Press Coverage

When Spokane’s Crosswalk teen shelter hired behavioral health counselor Kaitlyn Lee last year with money from a new state grant, part of her job was to shoot pool in the common room with the teenagers. Hanging around, eating lunch with the residents, or simply making herself available by sitting at the front desk is an important part of the job of a counselor...

Each year in Washington state, about 1,800 young adults find themselves unstably housed within a year of leaving a publicly funded system such as foster care or a criminal justice facility...

Employees at Volunteers of America are traversing the area this week dropping off gift bags with book-themed cupcakes to say thank you to their volunteers who usually staff the book tables at the Christmas Bureau.

Spokane County is one of four counties participating in Washington state’s Anchor Community Initiative, designed to help young people like Elsa.

Hope House still needs more than a few finishing touches, but Volunteers of America leaders can begin to see the emergency shelter as a future home, for more than 100 women who are homeless and the staff who will serve them.

Spokane, Wash. - Spokane comes together as a community to help out with this first ever Volunteerfest.

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.

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.”

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.

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...

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.”...

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...

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...

A local program is having a hard time finding homeless veterans who need a helping hand. Supportive Services for Veteran Families, or SSVF, came to Spokane in October 2013 through the Goodwill, Volunteers of America and Transitions in this program...

"I've been homeless," Stevenson said, "and agencies here in Spokane helped me get off the streets. This is my way of paying it forward." Stevenson said all the food he gets will be given to the Martin Lither King Community Center, Volunteers of America, and Healthcare for Homeless Veterans...

To help homeless youth overcome common barriers to earning their degrees, Volunteers of America of Eastern Washington & Northern Idaho awards college scholarships with an unusual level of flexiblity....

For around 4 hours, 5 days a week, Meg Tapiz and her team of outreach workers hit the streets of Spokane. "This is so real" Tapiz says. She's referring to the issue of homeless kids out on the streets. "Some people assume that they are troubled high school kids and they don't realize that no, they are actually sleeping in the camp under the Monroe bridge."...

Work Ready is a Crosswalk of North Idaho program where youth are given the opportunity to experience a positive work environment with supportive mentors. "We are building a bridge that walks them across to becoming a successful employee in a productive workforce," said Punit Dave, employment advocate and community liaison for the program...

On Tuesday, that house received a makeover thanks to the Home Depot Foundation. Part of its Celebration of Service, volunteers from Home Depot stores across the country are renovating 1,000 homes between Sept. 11 and Veterans …

Approximately 550 volunteers from the Spokane Stake donated time refurbishing and cleaning at local social service nonprofits--including Crosswalk and Hope House--on Sept. 13 as part of the National Day of Service. In addition to the work, volunteers visited with residents at the various sites...

Volunteers of America teamed up with Home Depot to help renovate a house that serves homeless veterans and after three years, $39,000 and over 200 volunteers they finally added the finishing touches Wednesday. VOA uses the house for their program Rest and Recoup...

We've been told by business leaders and politicians that street kids deter commerce and pose a public nuisance. These kids, we're told, have rejected our notions of community and scoffed at our laws. Here's an alternate theory: Street kids live outside our community because we have never invited them in...

Despite crime statistics that showed it wasn't any more dangerous than in previous years, downtown's reputation took a beating last summer. After public pressure about crime and loitering young adults in downtown, Mayor David Condon formed a task force to address the issue by the time temperatures began to warm this year...

When Bridget Cannon first began volunteering with Spokane’s Crosswalk teen shelter of Volunteers of America 20 years ago, she felt intimidated by the street kids and runaways with weird piercings, "wackadoodle" hair and bad attitudes...

It's easy to get caught up in the hustle and warm nostalgia of Christmastime, forgetting to look past the mall Santas and fake greenery to the underlying meaning of the season — giving to those who have so little. Instead of stressing over how to budget all the big-ticket items for everyone on your list, consider a gift to a nonprofit...

One afternoon recently, eight homeless teens from the Crosswalk shelter made about 300 sack lunches with sandwiches, chips, an apple and cookies. They took the sandwiches to hand out to people at the bus plaza...

The winter needs of our community go beyond the snow and ice accumulation on our streets; we’re also deeply concerned about the needs of homeless people who may not have a way to get warm during extreme winter weather...

Crosswalk North Idaho has lost an annual $101,000 federal grant which will seriously reduce its services to area youths. Now the number of days of operation of the drop-in center will be cut back and a 24-hour emergency shelter program for youths will be eliminated...

In 1980, a terrified 18-year-old named Jill Staples gave birth to a little girl she named Erin. And she had no idea what to do. "I didn't know how it was going to work out. I didn't know how I was going to support her," Staples says. "I didn't know how in the world I was going to do this with a baby."...

