The City of Seattle's adopted 2011-2012 budget preserves funding for direct services that meet basic human needs during the continued recession. Government revenues have dropped significantly, and the City began the 2011-2012 budget process looking at a $56 million gap for 2011. At the same time, there has been increasing demand for services in the community.

As a result of the Mayor's proposal and Council's additional actions, HSD's direct services to the community were preserved, and the final adopted budget even features some additions, including funding for the White Center Food Bank, funding to make the existing severe weather shelters permanent for six months of the year, support for ongoing emergency shelter, and funding for two domestic violence initiatives - the Safe Havens program in Kent, and a training program for homeless housing providers. HSD is taking some staff cuts or reductions and other administrative reductions. For more information on the City budget, please visit this Web site.

Click on the following links for information about meal programs and food bank hours in Seattle during the holidays.

Please call ahead to make sure that there haven't been any last-minute schedule changes due to weather or other circumstances.

The University District Youth Center hires homeless youth and young adults as interns for its Zine Project, a pre-vocational writing program funded by the Seattle Human Services Department. For eight weeks interns write poetry, personal essays, and make art to publish in Zine magazine. The Elliott Bay Book Company has recently agreed to sell Zine in its magazine section with an explanation about the Zine Project and the homeless youth it serves. Elliott Bay will charge a consignment fee of 30%, so 70% will go back to the project and the youth. The collaboration will help distribute the magazine more widely. For more information on the project, please contact Shaun McMichael, University District Youth Center, by phone at 206-536-2992, or by e-mail.

In mid-November, the Seattle Human Service Department's Executive Leadership Team met with federal Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Regional Administrator Steve Henigson and his staff, setting the stage for future collaboration in a number of areas. ACF staff at the meeting represented child welfare programs, maternal and child health, runaway and homeless youth, senior programs, Head Start and anti-human trafficking.

Pictured here are Seattle Human Services Director, Dannette R. Smith, and Steve Henigson.

Seattle youth receiving services through King County Superior Court (KCSC) had the opportunity to work in two Urban Artworks employment projects this past summer. Both the Fremont Project and the Queen Anne Project involved youth enrolled in the Seattle Youth Violence Prevention Initiative (SYVPI), and the Seattle Human Services Department contracted with KCSC to offer its SYVPI Youth Employment Program. The court-involved youth placed in the Artworks projects were able to work side by side with community volunteers, and together, they completed two very impressive murals. This was a great opportunity for youth to learn the value of teamwork and other employment skills as well as to get to know community members from diverse backgrounds. As of October 2010, more than 45 high-risk juvenile offenders had successfully participated in comprehensive education employment services through this program. The youth worked more than 3,000 hours in the community and only one youth participant re-offended.