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Drop-In Update

During the 1st Quarter of FY23, SYM staff tried a new summer schedule, then adjusted again in September after responding to staff and volunteer feedback.

Drop-in Stats:

Daily Average - 16

Days Open – 37

Unique Clients – 61

Clients Checked-in – 540

Average age of Client – 23

Case Management

Long Distance Transportation Program: For young people we know well, we offer long distance transportation back to a person that the young person has deemed safe. The young person fills out an application listing the place they are hoping to get back to and the contact information of the person for which they will be staying with. There is a short interview with this contact, where SYM clarifies the nature of the relationship between them and the client, the kind of accommodations they are able to offer the young person, and expectations for rent or chores while the young person is there. After this there is a follow up interview with the client as well as a relaying of the conversation had with the destination contact. If the destination is deemed safe and appears in the young person's best interest, then a ticket is purchased.

Community is stabilizing. This quarter SYM helped relocate 3 young people through our Long Distance Transportation Program!

Jane had come up to Seattle at the beginning of the year from the south west part of Washington and was unable to find the support that she needed to sustain work and get housing. She applied for SYM's LDT program and after talking with her contact back home was able to purchase her a ticket back to a place to live inside and the promise of a job.

Post incarceration, we paid for David's bus ticket back to Eastern Washington where he had supportive people waiting to help him settle back in. We have been in contact with him and he has been living stably in the same place we sent him to.

Nick had opened warrants in a southern state, he wanted to turn himself in so that he no longer had the charges hanging over his head. After speaking with his public defender and a contact we had at a rehabilitation center, we drew from our LDT funds and bought him a ticket back to his home state where he would do jail time and seek treatment for substance abuse. We are in contact with him and tracking his progress.

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Monetary Donations and Gifts in Kind -

1st Quarter FY23

During the 1st quarter of our fiscal year 2023, SYM received monetary donations totalling

$78, 108 from many sources:

One-time individual donations - $42,112

Fundraisers - $3,783

Church Partners - $2,213

Foundations / grants / trusts - $30,000

In addition to monetary donations, SYM supporters donated meals, clothing, goods and pastries for a value of $6,274 to keep our Drop-In Center and basic needs support going!

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Snapshot of Who We Serve

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Activities and Outings

Activities help people change contexts, young people can escape street life and spend a few hours with a different focus. The context change allows space for young people to dream outside of their basic needs being met, to realize that they like climbing or hiking or bowling or whatever the activity we have may be. This quarter, our offerings were community building focused, with lots of BBQ days that invited current and past clients to engage and celebrate Seattle summer with us. Here's what activities looked like this month:

July: Rock Climbing x4, DIY Dye Day, Golden Gardens, BBQ x2

August: Rock Climbing x5, BBQ x4

September: Rock Climbing x4, Magnuson Park swim!

Our partnership with Edgeworks Climbing Gym has always allowed our young people space to build life skills while on an activity. Maybe a client starts going up a route and it's trickier than they thought it would be. There is space in this setting to pause and look for your next hold, or backtrack a bit to be able to position differently to complete the climb. Sometimes clients aren't able to make it all the way up the first time and they choose to try again. Sometimes they aren't able to make it up and don't choose to try again, and SYM staff is there for all of it - cheering people on and reminding them of their strength.

The consistency of our rock climbing activities has allowed 2 clients in particular to excel at the sport. We are looking into more technical classes as a way of helping them continue to grow and keep them engaged in the gym setting.

