Speak Up! Speak Out!

Social Services in Skagit County

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Project Homeless Connect - August 31, 2011

Felicia Minto-Rodman, Outreach Coordinator for the Mount Vernon YMCA Oasis Teen Center, and Quinn Slayton, Volunteer Program Manager for the Skagit County Community Action Agency - and volunteer coordinator for the Skagit County Project Homeless Connect are the guests. Dave McConnell talks with them about the project, what it is, how it works, and why it is needed in Skagit County.

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No Place for Domestic Violence in Our Communities - October 6, 2010

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and SUSO speaks with Colleen Connor and Courtney Long, from Skagit Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Services, about the support services they offer and how the community can help victims of domestic violence to heal - including October's Awareness campaign: Purple Light Nights, the candle light vigil on October 23rd, and Shatter the Silence, a free monthly inter-generational gathering at the Skagit Food Co-op that explores how to create healthy communities.

For more information:
http://www.purplelightnights.org
http://skagitfoodcoop.wordpress.com/2010/09/12/fallworkshops/
http://www.skagitdvsas.org/

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Project Homeless Connect - August 18, 2010

Project Homeless Connect is a one day event whose purpose is to provide a wide array of services to homeless people in Skagit County, while at the same time calling on the community to collectively address the diverse problems of this growing population. Service providers will gather on the campus of Skagit Valley College on Sept. 1, 2010, to meet as many of the needs of the homeless as possible in one day, in a friendly environment. In this show, Thad Allen, Vicky Young and Quinn Slayton, steering committee members of Project Homeless Connect, talk about the event and the greater issue of homelessness.
For information or to volunteer, call (360) 416-7585 and ask for Quinn.

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The National Alliance on Mental Illness in Skagit - February 10, 2010

NAMI - Skagit is a local chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. In this show, four local NAMI members join me to talk about the organization which is such a important part of their loves. Mike Ellis, president of NAMI - Skagit; Marti Wall, longtime member and board member of NAMI - Skagit; Beth Gould, involved in NAMI on both a local and national level; and Brandon Nevi, a NAMI member who participates and leads some of the local programs, discuss how and why NAMI developed in our community, what programs it offers and who benefits from this all-volunteer effort.

Important contact numbers for help with mental illness:
Crisis Line: 1-800-584-3578 This line is staffed by mental health professionals with a masters degree or better.
County Mental Health Services - Mental Health Program Director, Rebecca Clark: 360-419-3363
Marti Wall: NAMI board member and organizer for Family-to-Family, and NAMI Basics courses: 360-770-5666

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Low Income Needs in Skagit County - January 27, 2010

Skagit County is a leader in Washington State in studying the needs of it's low income population. Skagit County Community Action Agency commissions this study every 4 years in an effort to direct program development and collect data that helps to secure funding. In today's program, Karen Parnell, Deputy Director for SCCAA and Greg Winter, a consultant with Cornerstone Strategies in Bellingham discuss the recently completed Low Income Needs Assessment for 2009. Their findings shed light onto how the current recession is affecting the most vulnerable in our community and identify stresses that might be predicted from budget cuts.

Visit http://www.skagitcap.org

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Agricultural Skagit County, WA & economic impact on Social Services - December 16, 2009

We've heard and read about the cuts in county government, but now listen as Peter Browning, Skagit Co Health Dept Director and Bill Henkel, Exec Director of Skagit Co Community Action Agency give us their perspective on the impact of the bad economic times on folk in Skagit County. And there is a silver lining.

Skagit County Community Action Agency - http://www.skagitcap.org Stacy Miller - 360 416-7585, Housing Manager, SC Community Action Agency

Skagit County Health Dept
Project Homeless Connect

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Mental Illness in Skagit County - December 09, 2009

This show is a tribute to Sue Boyle, long time advocate for the mentally ill, who recently passed away. We speak with Mike Ellis and Marti Wall from NAMI Skagit - That's the local chapter of the National Alliance for Mental Illness - about efforts in Skagit County to to provide services for people with mental illness. In the second half of the show Brandon Nevi, a young man with mental illness, talks about his own story. Margo Boyle, Sue's daughter; and Nancy Hoffman, friend and neighbor of Sue and Margo, tell stories about a remarkable woman who would stop at little to help this largely neglected population.

Visit http://www.namiskagit.org for more information. We will do a sequel to this show in early 2010.

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Food Sovereignty - May 20, 2009
Speak Up Speak Out radio looks at Food Sovereignty this week: the right of peoples to nutritious, sustainably grown food, and the right of farmers and agricultural workers to control the land they work and the policies that impact them. We talk with Betty Carteret from Skagit Beat the Heat's Anacortes Community Garden project, Jayne Uerling, owner of Eco Com, a quadruple bottom line company doing sustainable landscaping and gardening, and Callie Martin, Skagit County's Waste Reduction and Recycling Educator, who works with the Skagit County Climate Action and Sustainability Taskforce.

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Skagit County Food Bank - December 3, 2008
Ariel Stein and Justin Kelly, who work with the Food Banks in Skagit County describe the needs and the possibilities for those in the county who are living on the financial edge.

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Affordable Housing and Homelessness - April 23, 2008
Stacy Miller, Housing Manager at Skagit County Community Action Agency, and Brian Paxton, Skagit County Superior Court Commissioner, share their perspectives on "Who are the Homeless, and those struggling with affordable housing." They advocate a holistic, comprehensive approach to working with people in these circumstances as the best, and in the long run, cheapest, way to achieve long term success.

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Community Land Trust: Affordable Housing - March 26, 2008
Kari Russom of Skagit County Community Action Agency describes Community Land Trusts as an alternative model of property ownership that allows people in certain lower to medium income brackets to own their own homes, who would not otherwise be able to do so. She talks about recent early efforts in Skagit County to establish such a Community Land Trust.

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