Outreach

In the 1960s, Seattle’s University District was transformed by anti-war student activism and social upheaval. ULC responded by founding outreach programs aimed at addressing teenage drug use, youth homelessness and malnutrition. In the early 1970s, as more and more families became two- income households, ULC responded with on-site facilities for the University of Washington Cooperative Preschool. The preschool operated at ULC until 2005, when that space was repurposed for ULC’s response to Seattle’s growing homelessness crisis. ULC founded Elizabeth Gregory Home as a transitional housing program and on-site day center for unhoused women. EGH opened in 2006 and continues to serve its clients with hygiene facilities, nutrition, clinic services, counseling and work readiness programs.

At present, a new university community is emerging, catalyzed by tremendous growth and social transformation. ULC is poised and ready to respond to this new mission field, always seeking to live into one great, overarching question: What does beloved community look like?

University Lutheran Church has a storied history of identifying needs in the community and taking action to help create solutions.