Donate Now
Volunteer Now
History
In 1984, The North Snohomish County Council of Churches was founded to help local congregations address homelessness in Snohomish County. We were granted tax-exempt status in 1986 and evolved from a group with a Christian-based focus into The Interfaith Association of Snohomish County in 1992, opening our organization to be inclusive of diverse faith groups in the area.
As our services extended beyond Snohomish County, we became The Interfaith Association of Northwest Washington in 2006.
Although we are faith-based, we do not require any religious affiliation or activity for services. We benefit from volunteers and resources from many faith-based organizations; however, we do not proselytize.
Instead, our focus is to provide the tools necessary to achieve a safe, violence-free, financially stable future. Our programs leverage community resources extremely efficiently – through donations of food, supplies and volunteer labor – to meet community needs on a very modest budget.
The value of in-kind gifts in 2006 was $345,632 including 5,175 volunteer hours.
The value of in-kind gifts in our fiscal year 2007-08 was over $315,000, including over 5,400 volunteer hours - based on the attached draft in-kind report.
We opened our first homeless family shelter in 1991 as part of the Interfaith Hospitality Network. There we provided homeless families with safe housing and food through the tireless efforts of volunteers who steadfastly brought in dinners, supplies and other necessities and spent the night at the shelter. Through the years, our shelter has progressed from a volunteer effort to having a well-trained staff supported by volunteers. In 1999, we moved to our current location in a former convent owned by a local Catholic church.
Our shelter was a demonstration site for the 3-year One Childhood Lasts a Lifetime study that focused on reducing the impact of homelessness on children in Snohomish County. This experience helped us to better understand the traumas associated with homelessness. As a result, we created a children’s services advocate position in 2003 to focus on the needs of children and teens in our shelter.
We began the Community Assistance Program in 2002 as a central point of referral for churches trying to address needs of those coming to or calling their churches for assistance. This made the best use of our community’s limited resources and prevented system abuses. This program helped people stay in their homes during a financial crisis. In addition to monetary assistance – for rent, mortgage, utilities, medical prescriptions or transportation – we provided budget counseling, advocacy and referral to other service providers.
With the help of two congregations and a landlord, we began the Interfaith Housing Partnership in 2003 to expand options beyond our shelter. Its aim is to provide permanent service-enriched housing – rent subsidies coupled with case management and support services, for working families who still are unable to afford housing based on their current income.
We participate in the Snohomish County Homeless Policy Task Force and Housing Consortium of Everett and Snohomish County. Our housing-related programs, described above, all directly support Snohomish County’s 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness: Everyone At Home Now.
http://www1.co.snohomish.wa.us/Departments/Human_Services/Everyone_At_Home_Now.html
http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/article/detail/1563
Throughout our history removing homelessness has been our focus. However in years past, Interfaith also supported multicultural dialogue, Challenge Day, Woman to Woman swim, and other programs addressing diversity, hunger, and access to health care
Since 1999,the Congregational Health Program has partnered with Snohomish Health District, Providence Medical Center, and Puget Sound Parish Nurse Association to train nurses to work within their faith communities on preventative health care, ministering to the sick, grief counseling, hospice care, follow-up after hospital stays and disaster preparedness.