News & Publications
For media-related inquiries, please contact Rae-Lynn Barden, Communications and Marketing Director, rbarden@voaspokane.org.
Press Coverage
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February 26, 2021
Annual ‘Mardi Bras’ event helps collect basic supplies for homeless women in Spokane
KXLY
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February 15, 2019Funding secured for new women's shelter in downtown Spokane
KXLY
SPOKANE, Wash. - Women fleeing abusive relationships, struggling with addiction or mental illness have found safety for 20 years inside Hope House -- a shelter operated by Volunteers of America.
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May 4, 2019Bursting at the seams: Crosswalk Teen shelter plans move to new facility, secures $1 million in first round of funding
The Spokesman-Review
Inside Crosswalk Teen Shelter – Spokane’s oldest emergency youth shelter – there’s a common area on the first floor no bigger than a school lunch room. It’s a space of all trades, jack of none: eat, learn, make friends, play and even sleep. Flanked by rows of hideaway beds that look like large white wardrobes, when the sun goes down, so too do the metal furniture handles near the top, revealing 18 hideaway beds. “We’re just bursting at the seams,” said Fawn Schott, president and CEO of Volunteers of America, which runs the shelter. “We have no more space.”
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June 29, 2019Spokane to lose 100 shelter beds for women, children and families in July
The Spokesman-Review
The city had $30 million to spend on homeless and housing programs. Catholic Charities, Open Doors and Volunteers of America’s Crosswalk teen shelter were three of 24 programs that received less funding than they had previously. Twenty-one other programs received the same level of funding or more for homeless services.
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May 1, 2015Agencies collaborate to build housing for chronically homeless
The Fig Tree
With federal and state tax credit project support for Housing First for chronically homeless people, Catholic Charities of Spokane and Volunteers of America of the Inland Northwest are collaborating to build two neighboring 50-unit permanent supportive housing facilities on the 200 block of East Second Ave. in Spokane...
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April 12, 2015Housing First approach puts stable shelter at top of the list
The Spokesman-Review
Spokane is about to undergo a major expansion of Housing First projects. Catholic Charities will break ground on another 50-unit housing project this spring – right next door to a similar project by Volunteers of America. And those are just the first of several projects... “Our goal is by 2019 we will have a unit for every chronically homeless person in Spokane.”...
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March 11, 2015Spokane conference addresses difficult topic of suicide
The Spokesman-Reveiw
Jenny Shea, center, a volunteer at Volunteers of America, listens to a panel discussion about preventing suicide among young people Tuesday at Gonzaga University. Shea works with older teens in the foster care system. The daylong conference included discussions about effective programs, multistate coordination and counseling techniques...
Stories of Hope
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March 15, 2015Billy uses skateboards to fight homelessness
A lot of the force behind Crosswalk is volunteer-driven. Many of those volunteers are actually kids who used to go to Crosswalk too. One of those kids grew up to be a man who tries to be as involved in helping out the community as much as possible...
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June 5, 2014Josie proves them wrong: I won't be "just another homeless former-foster kid"
Former foster youth, Josie, was blindsided by suddenly becoming homeless during her first year of college. Most kids her age would have given up under the pressure. But not Josie: she got a job, and then another, and another...
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May 16, 2014Victoria shatters stereotypes by crunching data
Victoria built a career crunching data at luxury hotels all over the world and using it to ways to improve their success. Now she is using her expertise to help Volunteers of America. “There is a story to tell behind the data,” she says. “And to be able to translate it to show the success of...
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