“America is such a wealthy country—no one back in the old country would believe that there is homelessness here.”

Those were my father’s first words when he surveyed the beautiful and sometimes haunting photographs of the National Center on Family Homelessness’ “Looking into Light” exhibit, which the Seattle University Project on Family Homelessness is hosting at City Hall.

Photo by Dan Lamont, 2010

Seattle is the third stop in the exhibit’s national tour. Among the black-and-white prints from all over the country are images taken by local photojournalist Dan Lamont, who followed several Washington State families as a Seattle University Family Homelessness Journalism Fellow.

My father’s comment jolted me outside of my usual worldview. It is a

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What role does advocacy play in a housing-and-services provider's work to end homelessness? “Plenty,” they would say. Many of Building Changes’ grantee providers already have executive directors and staff who actively engage their elected officials for funding and support. But often, they’ve excluded some of their best assets: their board members.

This year, several of our staff, including Executive Director Betsy Lieberman, Deputy Director Alice Shobe, and Public Policy Specialists Seth Howard and I, had the privilege of meeting with the executive directors and board members of four provider organizations to discuss the role of advocacy among board members. We did this under the Board Advocacy Project, run by Common Ground and funded by the Campion Foundation, whose goal is to mobilize board members of social justice organizations to lend their weight and influence to advocacy.

We held trainings with Helping Hand House in Pierce County, Hopelink in east King County, Community Youth Services in Thurston County, and Housing Hope in Snohomish County.

The board members were an impressive and diverse bunch. They ranged from retired community leaders to heads of our region’s major industries to sitting elected officials. All dedicated their free time to fundraising for and managing their organizations, but most had not thought of advocacy as part of their scope of responsibilities. Their staff, meanwhile, are sophisticated advocates. Community Youth Services, for example, frequently sends their clients—youth in foster care—to testify in Olympia about how their programs prevent youth homelessness.

What our team did was to initiate the board’s discussion on how they could become a significant part of their organization’s advocacy strategy and how they could create a tailored advocacy model that served their organization’s needs.

With Washington State facing a $2 billion budget deficit and the legislature looking to make painful cuts in human services, board members are well aware that they need to have all hands on deck to ensure the long-term sustainability of their organizations. At our most recent training with Housing Hope, nearly 20 board members took time off in the middle of their work day to explore their role in securing public dollars to keep their programs running.

Things will not be easy in the near future: The economic outlook remains difficult, and legislators will be making more budget cuts next session. But as they grapple with major funding decisions, we hope to hear a new set of voices reminding them to continue supporting the work of providers that are reducing homelessness in their communities.

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