degree at UW-Seattle and had the idea of conducting research about their community. When he asked at the community meeting, the Tent City 3 residents invited him to live with them for the next few months. While living there, he lived exactly as the residents did, contributing to the community, volunteering when needed, and working security shifts in the mornings, all as he continued to attend his college classes in the day. 

Years later, he was approached by UW-Press to write a book about his PHD project. He agreed and began his first draft of what he called his "rage piece" on how the government has failed its unhoused residents. However, the final version of the book is not a rage piece. He told at the open house that while he started only with anger, the more he dug back into his studies and his past-experience living and working with Tent City, he found a story of community, optimism, hope. His final book is a about how to rely on each other and to reclaim lost dignity and create a true "home".

Tent City 4 is always accepting donations. Currently, they most need non-perishable/ready-to-go food and hot meals. As well as…

• kitchen supplies (can openers, aluminum foil, saran wrap, disposable utensils, etc)
• cleaning supplies
• hygiene products
• camping gear (tents, tarps, sleeping mats, sleeping bags, cots, blankets, flashlights, batteries, etc)
• outdoor furniture (especially chairs)
• 2-3 more microwaves to add to their (limited) kitchen

For more information and to schedule a time to donate or join their meal calendar, please contact them directly at (206) 956-0334 or tc4@sharewheel.org. We also encourage you to read more about their mission at their website.

By Alex Olsen, AmeriCorps Outreach and Systems Coordinator VISTA

Please join us to celebrate the end of term, students successes, and the nearly 6,000 hours of volunteer service this year! We can't thank you enough for helping us with our mission but we can throw a party to celebrate!

When: Thursday, August 29th, 5 – 7pm

Where: Literacy Source Center

Can you help with planning/set-up or cleanup? Please email Caroline

At Literacy Source we suggest that our tutors review the material and activities that students do in their classes. What do you do when your student is in an in-person class, but you tutor them online? How do you make in-person activities work over Zoom? This is a challenge that I’ve been working on since we were unexpectedly forced to start offering online classes in 2020. I never imagined that I would teach online, and now this is still the only type of class that I teach! Here are a few strategies and tips to use when teaching ESOL students in an online format:

1. Be familiar with the physical resources that your student has from their class so that you can utilize these materials in your session. Do they have a textbook? A binder? If possible, you should have these items as well. Holding up the actual textbook and showing the page to turn to is much clearer than telling a student to get a book and open it to a certain page. If you are using a supplemental textbook for your tutoring work, make sure that both you and the student have a copy...

You can read the full teaching tip here.

Allie Azersky, ESOL 1 instructor

Sunlight still gives warmth

Though darkness arrives sooner

With each passing day

~Holly Smith, late Literacy Source volunteer

One of our beloved volunteers, Holly Smith, passed away recently. She worked the front desk and believed strongly in our mission and vision. So much so that Holly decided to bequeath part of her estate to Literacy Source.

Holly had a self-proclaimed love of reading that led her to manage bookshops, co-author books, and volunteer at Literacy Source. When Holly was interviewed for her volunteer spotlight, she pointed out that Literacy Source's "one-on-one lessons as well as small group classes promotes the human connections that I feel are key to a satisfied life plus hope for the future."

Holly's decision to continue to support our mission even in her absence is such a powerful way to leave a legacy, and to act on her beliefs even when she is no longer physically able to do that. In Holly's words: "I truly believe that the doors opened by being able to read can have a multiplier affect from the individual to their family and friends, to the community and out to the world and I like being a small cog in that wheel."

Planned giving is a great way to honor an organization whose mission you want to support even in your absence. We all want to do everything we can to ensure that the work we believe in continues beyond our lifetimes, and Holly giving of her time and money has left a lasting impact on Literacy Source and the students we serve.



If you'd like to find out more about planned giving opportunities with Literacy Source, you can contact Stacey Hastings, our Fundraising Development Manager.

The truth about stories is that that’s all we are. You can’t

understand the world without telling a story.

~Gerald Vizenor

Taiko Aoki-Marcial, a former instructor at Literacy Source, wanted to share with our community about an "ongoing community engaged project [that] aims to develop "translationships" (translational relationships) across cultures, languages, regions, boundaries, disciplines and worldviews (Del Río Riande, Lujano, and O’Donnell 2020) grounded in curiosity, empathy, respect, and equity." The project includes stories in different languages as well as a podcast. We encourage you to check them out on the Translationships website.

The project was made possible by the support of Humanities Washington, the University of Washington, Casa Latina, and Literacy Source. You can read more about this class in the recent University of Washington article about the project.

Literacy Source partnered with two individuals who became new citizens in the past month: one from the Guatemala and one from Sudan.

Congratulations!

Worn: A people's History of Clothing

Staff: Julia Herman

Hijab Butch Blues

Staff: Alex Olsen

An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good

Staff: Shira Rosen

Washington Black

Staff: Katherine VanHenley

The Mark and the Void

Staff: Caroline Socha

My Monticello

Staff: Liz Wurster

GreenStage Presents FREE Shakespeare in the Park

Every Thursday–Sunday, from July 12–August 17 (Various Parks, FREE)

Throw on your old-timey feathered caps and get thee to a nunnery—or maybe just head outdoors for Greenstage's always-free Shakespeare in the Park, which returns for its 36th season this year. They'll offer up productions of the Bard's Henry VI—Parts Two and Three and familiar rom-com Twelfth Night, plus some scaled-back "Backyard Bard" one-hour shows, including "problem play" All's Well That Ends Well, at parks across Seattle. Peep their calendar for performance times and locations.

Ballard Seafood Fest

Fri-Sun, July 12-14 (Ballard, FREE)

Join us at Ballard SeafoodFest, proudly brought to you by the Ballard Alliance! Experience the ultimate celebration of Ballard and beyond with FREE live music, family fun, arts, crafts, and food vendors, succulent seafood, and an impressive craft beer showcase. Don't miss out on this unforgettable event! Located in the heart of downtown Ballard, along NW Market St and Ballard Ave NW, our festival honors Ballard's maritime heritage while offering so much more. Explore, indulge, and immerse yourself in the vibrant atmosphere of this incredible community! And remember, savor a Trident Seafoods Salmon BBQ plate for the entire experience. Our annual festival supports community growth and critical fundraising. Learn more now.

Clarion West Summer Reading Series

Tuesday, July 23 7pm (The Great Hall, 1119 Eighth Avenue, $5-$25)

Carmen Maria Machado is the author of the bestselling memoir In the Dream House and the award-winning short story collection Her Body and Other Parties. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the winner of the Bard Fiction Prize, the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction, and the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize, among others. Her essays, fiction, and criticism have appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Granta, Vogue, This American Life, The Believer, Guernica, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the Guggenheim Foundation, Yaddo, Hedgebrook, and the Millay Colony for the Arts.

Our next New Volunteer Orientation (via Zoom) will be on August 7 at either 1pm or 7pm. 

Potential volunteers are invited to register online here. 

Please help us spread the word!

We have two instructional positions starting in September 2024:

Adult Basic Ed. & Digital Literacy Instructional Support

Citizenship/ESOL Instructional Support

Questions? Contact Caroline

Miss any of our past volunteer newsletters? You can access archived newsletters at the bottom of the Volunteer Resources of our webpage.