Transforming Land and Lives: Jenna’s Story
Labateyah Youth Home program director Jenna Gearhart with an on-site rainwater cistern. Portrait by Chloe Collyer.
“When I started as program director at Labateyah Youth Home, one of the things that was always important to me was trying to up the health factor involved with our food service. I’d been thinking about being able to produce food right on site. And something fortunate that happened was, there were some Native students from Western who had come by and said that they wanted to be involved in a project. And we talked about it and decided to do an organic garden.
Over time, our garden has been able to grow in size. I think it’s almost a quarter of an acre now. So we’ve got produce being grown across the entire front, along the side and even some in the back of Labateyah. We even have some beds that are alongside the sidewalk so that the community can harvest herbs and vegetables that are grown there. One of the great things about the garden is that we’ve produced in the last probably four or five years enough that we’re able to donate every year to the local food banks as well.
One of the leaders in the Crown Hill Neighborhood Association had talked to me about emergency preparedness for the community and how having a source of water was important and they had asked me, do you have something like that at the youth home? I was wanting to continue activities that were really important to our values around sustainability. And so we decided to apply for a grant through the Rotaries and have water cisterns included. Very large ones, both sides of the building, to capture thousands of gallons of water, rainwater runoff, so that we could use that for the water in our garden. It could serve as an emergency water supply if needed to with some sanitation.
Labateyah is a Luhootseed word, and it literally means “the transformer.” The meaning of the transformer really resonated for us because we felt it was indicative of the transformations that people make in their lives. And over these years, I’ve seen so many really amazing transformations.”
Labateyah Youth Home program director Jenna Gearhart. Portrait by Chloe Collyer.
Jenna Gearhart (she/her) serves as the Director of Community Services for United Indians of All Tribes Foundation and has a long history of work within the organization, including cherished times spent learning from the agency's founder, Bernie Whitebear. She also currently serves as the Board Chair for the Emergency Food and Shelter Board of King County.
In addition to being the recipient of the Green Globe Award and the Trillium Heritage Award, Jenna has been a featured speaker at multiple conferences and events, including the National Congress of American Indians, WLIHA's Conference on Ending Homelessness, and The Native Homelessness Roundtable at the Department of Interior. The work she and her staff have done at Labateyah Bridge Housing Program repeatedly has been recognized locally and nationally for innovative approaches and exceptional outcomes.
Community Partner Spotlight: United Indians of All Tribes
Founded in 1970, United Indians of All Tribes Foundation provides an extensive array of culturally responsive services and programming to Seattle and King County’s urban Native community. Its headquarters, the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center, was completed in 1977, and has become a hub of activity for Native peoples and their supporters locally, nationally, and internationally. Daybreak Star is home to a permanent collection of Native art, as well as the Sacred Circle Gallery featuring rotating exhibits of work by contemporary Native artists.
United Indians promotes the well-being of our region’s Indigenous community through services and programming that support cultural connection, school readiness, economic self-sufficiency, housing stability, and health and well-being. Its services are strengths-based and client-driven, in recognition of their community’s tremendous resilience, and sustain people in every age and stage of life.
