What are cross-cultural challenges arise for Ethiopian immigrants and their U.S.-born children? Hear from two generations in this film produced by youth in the Ethiopian Community in Seattle through the Multimedia Resources and Training Institute (mmrtiseattle.org).

Teenage Homelessness is a growing problem throughout the northwest. Cocoon House offers emergency shelter and long-term beds, safety, nourishing food, and loving care to young people whose only alternative is the streets. Most important, it gives them a real sense of home.

Island County's Senior Services center helps seniors connect with each other, their community, and key services. Social dances, meals on wheels, help with medicare, medicaid, and social security, and delicious community dinners all happen thanks to a small staff and many volunteers. Food and social contact are the vehicles; love is the driver.

One woman asked what it would take to provide healthy, abundant, free food and fellowship to anyone in the community once each week. Her answer came as friends, allies, donations, resources, and farmers agreed to help, and Soup was On!

For Lulu Carpenter, a teacher, performing artist, community activist, and radio host, art means transformation and healing. Through the arts and music, she magically weaves connections among diverse kinds of people, including people who are usually overlooked.

SPEAK. WITH. PURPOSE. Toyia T. Taylor has used her voice to inspire audiences nationally and internationally. This year, she was featured in the City Arts Magazine and the recipient of the Wonder of Women (WOW) award. In 2015 she was a recipient of the National Council of Negro Women Incorporated, Style and Substance award. She has received the Education for Social Justice Award from Girls for Gender Equity, Incorporated, and has toured as a guest artist with the string octet, The Young Eight. Her original poems, Brooklyn Love and Blue Note Room, have had classical selections composed to them that were debuted at Carnegie Hall. Toyia has spoken and performed for O Magazine at the Women Rule Leadership Training Conference, co-sponsored by the White House Project. She was also featured in the 35th Anniversary Limited Edition of Interview Magazine as one of the top new artists to look out for in New York City. Founder of We.APP Speak With Purpose (SWP) is the only public speaking program in Seattle, Washington incorporated into the school day, integrating arts education with student voice to develop independent learners with self-authored identities WeAPP's vision is to bridge the engagement and opportunity gap by reaching every child that is silenced in the back of the classroom and inspire them to break their silence and step forward to become the leaders in the front.

ThrivingCommunities.org Though it is difficult to distill modern disability history in one thread, "Together They Were Stronger" is a documentary film short that celebrates one untold story about the origin of the creation of the 1st ever disability rights law in the United States, HB 90. Before this bill, families and children with disabilities had few options, they were either kept at home or placed in institutions. Back then, the common belief was that people with disabilities could not learn, and children with disabilities were barred from schools. Education for All was the first U.S. law to grant children with disabilities the right to a free and appropriate public education. It was signed into law by Washington State Governor Dan Evans on May 25,1971 to support education for all children as a centerpiece for children with disabilities. Hear 1st hand stories from the founding members and their families of the Education for all committee who worked uncompromisingly to make sure their children had access to education.