Tag Archives: jobs

Why the Broadway Center for Youth is coming to the center of Capitol Hill

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Weinstein A+U’s rendering of the now under construction Broadway Center for Youth at Broadway and Pine

By Matt Dowell

A planned two years of construction has begun on the Broadway Center for Youth, an affordable housing and workforce development hub at Broadway and Pine. Why develop the project here near the core of the neighborhood’s entertainment district on one of the most expensive blocks in the city and in an area experiencing some of the deepest pains of the city’s ongoing challenges around addiction and mental health?

Officials at YouthCare, the nonprofit behind the center, say they want to create this resource for the young adults they serve at Broadway and Pine for the same reasons anybody might want to live here — community, culture, transit, and jobs.

YouthCare has worked for 50 years to help address youth homelessness in the Seattle area. Their Constellation Center, a part of the Broadway Center for Youth, will connect to Community Roots Housing’s new eight story building with 84 affordable homes on the busy Capitol Hill corner. Imagined as a hub for young people aged 18 to 24 who need job training, case management, housing, and mental health services, the center will expand programs already offered by YouthCare.

YouthCare CEO Degale Cooper highlighted the advantages of the well-connected location. It is close to two local colleges, employers with jobs, and public transportation. And it’s near the healthcare organizations that provide care to those under YouthCare’s wing.

Plus, it’s close to those who need help.

“More young people who use YouthCare services are moving out of the downtown corridor as more condos and businesses go up. They are moving to Cap Hill,” said Cooper. Continue reading →

You could be the $70K a year Capitol Hill ‘Neighborhood Safety Coordinator’

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The GSBA chamber of commerce is hiring for a key role established in the city’s latest round of budgeting to be part of an increased effort around public safety in Capitol Hill’s core.

The chamber, “Washington State’s LGBTQ+ and allied chamber of commerce,” has posted its call for applicants for a new full-time Neighborhood Safety Coordinator for Capitol Hill.

“The Neighborhood Safety Coordinator (NSC) will work with the Capitol Hill business community and be responsible for building relationships, outreach, coordination with key city departments and communication to the community regarding safety issues,” the organization says. Continue reading →

On Capitol Hill, one in five — and in the CD, one in four — filed for unemployment in months since COVID-19 closures set in

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Merchants board their windows for the impending COVID-19 zombie apocalypse

Since the start of widespread closures of businesses across Capitol Hill, the Central District, Seattle, and the state to mitigate COVID-19, thousands have been temporarily or permanently laid off. With rising COVID-19 numbers across King County and the halting of phased reopening, economic recovery remains uncertain.

In the Capitol Hill neighborhood, more than one out of five working age adults filed an unemployment claim over this spring and early summer, and in the Central District the number is even higher with more than one in four working age adults filing for unemployment. Continue reading →

COVID-19 crisis forces Seattle U to cut pay and furlough staffers

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Seattle University, one of the Capitol Hill area’s largest employers, will furlough 79 staffers and begin “mandatory and voluntary pay reductions of up to 20%” due to the economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis, the Seattle Times reports.

In a letter to faculty and staff, Seattle University President Stephen Sundborg said the private school’s Cabinet and deans will take mandatory pay reductions of 10%, and will be asked to consider voluntary reductions of up to 20%. Upper-level administrators have been asked to take a voluntary reduction of 5 to 20%, and full-time faculty “have been invited to consider a voluntary reduction of 5 to 10%,” Sundborg wrote.

Seattle U says it has lost $7 million due to the costs of remote instruction and closing its residence halls, and is planning a $9.1 million budget cut for the next fiscal year.

Seattle Central and its public Seattle community college system, has also transitioned to remote learning. The colleges have not announced furloughs or cuts at this time. CHS reported on Seattle Central’s struggles to keep up with changes brought on by the crisis in the early stages of the outbreak.

Record levels of unemployment claims are being filed in Washington. The federal CARES act has expanded eligibility for unemployment assistance to include the self-employed, increased the weekly benefit amount by $600, and extended the time available for unemployment assistance by 13 weeks.

Seattle U employs more than 500 full-time and another 200 or so part-time faculty and maintains an enrollment around 8,000 students. Most experts predict enrollment at private colleges will be hard hit by the long term economic impact of the crisis.

Washington unemployment claims ‘highest on record’

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Washington totals have reached nearly 600,000 in need of unemployment benefits, the state reports:

During the week of April 5-11, there were 143,241 initial and 585,983 total claims for unemployment benefits, according to the Employment Security Department (ESD). While initial claims declined 16% from the previous week, it was still the third highest weekly number on record and five times more claims than the peak week during the Great Recession. Total weekly claims are now the highest on record.

Washington’s Employment Security Department says it paid out $125.9 million to 265,798 unemployed workers the week of April 5th, a $45.6 million increase from the previous week. “Since the start of COVID-19 job losses the week ending March 7th, the department has paid out nearly $272 million in benefits to Washingtonians,” the update reads. Continue reading →

With goal of hiring at least half of workers from the neighborhood, incoming Central District PCC to hold community meetings, job fairs

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To help respond to community hopes, requests, and suggestions, the incoming PCC grocery store at 23rd and Union is planning to hold two public meetings later this month. Meanwhile, after company officials pledged to try to hire about half of the new store’s staff from the surrounding area, PCC has also announced an upcoming job fair.

CHS broke the news last week that the Seattle cooperative grocery chain was set to replace financially troubled New Seasons in a supermarket space waiting for its new tenant on the northwest corner of 23rd and Union. Continue reading →

Rising anxiety has made mental health a Capitol Hill area growth industry

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https://www.instagram.com/p/BPlDoauBsis/?taken-by=u_isforurban

Newly opened businesses in the area around Capitol Hill and the Central District might give an indication of one of the growing needs of a booming population.