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Bingo and Brews

On September 27, SYM hosted the first annual Bingo and Brews at Optimism Brewery. The hope for this event was to introduce new people to our community and renew friendships. We had a great time and raised over $5,000 for SYM. Randy Brothers, a current volunteer at SYM, attended the event —

I like Optimism Brewing on Capitol Hill, I like Bingo, and I like SYM. How could you NOT have a good time at the first annual Bingo and Brews. When you leave an event like this and you're not sure whether the main goal was to raise money and awareness, or just to have a GREAT time, then I think you pulled off the perfect night! As a volunteer at SYM Drop-In, I don't usually get to see the SYM staff and volunteers outside their natural habitat at the Drop-In center or the offices at the Baker House. It was wonderful to get to spend time with this wonderful group of people in a whole different setting. Some things were similar to Drop-In, in that we did need to sign in and food was provided, but the beverage selection was much improved ;)

It was a fun evening of seeing friends old and new, spending time with board members, getting crushed in some competitive bingo, and enjoying a tasty beverage. We were also reminded of the mission of SYM, and why supporting this ministry with time, talent and resources is so important... to youth and young adults in Seattle, and to the work of God's Kingdom, in the U-District as it is in heaven.

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Summer Art Extended

At the beginning of last season I was dreaming a dream of fostering the many creative talents of our amazing clients through “SYM’s Summer of Art”! We would have tools and materials at the ready in our drop-in center, and any specific desire an individual had for a project we would walk to the art store to pick up items fit for the task! Weekly prompts and varied art supplies available would create a stir on the streets and young people would flock to 4540 15th Ave to build an artistic empire, releasing all their problems and pain into beautiful masterpieces that would then auction off for hundreds of thousands of dollars each, leading to the young Picassos’ escape from the streets as well as funding the ministry that was able to open the door for them! Lives made whole, addiction eradicated, problems solved and they all lived happily ever after!

Okay, okay… I hadn’t set my expectations that high, I promise. But I did hope to help a lot of young people cope and heal and grow through artistic expression. I assumed the whole thing would be a hit. I’d seen so many of our clients’ creativity and I figured that given the space, time, and materials, nearly all would be interested in making art- especially with the potential of showing it off and maybe even profiting financially from it! I ambitiously advertised a coming art show/auction, full of our young people’s creations! Well, thanks to so many of you generously believing in the vision, all this was a real possibility! I am so grateful for the success that our Summer of Art campaign yielded. And I am not saying that it went to waste or didn’t work out- not at all! But if you’ve spent any time in the real world of this funny little planet, you understand that things don’t always go as planned. Even more so in the realm of social services.

What I’m trying to say is that at this time there will be no such art show because SYM’s “Summer of Art” has morphed into a more permanent presence of creative arts within our program, at a pace paralleled to the interest and ability of a population that often just needs to spend the hours of drop-in letting their brains and bodies rest entirely. That being said, we did get into some pretty cool artistic ventures over the summer!

We experimented with different natural dyes!

We had several days of watercoloring!

Oil paints! Spray paint! Clay!

Some creations left the building before we got pics, some are proudly hung on our walls, and one young person fixed up his leather real creatively! It has been a joy exploring the arts with the ones who chose to participate. While quantity may have been less than initially anticipated, the quality time we’ve spent has been well worth it all. Thank you so much for your contributions to this endeavor! Check our social media to see what comes up to next, and scroll through below to see some of the stuff we’ve been up to!

Blessings on blessings on blessings,

Chelsea Araneda, Drop-In Coordinator

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Story of Impact

"Nick" came to Washington to evade legal trouble back home. That's how he got mixed up in Seattle street life and eventually found himself at our Drop-in Center. Through relationships with staff at SYM he opened his heart to Jesus and started leaving some of his self-destructive ways behind as he experienced God moving in his life and heart. Although it has been a battle the past year, we have seen this young man do exactly that- battle. For his faith, his friends, his family, and his future. He has made repeated attempts to change his life- spending time in multiple faith-based recovery programs, amongst other efforts.

Recently Nick made the bold decision to detox from opiates and return to his home state to face the charges he had been avoiding. SYM was able to buy Nick a Greyhound ticket and send him off in blessing. Through an SYM staff member's connection, a rehab facility in the area has offered to accept Nick into their program, free of charge, if the judge is willing to release him into their custody. But Nick isn't letting anything hold him down now- in fact, he's leading Bible studies in the jail!

Walking this journey with Nick has been an honor- we are so proud of him! It is such a blessing to be sharing his success, and we are eager to see where this new path takes him!