Kids helping kids succeed
Crystal has eight-year-old triplets. “Which is an adventure.”
Crystal’s family—her three triplets, Noah and Carter and Simone, and her husband, Dominic—volunteered for Project Cool for the first time this year.
Crystal knew about the Coalition thanks to her work. She’s an Endowed Associate Professor at the UW’s Evans School of Public Policy & Governance.
Now that their children are old enough, Crystal and her husband were looking for kid-friendly volunteer opportunities to get their whole family engaged with their community. They adopted a street about a year ago and do neighborhood cleanups every month or so.
She heard about Project Cool from a friend who has been trying to find ways for people to engage and educate themselves, “and do what we can” in this time of federal upheavals, Crystal explained.
Project Cool was a great opportunity for their family, Crystal said. She talked to her kids about who gets the backpacks and why they need them. She explained that they were going to be helping other kids. “Kids that are like them.”
Homelessness has come up with her children before, Crystal said. “Just being out in the world,” she said, “we all see that a lot.” When people were living in tents next to the triplets’ preschool, Crystal and Dominic would talk to them about what they
saw on their walk to school. One of the kids thought the people were camping.
Crystal and her husband explained: “It’s not what it’s like when we go camping.”
For Crystal and her husband, Project Cool was a chance to say to their children: “This is a small thing that we can do to help in our community because we can’t help everyone. We can’t fix this problem on our own, but this is a way that we can help.”
Crystal felt good about being in a room full of people that all just want to do something to help. “It helps a lot right now because these are hard, hard times,” she said.
Crystal describes Project Cool as a massive effort.
“Just seeing the scale at which something like that could be pulled off was pretty impressive,” Crystal said.
This is the first year since COVID we’ve been able to fill backpacks in person. The Coalition buys supplies in bulk and gets donations—a big thank you to Scholastic and ARCORA for donating books and dental kits—and then we ask our community to help us fill the backpacks one by one.
This year, Project Cool served 1,804 students from across 21 housing and shelter programs in King County. Staff and around 80 volunteers logged 474 hours over six days to fill backpacks with new school supplies so that students experiencing homelessness could feel confident and excited about the start of a new school year.
After talking about their Project Cool experience as a family, Crystal’s confident her kids understand the concept of taking small actions to help other people.
“I think doing something really tangible was exciting to them too,” she said. They loved seeing the big stack of backpacks when they got done for the day.
“They had a really great time,” she said. “So, we were happy.”
Strength through education: How our free trainings demystify key public benefit programs
Through our free trainings on state and public benefits and programs, the Coalition supports people who work daily to provide our community members with safe homes, welcoming shelter, healthy food, hot showers, access to healthcare, transportation, and other essentials.
These trainings—open to anyone who wishes to attend—are designed for people who work directly with people experiencing homelessness and people who live on extremely low or no income.
Our most recent trainings covered how to help eligible people access and maintain the most complex and important state
and federal programs designed for people who are elderly and/or living with disabilities. These programs make a huge difference in a person’s ability to pay rent and contribute to shared household expenses.
People experiencing homelessness and the staff who work with them must learn to navigate these programs, but it is nearly impossible to do so alone. It’s hard enough for people with homes to gather and submit necessary documentation, appeal routine denials, resubmit applications, and not lose trust in the system. Imagine what is involved for a person without a dry place to store their paperwork, no easy access to phone or internet, and a host of more urgent immediate needs to meet.
Because there are so few other opportunities for people to learn these ever-changing and complicated programs, our free trainings are well attended by a wide range of people on the frontlines of human services and healthcare. Many are from outside King County and include volunteers, people new to the field, and people with many years of experience who want to understand the latest changes.
Our training content is developed in partnership with experienced attorneys and other knowledgeable professionals who understand the complexities of state and federal benefits and how poverty, disability, lack of stability, distrust in government systems, and the legacies of racism combine to make it extra difficult—and extra important—for human services staff to be well-informed and effective advocates for their clients.
Participants leave our trainings with basic and nuanced information, resources, and a direct connection to experts they can consult with on specific challenges they encounter while helping people secure and maintain benefits.
Our vote, our voice, our commitment to increasing civic engagement
This year, our Coalition registered 112 eligible voters and educated 596 people on how to be a voter in Washington state without a permanent home address.
We hosted a total of 49 voter education and registration events starting in May, to prepare eligible voters for the primary, and continuing through General Election Day in November.
These events bring voter registration to places people receive shelter, care, and services, like Compass Day Center, the Ballard Food Bank, Tent City 3 and 4, and public libraries in Tukwila, Burien, and downtown Seattle. We visited 26 different sites, some multiple times!
To help us increase civic engagement among marginalized communities, we hosted three trainings this summer and fall to prepare new Voting Rights Volunteers for this work. These volunteers are committed to remaining nonpartisan, are willing to travel all across King County, and are genuinely excited about getting their neighbors involved with our democracy.
One of our Voting Rights Volunteers shared this story from their experience at a local food bank: “There was a gentleman today who had a negative past experience trying to register. He was misinformed and told that he couldn’t vote because he was homeless. I let him know he could vote and he was really excited to register. He felt shamed in the past experience. So glad he felt seen today!”
All eligible voters have the right to participate in our democracy regardless of their housing or income status. We are grateful to provide an avenue for disenfranchised voters to engage and use their voice.
Thank you to everyone who helps us bring voter education and registration to our community, from our volunteers to our partner sites to our donors that make this work possible.
To find out about our 2026 voting rights work or to join our league of nonpartisan volunteers, email us at vote[at]homelessinfo[.]org.
Join us for Housing and Homelessness Advocacy Day 2026
Housing and Homelessness Advocacy Day is a powerful event hosted by the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance that brings constituents to Olympia to share their stories with their state lawmakers. It’s advocacy and community made tangible, and it’s a lot of fun!
Our Nancy Amidei Advocacy Express bus brings King County residents—people living unhoused, renters, homeowners, and people living in supportive housing—to join with more than 700 other housing justice allies from across the state for this lobby day. We’d love to have you join us in Olympia, either on the Advocacy Express or in your own caravan, to meet your neighbors and feel the power of our common purpose.
You can advocate for bills and state budget priorities that support shelter, affordable homes, and assistance for people facing housing instability throughout the entire legislative session and from wherever you are. Watch our Dec 11 Legislative Preview meeting to hear our priorities and learn how to be an effective advocate during this crucial 60-day session:
Help us gas up the Advocacy Express!
Donate today to help us raise $4,000 to cover the cost of the Advocacy Express. Your donation supports the bus rental, snacks and supplies for the ride, and gives people who would otherwise be unable to participate a chance to take part in Housing and Homelessness Advocacy Day.