More children in Spokane County are being abused and neglected. But some families have managed to break the cycle...

Home Depot has committed more than $80-million and volunteer time from its workers to repair housing for veterans including two homes in Spokane...

Community Roots, a program of Kootenai Environmental Alliance, is partnering with NIC to build the garden on a neglected vacant lot on the school's property. What's considered a "brown field" now is being transformed into what will be called the "Gathering Garden." The garden site is on the east side of Hubbard Street, near the roundabout at College Drive...

Brandi Smitherman wanted to change the fate of the many teens she comes to know at Crosswalk North Idaho. Smitherman, the director of the Coeur d'Alene-based outreach program and drop-in center for at-risk youth, had grown tired of watching kids with potential turn 18, age out of the program formerly known as Project Safe Place, and have no support, resources or skills to help them find employment and become financially independent...

Lisa Bliss walks on stage with a cart adorned with the local non-profits logo for Crosswalk. It looks like something you'd attach to the back of a bicycle for a long trip. She used it for a long trip, but it wasn't attached to a bicycle. She dragged the cart all the way to the summit of Mount Whitney in California, the highest summit in the United States...

The City of Spokane has activated its Homeless Warming Center program due to cold weather. The centers are not set up for lodging but provide shelter for the homeless for brief intervals during extreme cold weather...

In July, Bliss became the first woman and second person ever to cross Death Valley and ascend Mount Whitney completely self-supported. Bliss had something to prove – to herself and to the teens at Crosswalk. Through her run, Bliss raised $10,000 for Crosswalk’s GED fund...

For more than a decade, Spokane’s political leaders have said they shared the goal of providing 1 percent of the city’s budget to social service agencies. For more than a decade, the city hasn’t met that goal. On Tuesday, the Spokane City Council allocated $898,000 of its $164 million 2012 general fund budget to 22 nonprofit agencies...

For 10 days each December, Marilee Roloff stands behind the neat stacks of children’s books at the Christmas Bureau, helping to give them away...

More weight than ever is being put on the region’s safety net, and that net shows signs of fraying. Hope House, Spokane’s only shelter for single women, had to manage with $40,000, or about 10 percent, less this year...

Justin Vinge, Josephine Davis and Mariah Hottell have a lot in common. These Spokane Falls Community College students are former foster youth who are proving their detractors wrong...

Behind the event this year, as every year, are two of Spokane’s social services stalwarts: Mary Ann Murphy, executive director of Partners with Families and Children: Spokane; and Marilee Roloff, president and CEO of the regional chapter of Volunteers of America...

Josh Randall, a lanky 20-year-old with brown hair and a wispy beard, is surrounded by dropouts. He’s sitting at a table in a noisy room at Crosswalk, a teen shelter in downtown Spokane that doubles as a school for kids pursuing their GEDs...

Teacher Ken Jernberg is unflappable among the chaos at Crosswalk, a Spokane teen homeless shelter. One day last week, a few unfocused teens flitted around the shelter’s school rooms while other students bombarded Jernberg with questions or requests...

For teens aging out of the foster care system, turning 18 can be frightening. Bridget Cannon, director of youth services at Volunteers of America, said, “Statistically, the majority end up homeless.”..

As part of a humanitarian service project, members of the Liberty Lake Ward in the Spokane Valley Stake donated clothing, quilts and hygiene items to Hope House, a shelter for homeless women downtown Spokane...

Tana Carosella, 67, stood ready behind stacks of books at the Christmas Bureau, greeting parents and asking their children’s ages and interests...

Lovable “Knuffle Bunny” was drying out on a tabletop, next to the wavy and waterlogged pages of “Gilbert the Great” and “The Ants Go Marching.” Yet Marilee Roloff remained surprisingly sanguine...

Homeless, on the streets and down but not out, Rose found Crosswalk, which helped her get back on her feet and get her GED with honors at 21. But, life is still hard for Rose…

Volunteers of America’s Thrift Store is back in business after the roof of its former store on North Atlantic collapsed under the weight of snow in the winter of 2009. It has reopened in a new location at 6206 E. Trent Ave. in Spokane Valley…

Auctashia has been able to build a life for herself and one-year-old Athaelya. She now lives in Aston-Bleck Apartments, transitional housing for young moms run by Volunteers of America. Moms get schooling and work while they stay there.

I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth, although until quite recently I had never realized it. I was raised to believe that everyone has an equal playing field and if you work hard you can achieve anything. I wish that were true. A year ago I decided to start volunteering at a homeless shelter in downtown Spokane…

Because of support services Volunteers of America (VOA) provides in its Permanent Supportive Housing Program, Dale Briese finds landlords responsive to renting one-bedroom apartments to chronically homeless and disabled people through the program he manages…