Program areas at ROOTS Young Adult Shelter
The Roots Young Adult Shelter opened in 1999 because there was an unmet need for Shelter specifically for Young people between 18 and 25, as this population is too old for youth shelters but is uncomfortable in programs that serve older adults. This 45-bed Shelter provides a safe, dry place to sleep, hot meals, hygiene facilities, and access to case management services for our guests 7 nights a week. Roots provided 12,935 bed nights to 469 unduplicated guests in 2023 and served approximately 29,673 meals during that period. Volunteers donated approximately 12,920 hours of their time to help provide these services.
Friday feast is our weekly meal program and is the only all-ages dinner in the area. This program serves an average of 100-140 meals each week and celebrated its 27th anniversary of uninterrupted weekly operations in april 2023. Friday feast served approximately 7500 meals to approximately 250 unduplicated guests in 2023, and volunteers donated approximately 2840 hours of their time to help provide these services.
Roots initially contracted with outside providers to provide case management, and we subsequently began directly providing these services as an agency for the first time in may of 2017. In addition, we ran a weekly dropin before covid, adding dropin services daily during covid, and still offer a weekly art group after our Shelter program. We also offered a writing group in 2022 that we hope to bring back when staffing permits. Our case management staff assisted guests in 2023 and helped with numerous goals large and small that ranged from replacing lost id cards to finding permanent housing.
Public engagement: in addition to providing critical direct services, Roots' founding vision includes a dedication to the development of a stable and comprehensive network of youth and Young Adult services as well as the need for systems change, both in the university district and throughout the city of seattle, the broader region and society at large. To this end, Roots works to bring together diverse groups and to build the partnerships that are required to address homelessness and poverty in a longterm manner, providing leadership in several issues of regionwide advocacy efforts (including the seattle king county coalition on homelessness, the committee to end homelessness, youth and Young Adult committee, the university district service providers alliance, and the university district).