Welcome to Sisters, Kelsey!

Name: Kelsey Schwartz

Title: Major Gifts Officer

Pronouns: she/her

What drew you to work at Sisters of the Road?

Sisters has an outstanding reputation in the unhoused community, and has built trust in the community as a safe haven and as co-conspirators in social justice work. I want to be a part of an organization that sees unhoused people as the experts that they are and works to engage people with lived experience to shape policy and programs.

Which of Sisters’ philosophies do you relate to the most and why?

I relate to Sister’s philosophy of Systemic Change because people with lived experience of houselessness and poverty should be treated and valued like the experts they are, guiding policy development, implementation and evaluation. Centering lived experience in policy is the missing ingredient for human-centered, effective solutions to poverty and houselessness. Effective, long-term, and sustainable policies are developed in partnership with the people most impacted by an issue and those traditionally left out of public decision-making spaces. I am humbled and inspired by the expertise, wisdom, community connections and resilience within the unhoused population that I have been honored to learn about, witness and be a part of.

What do you think people misunderstand or get wrong about homelessness or poverty?

I think people misunderstand how interconnected the unhoused community is in caring for one another. People who are living outside know more about and are better at forming community and building relationships with one another than housed people. We all want community and connection to one another, and encampments keep people safe and able to help one another out. Working at Hygiene4All’s hygiene hub under the Morrison Bridge, I witnessed so many acts of community care. I saw people find a donated pair of shoes, take off their own shoes, and ask around to who needed that size. I saw people coming to get supplies for their disabled friends back at camp, others watching their stuff back at camp, or helping move one another during the near-constant sweeps. I saw strangers comfort one another on hard days and share vulnerable stories about their lives. I saw people taking care of each other through the ice storm, sharing heating sources and warming supplies, to make sure everyone made it through. I saw people trading knowledge of which resources locally were helpful and accessible, and which ones to be cautious of. Being in community with unhoused people is truly one of the most transformative experiences I have had in my life, so go meet your unhoused neighbors and learn some things from them.

What do you do for fun outside of work?

The thing I enjoy most outside of work is tapping into mutual aid networks that support people who are living on the streets. I organize with a group of friends collecting supplies for people living outside, laundering donated clothes to be reused and diverted from the landfill, and cooking gleaned food from local food pantries or our gardens for distribution. I love building networks of community care and skill-sharing with people from all walks of life, so I love to do outreach and connect with folks, currently in and around the Central Eastside. As I settle into working downtown, I look forward to getting to know folks that live on this side of the river and build communities of reciprocal care that are so necessary for our collective wellbeing.

What’s one book or film that you recommend?

Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care By Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba