Washington Youth & Families Fund

The Washington Youth & Families Fund (WYFF) was created by the Washington State Legislature in 2004 and amended to include youth in 2014. Building Changes administers this fund of public and private dollars to make grants across the state focused on innovative housing interventions and strategies.

Through our WYFF grantmaking, we:

• Identify and test promising practices in partnership with providers and community
• Collect data and evaluate interventions, models, and programs
• Advance strategies informed by research and community
• Support housing and service providers through peer learning, training, and capacity building

We designed our latest round of WYFF grantmaking to support these innovative strategies:

• Flexible, holistic housing interventions and cultural healing services focused on trauma recovery for families. The goal is to improve housing stability for families and help them recover from trauma through healing services that strengthen their sense of cultural identity, community, and belonging.
• Interventions and activities that center youth-choice, apply flexible assistance and Diversion principles, coordinate housing and legal support, and expand a young person’s network of support. The goal is to improve housing stability for young people and increase their access to housing options that affirm all identities and experience. The focus population is unaccompanied Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) and Lesbian, Gay, Trans, Bisexual, Queer/Questioning, and Two-Spirit (LGTBQ2+) young people who are 16 to 21 years old.