Take the Next Step is...
a grass-roots, faith-based, non-profit organization. Through our Community Resource Center and our many programs we serve homeless and low income residents throughout the Skykomish River Valley in East Snohomish County.
Our Mission...
is to offer Friendship, Help, and Hope to our neighbors in need...
..our neighbors of all ages, backgrounds and situations - at risk children, homeless and street involved youth and adults, teen parents, low income and homeless families, veterans, the elderly, and disabled.
Our Vision...
is that all Sky Valley residents will have equitable and fair access to the resources, support services, and guidance needed to meet their basic needs and personal goals so they can live life to their fullest potential.
Our Core Values
Community Strengthening individuals and families strengthens our community.
Loving Kindness We regard those seeking our services as Jesus would: we honor the value and worth of every human being as a precious child of God, deserving of our care.
Outreach We meet people where they’re at with accessible services and relationships that build trust.
Humanity For those we serve, we commit to building relationships with humility. We do not know the paths they’ve walked or the traumas they’ve endured, and we honor their sacred stories.
Stewardship We are intentional in the way we steward the resources allotted to us, from our earth to our donations.
Advocacy We stand in the gap for those who cannot stand up for themselves or their own, in order to build stronger families, individuals, and community.
We fulfill our Mission and Vision by...
Respectfully listening to the families and individuals we work with, helping them assess their needs, and working together to discover their options. Our "What We Do" program pages describe the wide range of assistance the Next Step provides our participants.
The work of the Next Step is only possible with the commitment and dedication of OUR PARTNERS - more than 50 churches, community organizations, and businesses who have come alongside us to help in our work, and our incredible VOLUNTEERS without whom, we could not do this amazing work.
Though homelessness, poverty, and hunger are invisible to many, they are a daily fact of life for thousands of people in Snohomish County. READ MORE ABOUT THE NEED AND POVERTY IN OUR OWN COMMUNITY >
A short history
Take the Next Step grew out of desperate need and the vision of an Everett Community College instructor.
Early in 2004, Donna Olson, was teaching the GED and Life Skills components of a welfare-to-work program, the WorkFirst Customized Job Skills Program. Daily her students shared their frustration with a "system" that gave them referrals to inaccurate or no longer existing resources. Referrals that often led to dead ends, disconnected phone numbers, long waiting times for services...
Donna and her students began to compile an accurate list of reliable resources for themselves and others in need. The project grew and Donna invited a group of friends from Monroe Covenant Church to join the work. Together, they created a huge notebook of current, reliable, and useful resources. With more and more students' encouragement, this group of friends determined to make this valuable resource available to a wider range of individuals and families in need. The vision for a Drop-In community resource center was born.
MONROE COVENANT CHURCH offered the rent-free use of their former parsonage. Several families and businesses made founding donations, a grant was received from the Covenant Church denomination and the doors were opened in March, 2005. We wondered if anyone would come. They did, slowly at first. Soon word spread that the Next Step treated people with respect and found ways to help...now, we have 1,000 visits to our Family Resource Center Center every year.
Take the Next Step was formally incorporated in October of 2005 as a 501(c)(3), non-profit corporation.
We did not begin with a grand vision to eliminate poverty in the Sky Valley, or a huge strategic plan to end homelessness; we simply watched and listened to what was going on in our community and responded as we were able.
Today, over 50 churches, businesses, community organizations, and more than 300 volunteers join together to help us bring friendship, help, and hope to our neighbors in need in many ways:
Kidz Club After School Program
Family Resource Center
Community Dinners
Growing Together Young Moms
Outreach Program
You can help our neighbors in need by VOLUNTEERING and DONATING to this important work.