In early October, St. Francis House hosted their first event in their new building in Seattle.
A month later, a Schemata representative sat down with Laura Young, Executive director of St. Francis House, to chat about her time as executive director and how St. Francis is settling into its new space.
How did you get involved with St. Francis House?
I started in about 2018 with the expectation to just volunteer. At the time, they needed an assistant director. So instead of volunteering, I came on board as an employee and worked in that role for a couple years before our executive director at the time Kathy Collins decided to retire. I assumed her role upon that retirement in 2020.
Shortly after assuming your role, the world went into lock down due to the pandemic. How did you handle that transition for you and what ?
It was complicated because at the same time we were undergoing a redevelopment. I initially knew I wanted to be a part of St. Francis House because of their mission, but once they explained to me the potential of a redevelopment (which was my former career) I knew the position was perfect for me. So once the pandemic came, that kind of coincided with the demolition of our former building and trying to find an interim space to operate, which was complicated because we couldn't find one that fit both needs of operation- a warehouse, and then a place to serve clients. Ultimately, we wound up finding two separate buildings – one a warehouse that held donations, and another space given to us by Pioneer Human services that allowed us to serve clients at a very reduced capacity, but still remain open.
Wow, I’m glad to hear that, in spite of the everything you were able to continue operating- even at a reduced rate. Were there any other successes that you have had as an executive director in this organization?
Well, we embarked on our very first capital campaign for this building because we never did this project to make a huge, profit. But after leveraging our former home into a home for a hundred residents and then a new home for St. Francis House, what started as a modest profit then turned into a deficit after things changed with the pandemic. Construction and product costs soared, and delays became a common thing. Soon, we realized we needed to undergo a capital campaign to make up for that deficit, It started as a pretty modest goal of $300,000 and I’m happy to say we nearly doubled that goal. Which just really proved the community support we had out there.
That’s amazing! Goes to show how much support St. Francis has from the community. Now that you that St. Francis House is settling into its new space, what do you see in the future for the organization?
Well, with time, I see it evolving in that we will have, programmatically reached out to other partner organizations, so they can have a presence here on a regular basis to further our services. Because we can only do what our model does. But oftentimes, we're left yearning to have done more so with this office. We’ve purposefully programmed this space so that we can regularly bring in mental health counselors or housing specialists, addiction counselors, people that can help with medical insurance. So, we can broaden our scope. A lot of our old model successfully transferred to this space, in part due to the deep investment and time and due diligence that Grace and Sarah with Schemata Workshop took to make sure that they understood what they were planning for.
But there's nuances that come up every day that we have to deal with, you know? It's a much more complicated facility than we had before. So, there's always something .
What are some ways that people can get involved with St. Francis House? Are there particular areas that, St. Francis House needs support and who can they reach out to, to get connected?
I'm the primary point of contact for volunteers. And there are so many ways people can help young and old people too. We always need more volunteers to help in hospitality sorting or help our clients shop in the rooms. I also encourage people who want to volunteer but can't be here physically to either make sandwiches, make snack packs, or even make small Ziploc bags full of powdered laundry detergent.
For Christmas, we're so thankful that this year we have the mezzanine space that will transform into a toy store. So, another way people can help at the holidays is by donating toys, money, or gift cards. Unless you want to help during our shopping days in the toy store, that's also really fun.
To learn more about St. Francis House, visit https://www.stfrancishouseseattle.org/
