Next Wednesday, hundreds of volunteers will gather to serve more than 1,000 people who are experiencing homelessness.

At the Community Resource Exchange, we pull out all the stops—from hot coffee donated by Starbucks to haircuts by generous stylists and new socks from Amazon. What would otherwise take days for someone with no transportation and resources to accomplish, will take just hours—with a hot lunch from FareStart for a break.

The day is a long-time in the making—we’ll have more than 100 service providers all under one roof. Some people will find employment through Jobs Connect—and others will find a roof overhead through Streets to Home. Everyone will feel welcome.

So, what are we extra excited about?

• Bag check for the day. When you’re used to carrying everything you own on your back, Seahawks employees are a welcome sight at the bag check out front. They keep the bags secure so guests can tour the Exchange without a heavy load.
• Brand new, warm clothing. Thanks to SanMar Corporation donating 50 boxes of new activewear, guests will be feeling warm and cozy.
• Two dental vans on site. We all know debilitating dental pain can be—it’s something you want taken care of immediately! There will be two dental vans serving guests all day.
• Connection to employers. Guests can talk with hiring managers from sponsors like Amazon and UPS—some of them will be hired on the spot! Our Jobs Connect partners will also be on hand to help people overcome any hurdles in their way of finding a job.
• The possibility of a place to call home. We’ll have our 20 Streets to Home partners there meeting with people, providing flexible dollars and offering creative housing solutions.
• Intense focus on the issue. Sadly, homelessness has started to feel normalized in our community, when, in fact, it remains at a crisis level. Hear from community leaders at the Changemakers’ Rally like King County Executive Dow Constantine and Fred Rivera, Executive VP at Seattle Mariners about what’s being done around prevention and affordable housing.

If you’re signed up to volunteer, we can’t wait to see you! Want to be part of the conversation? Don’t miss the Changemakers’ Rally.

If you can’t join us but want to be part of the day and make all this work possible, you can donate here!