The Lived Experience Coalition (LEC) invites you and your organization to join our community organizing efforts to end homelessness! We are hosting our annual Gala Fundraiser, where we will present community awards on November 16th at 5:30 pm (the doors open at 5 pm and the event starts at 5:30 pm) at the Filipino Community Center of Seattle (5740 Martin Luther King Jr Way S, Seattle, WA 98118).

Donate here for a ticket. RSVP here.

The LEC is a diverse, multigenerational community coming together to lift each other up, heal individually and collectively, advocate for ourselves and others, and advance racial and social justice. We bring those closest to the problem into the decision-making spaces to work on real solutions to houselessness. 

Over the past 5 years, the Lived Experience Coalition has been organizing and supporting people with lived experience of homelessness to sit on boards and provide consultant services. Through advocacy efforts, the LEC has been working to end and prevent homelessness in our region and across Washington State! 

Thanks to donations from people like you and your organization, our successes included: 

• expanding and supporting lived experience on various boards, including the Continuum of Care (CoC) boards in King, Pierce, and Snohomish Counties, and the Balance of State CoC (4 of 6 CoC's in the state) to develop more effective solutions to homelessness

• launching a multi-county initiative, Survive to Thrive - the first of its kind to be led by young Black, Brown, and Indigenous men who have experienced homelessness to address the ways that racism, a lack of culturally resonant services, and housing insecurity contribute to young adult gun violence and early death.

• partnering with Tacoma for All to pass the nation's strongest tenants' rights provisions. These rights keep renters in their units and prevent them from being targeted by unjust practices (such as excessive fees) that make it more difficult to stay housed.

• winning the Steve Thomas-Ma Curtis Homeless Advocacy Award at the National Coalition for the Homeless Leadership Conference in D.C. for effective organizing in building community power, lifting up the voices of the most vulnerable in our community, and advocating for people-centered systems change in King, Pierce, Cowlitz, and Clark Counties and our work in national systems change with HUD and the Department of Veterans Affairs to design more effective policies, systems, and programs that save lives. 

If you would like to join us, there is a suggested donation of $75 per person; donate here today. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. RSVP here.

I hope you will support the work of folks with current and historical lived experiences of being unhoused in our efforts to achieve housing justice for all!