NORTHWEST NEIGHBORS NETWORK

Northwest Neighbors Network (NNN) is one of hundreds of villages in the U.S. dedicated to helping seniors and adults with disabilities (members) to age in place and remain socially active. Our mission is to create neighborly connections, foster engagement, and empower seniors and adults with disabilities to thrive in the place they call home. We achieve this mission by providing a community of dedicated NNN volunteers who help our members on a wide range of neighborly tasks such as transportation and household chores. In addition, NNN offers a rich array of social connections and educational opportunities that support our members' desires to thrive in place. We perform our services by striving to achieve our values of: belonging, diversity and inclusivity, integrity, interdependence, collaboration, and service. We've been in operation for five years serving members in northern King County and southern Snohomish County. As we begin year six, we have continued to grow and have averaged 141 members in 2023 and our membership has grown 27% compared to 2022. For 2023, services provided to our members totaled 4,255, which is an increase of 35% over 2022 levels. Transportation and in-home services for our elderly members continue as the most popular service requests. In 2023, we have averaged 168 volunteers who help us perform these services. In total, our volunteers have provided a total of 16,430 hours of service for 2023. Our organization has continued to increase the variety and number of social opportunities for our members that included trips to art shows, luncheons, game play sessions and a celebration picnic. All activities are designed to help keep our members socially active. We're a vibrant organization committed to making a contribution to the communities we serve while keeping our fixed costs as low as possible. This has allowed us to establish a flexible membership rate - our members pay the dues they think they can afford for membership. In 2023, we provided reduced membership fees from the standard rate to 18% of our members in response to member need. We enjoy strong support from the other social agencies that work with seniors and often refer the people they serve to our organization for services. We have one full-time employee tasked with overseeing membership/volunteer relationships, services fulfillment by volunteers, and recruitment of new volunteers. We also have highly committed and trained volunteers that staff our services coordination function 40+ hours each week. This has helped us to provide consistency, continuity, and a high-level of member and volunteer satisfaction. In addition to the expenses of employee payroll and specialized consulting for projects outside of our volunteer's expertise, our other largest expenses are insurance for our volunteers and background checks for our volunteers, both of which provide an additional sense of security to our members. To provide a broader perspective and expertise as the organization matures, we continue to add new individuals to our Board of Directors in 2023. These talented individuals offer their passion and skill to maintain the vision and mission of the organization. We have been fortunate to be recognized as the Outstanding Human Services Organization by the North Urban Human Service Alliance and the recipient of a grant administered by the King County Veterans, Seniors and Human Services Organization.