Cindy Pasko, Executive Director of the Living Room
Our speaker for February 24, 2022, was Cindy Pasko, Executive Director at the Living Room. Cindy has 20 years of experience in California and Oregon working with communities to close homelessness service gaps and build diverse collaborations to help those at risk. She has been the Living Room ED since 2018 and currently lives in Cloverdale.
Cindy believes that homelessness is a public health issue. The Living Room’s mission is to support women and children experiencing homelessness in Sonoma County. Its operations include food services, transitional housing, outreach, and a new Life Center.
The Living Room serves between 500 and 700 meals per week out of its “Secret Hope Kitchen.” They serve hot meals to off-site encampments, Living Room residences, and senior and youth sites. They also deliver and serve boxed meals, complete with cooking instructions, to families in compromised housing. These boxed meals serve a family of 5 and are designed to provide at least 20 grams of protein.
The transitional housing program includes 5 main houses, 2 ADU’s and 1 tiny house. The program typically houses 10 adults and 9 children. Residents are offered up to 1 year of housing with an option to extend if necessary. The Living Room’s next housing project will be for aged-out homeless foster youth and will be run with youth service provider partners to help integrate these young people with community services. The “Outreach” program includes outreach into street and community encampments as a way to provide living gear, food, and a “linkage” to other community services, and to drive women and children to the Life Center for health centered services. In 2021, the Living Center received a grant from Kaiser to deploy its partner services program “Unite Us.” It expects this program to maximize vaccinations and connect people to health services.
The Living Room’s new location will be called the “Life Center” and will be located on North Dutton Avenue and open up in March. The Life Center will offer a wide variety of services, including voter registration, housing and service linkage, health screenings, a computer lab, job skills training, recovery groups, legal aid, and peer counseling. The Living Room is actively looking for volunteers to help with delivery, kitchen food prep., mentors, and gardening.
Thank you, Cindy, for the update. The Living Room’s transformation is remarkable, and we look forward to working with you in the near future.
Did you miss it? Click HERE to watch the recording. It will be available for a limited time.
