IKEA Furniture, New Partnerships, and More! — An Update from our Director of Housing Services
by Ebo Barton • they/he
Director of Housing Services
As we continue securing a property for our housing project, we’ve been getting prepared to open our (still theoretical) doors to our new tenants and community. We’ve been having discussions and meeting with service providers in King County as well as getting items for the units.
We’ve made a connection with the Lifelong Prevention Program. The Lifelong Prevention Program reaches out to individuals at high risk of HIV contraction and provides free access to testing, education and prevention (PrEP) methods to those living in King and Snohomish County. They work to increase awareness and greater overall well-being for individuals that are disproportionately at risk of acquiring HIV. The program provides comprehensive PrEP Navigation services and partners with clients to remove barriers in various life domains. They’ll be on-site at “The House” for the use of our tenants and greater community. We are so grateful for Lifelong for their work and for this connection to better serve our communities.
We are making connections for gender affirming care, fresh food and meal delivery, mental health counseling for individuals, relationships and groups and physical wellness. If you are a service provider in King County, we’d love to connect!
The photo pictured here is not a live view of an IKEA warehouse. It is our storage of furniture ready to be moved in. But what we love so much about minimalist, Swedish-named, affordable, furniture is putting it together (and their meatballs).
Do you and your friends look good in toolbelts? Have you built IKEA or similar furniture with ease and bragged about it later? Do you own a BILLY bookcase, a LACK table or maybe there is a POÄNG chair in your home? Create a team of folks to build furniture with us! Basic tools will be provided. Start recruiting your teammates now and get their builder skills ready for the fall! We’ll be looking for teams of folks that will help us build furniture for each of the units on our campus. If building furniture is not your bag, maybe sorting and distributing kitchen items, bed linens and bathroom accessories to each of the units might be? We’d love to have you and your crew to help support this effort.
Feeling uncomfortable about meeting live? That is a very real fear. But we have a solution for that as well. Maybe recruit your friends to find items to purchase from our Target registry that is still open. You can see the items we need at at this link.
While we are not open yet, we are taking inquiries for potential tenants to prepare to open in the Winter. Lavender Rights Project specializes in serving Black transgender, non-binary, gender diverse individuals chronically experiencing homelessness or *at-risk* of homelessness in King County. You can fill out a form HERE: https://tinyurl.com/LRPHouse.
If you have any questions about anything in this post, please feel free to reach out to me via our contact form.
Ebo Barton is a Transgender and Non-Binary, Black and Filipino, Poet, Artist and Educator. Ebo has demonstrated their commitment to equitable change in which BIPOC thrive with power and purpose with their work in the Seattle Arts Community, befriending, mentoring and collaborating with youth, working for justice in health equity, trans rights, managing programs, organizing events, and producing shows in the Pacific Northwest for the past 13 years. A leader in arts and activism, Ebo Barton is committed to creating opportunities for others to organize, heal, and rejoice.