Executive Director; AWHWA

A Way Home Washington (AWHWA) is a mission-driven, movement-building organization dedicated to preventing and ending youth and young adult homelessness across Washington state. A group of funders, service providers, youth, advocates, and government partners came together to form A Way Home Washington – a coalition committed to advancing the vision of a state where homelessness among youth and young adults is rare and, if it occurs, brief in duration and never repeated.

As a public/private partnership that seeks systemic change through policy, advocacy, and collective impact, AWHWA partners with local communities, state government, and philanthropy to create lasting, community driven change that builds capacity for services and advocacy to support youth and young adults experiencing homelessness across Washington. Originally developed as a campaign, AWHWA remains deeply committed to its ambitious goals and building the community capacity to carry this work forward now and into the future.

AWHWA now seeks a new Executive Director who will play an important role in leading the organization into a bold and impactful future. Working in partnership with communities, staff, and board, the Executive Director (ED) will chart the next phase of work by leveraging learnings from the initial four Anchor Community Initiative (ACI) communities and statewide policy and advocacy initiatives. The ED will work collaboratively to define a comprehensive strategic plan that sets forth bold goals and aligns resources, policies, and organizational structures to most effectively fulfill AWHWA’s mission.

They will bring vision and leadership to AWHWA’s efforts to center equity and intersectionality, expand policy and advocacy influence, and to advance a movement to functionally end youth and young adult homelessness.

The new Executive Director will be a natural collaborator who is dedicated to a collective impact strategy and integrating the voices of communities and those with lived experience in shaping the strategy and organizational goals. They will be seasoned in anti-racism and equity work, with a track record of leading equity initiatives both within organizations and externally through programs. The Executive Director will be a proven manager who is committed to nurturing and developing a team, a design thinker who connects strategy to organizational structure, and a trusted partner to the board in stewarding the organization.

This is an exciting opportunity for a passionate and experienced leader with sophisticated analytical and interpersonal skills who is deeply committed to using political engagement, data driven evidence, and a collective impact approach to end youth and young adult homelessness.

This search is being conducted with assistance from Carolyn Ho, Catherine Seneviratne, and Chris Cannon of NPAG . Application instructions can be found at the end of this document.

AWHWA is a statewide movement that centers on supporting the unaccompanied 13,000 – 15,000 young people in Washington state who are surviving homelessness. AWHWA partners with communities, agencies, and leaders across Washington state to connect youth with stable housing and employment, education, and health services. By engaging on a local level and creating a statewide network, AWHWA connects communities and provides opportunities to discuss common barriers and solutions for ending youth and young adult homelessness.

Founded by a core group of funders who sought a common goal, AWHWA has grown in size and influence, from a team of 2 staff members to 10 and a budget of approximately $3M. With a goal of centering equity in its work, AWHWA seeks to change the systems that result in a disproportionate representation of LGTBQ+ and young people of color in the homeless youth population and bring that equity analysis to its own programs, partnerships, operations, and governance.

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