Partner Spotlight: Bonney Lake Food Bank, now known as "The Market." The Market now offers in-person shopping in a model that is aimed to provide service with dignity. Customers can come in and experience a grocery shopping trip with no limitations and have options that offer diverse foods with included recipes that appeal to customers of all ethnic backgrounds. Workforce Central, in partnership with Valeo Vocation, handles recruiting to staff the food bank's positions.

Valeo Vocation will operate the temporary emergency shelter, and work with the temporary warming center operator, Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI), to transition operations without impacting individuals sheltering at Lighthouse Activity Center. The Lighthouse Activity Center shelter site has the capacity to serve 40 individuals, and has served 50 individuals since opening.

Standing in Alling Park in Tacoma on Thursday, Parker Wilson said passersby wouldn’t know he was homeless. “For this program I think people see us, and (we) look, like actual workers,” the 29-year-old told The News Tribune in between pouring mulch around the trees in the park. Parker is part of a two-year program with nonprofit Valeo Vocation called Transitional Employment Pathway (TEP), which aims to help people experiencing homelessness build up job skills.

“When you’re in a certain place and you want to change your life, it’s hard to know how to get there,” Jensen said, referring to the time in her life when she knew she needed to stop using drugs and change her lifestyle, but needed the support of others in order to successfully do so. “It’s really just accessing resources, breaking it down, and doing it step by step; that makes it possible.”

When the coronavirus first hit Tacoma, Washington, Alliance member Valeo Vocation was quick to pivot away from its traditional staffing model and support area nonprofit agencies’ new operations and sanitation needs. As CEO Sherri Jensen puts it, “It was critical for us to figure out how to stay relevant.”

Peer through a chain link fence and you’ll spot the mattress where Tré Didier and Elise Ficalora lived for four months. “It’s crazy to see how tiny it is because our whole life was right here,” said Ficalora. The couple stayed in a two-person tent in Tacoma while struggling to get on their feet. After years of using drugs, they were determined to get clean once they found out they had a baby on the way.