Right now, hundreds of thousands of letters from people all across the United States are pouring into the Department of the Interior as it takes public comment on its plans to drill in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Scientists, teachers, conservationists, Native leaders, elected officials and countless others are expressing their disapproval of Ryan Zinke and Donald Trump opening the Arctic Refuge to oil and gas exploration.

The full text of Tom Campion’s letter to Zinke is below. Thank you for all that you do.

Today we are announcing the impending departure of Lisa Jaguzny, long-time leader of the Campion Foundation and founding CEO of the Campion Advocacy Fund.

Jaguzny will begin work as the new Executive Director for Oxbow Farm & Conservation Center, a living laboratory for sustainable agriculture, outdoor environmental education, native plants, and environmental stewardship in Carnation, Washington.

Lisa Jaguzny first joined the Campion Foundation nearly 10 years ago. In the past decade she has worked closely with Campion’s trustees to refine our mission and strategy to focus on advocacy, culminating in the establishment of an advocacy-focused 501(c)(4) nonprofit in addition to the original 501(c)(3) foundation.

Join us at the 2018 Washington Nonprofit Conference!

Take a day away from your desk to see your challenges from another perspective, meet nonprofit leaders from across the state, and visualize how you can lead the change for a better nonprofit sector.

WHEN: Wednesday, May 16, 2018
WHERE: Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue

Last week, the second major installment of the Voices of Youth Count study was released by Chapin Hall. Voices of Youth Count (VoYC) is an academic, peer-reviewed study that the Campion Foundation is proud to fund along with a number of our charitable partners.

As we’ve noted in the past, one of the long-standing problems with fighting youth homelessness is the lack of reliable data about the scale of the problem. The initial release from Chapin Hall contained enormously helpful information about the nationwide scope of youth homelessness – and this new release narrows down the data to look at how LGBTQ youth and young adults are impacted.

The findings prove what many of you have noticed anecdotally in the field: that LGBTQ youth are disproportionately at greater risk of homelessness than non-LGBTQ youth.

Our grantee A Way Home Washington (AWHWA) is hiring for two new critical positions in their mission to end youth and young adult homelessness in Washington!

AWHWA partners with the state Office of Homeless Youth, philanthropic foundations, advocates, and service providers who support over 13,000 unaccompanied young people experiencing homelessness in Washington. They lead and coordinate these stakeholders as they work collectively to build a statewide system so that local communities can respond to youth and young adult homelessness in their areas.

Washington’s legislative session ended on March 8th, and there’s no other way to say this: 2018 has been an incredible year for affordable housing and homelessness advocacy.

Last year, a critical special election resulted in the Washington State Senate having its first progressive majority in half a decade – as long as Jay Inslee has been Governor.

When session started in January, the legislature – led by Senate Majority Leader Sharon Nelson and Speaker of the House Frank Chopp – hit the ground running to pass legislative priorities that had been blocked for years, many of which had never even received a committee hearing.

After the dust settled 60 days later, it was clear that this legislative session was the most impactful session for homelessness policy in more than 20 years.