Hard Times for Home Alive

Home Alive, the women's self-defense group formed in the early '90s after the murder of Gits frontwoman Mia Zapata, is going into partial shut-down mode.

Home Alive has $25,000 of debt and not enough money coming in the door, says Cait Alexander, who joined the organization as interim program manager a couple months ago. As a result, it is closing its Capitol Hill office, eliminating its paid staff, and is not scheduling any more public classes after this month.

More details after the jump.

Home Alive is going to have a community meeting on Sunday, from 1 to 3, at its soon-to-be-vacated office (1415 10th Ave., between Pike and Union). Alexander says the meeting will be to brainstorm ideas about what kind of future Home Alive can now have, and--ideally--rustle up some generous-minded donors who might come to the rescue (or at least a partial rescue).

"We're hoping for an upswing at this meeting," she says, "and not just the same five people who do everything. We're going to look to people to show their commitment."

Alexander herself says she has not been fully paid since coming aboard. Some of Home Alive's self-defense instructors are paid (others do the work as volunteers) and they have seen delays in getting their checks. She says the organization has had paid staff for at least half of its 16 years.

Alexander says the financial problems have been mounting for some time but "people didn't want to know." Home Alive is planning a garage sale on February 21; what's left will go up on Craigslist.

Full text of the Home Alive email is below:

You are invited, as a member of Home Alive's community, to a meeting on Sunday, February 8th at 1pm at our studio (1415 10th Avenue, upstairs,
#3 (between Pike and Union)).

Home Alive is rooted in the community, and needs you now more than ever.
Given our current and historic financial and structural realities, we have just made a decision to close our office and to stop having paid office staff.

Come to the community meeting to learn about the financial and structural state of Home Alive, weigh in on what decisions we have made, hear about what options we are exploring for how to continue delivering our program, and talk about how you can contribute to Home Alive's future success.

With your help, Home Alive's mission will live on and our programs will continue, but not without radical change.

Among other things, we will also seek commitments from you, our community, to help us raise money. Home Alive has lots of ideas for ways to get us on the right path; we need your help and resources to make that happen.

Contact Cait Alexander, the Interim Program Director, at info@homealive,org or 206.323.4663 ext 1, to let her know you are coming. Also, please extend the invitation to anyone you know who might be interested in participating.

Brett Houghton
Home Alive Board Chair