From: A Way Home Washington <jim@awayhomewa.org>
Date: Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 11:10 AM
Subject: January Update: Advocating to End Youth and Young Adult Homelessness
To: maureenhowardconsulting@gmail.com <maureenhowardconsulting@gmail.com>
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We're a week into the 2020 legislative session, and we're ready to advocate for young people! We were honored to see our Executive Director Jim sitting next to First Lady Trudi Inslee at the State of the State address last week, and to hear Governor Jay Inslee for mentioning the Anchor Community Initiative during the address. Keep reading to check out all of our legislative priorities, and stay tuned for advocacy opportunities this session! 
We're pleased to welcome Zane Ellis (he/him) to our team! Zane is our new Anchor Community Initiative Admin Coordinator, helping ensure excellent operations for the Anchor Community Initiative team. 
"I recognize my privilege and understand that it could just as easily be me experiencing homelessness. I'm here to stand up for those in the queer community who aren't as fortunate." 
From funding the Centralized Diversion Fund to supporting young people exiting behavioral health treatment, check out all our 2020 legislative priorities: 
Advocates from our Anchor Communities join Jim for an Advocacy Day in 2019 
For the past 10 months, Anchor Communities have focused on achieving quality data. Communities are on the verge of reaching this milestone and heading into the next phase of the work: reducing. As communities implement projects to reduce youth and young adult homelessness, data will remain crucial to the work. Data will help communities evaluate if their projects are leading to actual reductions. 
We're eager to see what 2020 holds for the Anchor Community Initiative, and confident that each of the communities will end the year closer to ending youth and young adult homelessness! 
From moving our work forward to self-care, here are a few of our team's 2020 resolutions: 
Our staff shares what they're reading and watching to stay inspired and keep their skills sharp. 
Time to re-open that can of whoop-a** on injustice, you brilliant and talented nonprofit genius! "At the start of the year it’s easy to feel overwhelmed in anticipation of the work ahead. Vu Le’s funny and sincere blog post reminds all of us in the nonprofit sector that it’s normal and natural to have those feelings, and that our work matters." Erin Hatheway, Deputy Director 
They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South "This book is an investigation into the role of white women as economic actors in the slave market. It incorporates women’s history, the history of the South, and African American history. We are familiar with the role of white men as slave owners, and it is eye opening to learn how inheriting and owning enslaved people was also a means of economic and social empowerment for white women in the South." Liz, Data & Evaluation Director 
WA voters rank homelessness as the No. 1 issue lawmakers must address "As the legislative session kicked off last week, homelessness topped the list of concerns for Washington State voters in the latest Crosscut/Elway poll. It is exciting to see how our sector's work and successes can influence ongoing legislative conversations." Anne Bradley, Executive Assistant 
"In her memoir, Cyntoia Brown speaks about her experience as an adopted youth in and out of group homes, picked up by a pimp to be sex trafficked and sentenced to life in prison at 16. What stood out to me was how institutionalization at a young age leaves youth vulnerable to homelessness, trafficking and abuse. We need to stop indoctrinating young people to punitive systems that are doorways to abuse." Elysa Hovard, ACI Project Director 
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