Mental health care providers have brought their practices to the area to meet the exceeding demand for centrally located counseling services. In 2017, CHS noticed that the City of Seattle recorded counseling offices to be the second highest number of new businesses in District 3.

“I was busy immediately and had as many referrals I could take from the get go,” said psychotherapist Lisa Hake, LMHC GMHS, who moved her practice from Bellevue to Madrona last year.

To be a licensed mental health care practitioner, providers must have a minimum education of masters degree and meet Washington’s licensing requirements. Reported lowered barriers to access and decreased stigmatization has led to overall industry growth, while the rise in business locally is attributed by many we spoke with to a widespread increase of anxiety, spurred by our current socioeconomic and political landscape. “You can’t say to people that this is a safe place anymore, the world. It really wasn’t before, but it’s obvious now that it’s no longer true,” said Jason Franklin, LMHC in Madison Valley. Franklin primarily works with intersectionality. Continue reading →

Seattle Parks hosts LGBTQ youth job fair on Capitol Hill

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Screen Shot 2017-03-28 at 10.04.52 AMHey kids! Get a job! A bunch of Capitol Hill and nearby businesses and organizations will be at 19th Ave’s Miller Community Center this weekend for a job fair designed for LGBTQ youth… and their friends.

https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/event/lgbtq-and-allies-teenyouth-job-fair-2017/

The LGBTQ and Allies Teen/Youth Job Fair 2017 is part of the Seattle Parks Teens program and will feature “over 24 employers and organizations with lots of jobs, stipend opportunities, and internships for youth ages 14 – 24,” the department says.

Bring your resume and a confident but friendly handshake. None of this Donald Trump power play stuff, please.

Biggest winner in District 3 election race? The Career Bridge jobs program

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(Image: The Urban League)

(Image: The Urban League)

A jobs program created to help African Americans in Seattle with criminal backgrounds and other “barriers to employment” find work that became a hot button issue during the election may have emerged as the biggest winner of the race for District 3.

Over the course of last year’s election season, funding for Career Bridge — a workforce re-entry program managed by the Urban League that connects men of color with barriers to employment (like criminal records or homelessness) to jobs and social services — was championed by the final two contenders for the District 3 seat: socialist incumbent Kshama Sawant and Urban League CEO Pamela Banks. During a September press conference on gun violence in Seattle, Banks said Sawant wasn’t prioritizing the issue and promoted her public safety program which included doubling the funding for Career Bridge. Sawant later praised the program at a District 3 candidates debate and, a few months later during the city council’s haggling over the 2016 budget, lawmakers voted to increase its funding.

Mayor Ed Murray’s original 2016 budget proposal didn’t include any additional money for the program, so council member Sawant — fresh from re-election — publicly went to bat for doubling the city’s allocation from the original $400,000 to $800,000. Some behind-the-scenes haggling went down between Sawant, former budget committee chair and council member Nick Licata, and Tim Burgess, who wanted $200,000 instead, telling CHS that the Urban League wasn’t in a position to effectively spend $400,000 in 2016 alone. Banks said Sawant’s office had not contacted the Urban League about her proposed $400,000 amendment. Licata negotiated a compromise, opting for Burgess’s $200,000 as well as an additional $200,000 for the City Human Services Department to allocate for general jobs programs — money which the Urban League can apply for. All-in-all, it was a win for Career Bridge.

Banks partially attributes the council’s support for the program to the attention Career Bridge got on the campaign trail. “It was a campaign issue so it was pretty darn easy [to get more funding],” Banks told CHS. “They supported it more because of the campaign.”

But while more funding for Career Bridge wasn’t exactly a hard sell for last year’s council, the program has faced cautious skepticism from city lawmakers over the course of its budding three-year lifetime.

The program was conceived under the wing of former Mayor Mike McGinn, who, after a spike in gun violence in 2012 and meetings with organizations, advocates such as the Black Prisoners Caucus and Village of Hope, and leaders in the African American community, allocated $210,000 in the 2013 city budget for a week-long pilot of Career Bridge with fifty participants to be jointly managed by City’s Office of Economic Development and the Human Services Department. An audit of the program was also ordered along with the initial funding, which continued its review through 2014.  In the spring of 2014 management of the program was transferred to the Urban League, and a hike in funding to $400,000. Then McGinn lost his reelection bid to Ed Murray in the end of 2014, ushering a key anchor for the program out of City Hall.

“After McGinn lost, I had to reach out [to the Murray administration] and say don’t kill this,” said Banks. “There was some hesitancy [on the old city council]. That’s the reason the audit was done.”

But the audit report came back in the summer of 2015 with a glowing review of the pilot, with 81% of the initial batch of participants from 2013 and 2014 finding employment after graduation of the brief course. More specific and recent numbers follow the same trend. Continue reading →

Now hiring: A new de facto Mayor of Capitol Hill

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The mayor with the mayor (Image: CHS)

The mayor with the mayor (Image: CHS)

Michael Wells is barely out the door but it’s time to start seeking his replacement to lead the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce — a role that basically makes you the Mayor of Capitol Hill:

The Executive Director will lead the development, management, and execution of all Chamber programs and projects including and especially the creation of a new Business Improvement Area (BIA). This includes managing all staff, budgets, and contracts for the organization. The Board of Directors will provide strategic leadership in identifying the Capitol Hill community priorities and oversight of the finances of the organization. The Executive Director must work effectively with city leaders, multiple city departments, and local business & community leaders.

That whole “work effectively” part leaves CHS out. Continue reading →