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Tuesday, February 18, 2025

Rev. Kiti Ward Honored By Seattle Storm For Her Work With Homeless Women

By Kiara Doyal, The Seattle Medium

Rev. Kiti Ward, executive director of the Agape House, which provides non-time-limited housing for homeless BIPOC women aged 18 to 27, was recently honored by the Seattle Storm as one of their “Believe in Women” honorees.

Since 2006, the Storm and its fans recognize and thank women who have made a difference in the community at their “Believe in Women” night each season. This year the program amplified the contributions of Black women, leaders of color, and organizations serving Black communities during the WNBA season and beyond.

“I am so in love with the Seattle Storm. These women are creatives, they are the prototype of what being in shape physically, mentally, and emotionally is and they are Black. 80 to 90% of them are Black and they are integral,” says Ward. “It is big that I was honored, all four of the honorees were women of color this year. I honestly don’t know why they picked me. I don’t have any connections with them, but I am just doing the thing day after day for my community.”

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Ward has dedicated herself to improving the lives of Black and brown young women who have tragically become victims of trafficking here in the city of Seattle.

“I have been providing non-time-limited housing to young women for some time now. I have seen young women in the streets for about 14 years now, which some have transitioned over to Aurora Avenue, and our main mission is to get to the young women in our community before the streets do,” says Ward.

Ward acknowledges the challenges in rescuing young women from the streets, especially those who have faced severe trauma, because often times they feel like they don’t have a better place to go.

“When you get a kid, or a young lady who has been disowned by her family, a man has given her a horrible time treating her like property, or she either feels bad or is sick and needs to be taken care of, it is harder to get those young women back off the streets once they are already there,” says Ward.

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Despite not having a dedicated house since 2014 due to challenges with landlords, young women are still seeking help from the Agape House to help get them back on their feet.

“It was terrible to let go of the house. We had to let go of it because the guy who was renting it to us said he could get more money out of it, through sectioning,” says Ward. “There are about three different places that we are looking at to possibly move into and we have a waitlist of 10 kids and 20 women who want to get into our house.”

According to Ward, the wait for an adequate home to house these young women is nearing the end, but the Agape House requires funding to achieve that.

“We are trying to be smart; we are trying to stay ahead of the game,” says Ward. “We have these 3 wonderful potential homes that we can bring young women into, and we believe we are doing it in the next 6 months, but we need funds.”

Funding is seemingly one of the leading reasons businesses encounter setbacks, but Ward is determined to reach her goal of getting our young Black and Brown women off the streets, which are groups that generally are not served by other organizations in the same capacity as other ethnic groups.

“We go after Black and brown young women, which is code for the underserved and overrepresented,” says Ward. There are agencies in Seattle and King County that provide transitional housing, but they are not like us. We bring these young women into the house, and we say you need to either get a job or an education, but you can do that with our help while you are here in the house.”

Ward and her team, who are currently in the middle of a capital campaign, are hoping to raise $5 to $10 million to purchase multiple houses and keep up with all operating costs.

“This is a call to action, we do need the community, we need more mother mentors who help guide our young women, we need more business mentors, and we need people to come and to contribute to the agency,” says Ward.

According to Ward, the support from the Seattle Storm has been instrumental for Ward and her mission. She appreciates the team’s commitment to empowering young Black and brown women and is honored by the recognition.

“The Seattle Storm said we got you; we see you, and now because of that it has been imprinted in me,” says Ward. “They reached out to women like myself and the other three honorees to be honored from the community because they said nobody really sees you, and I am so grateful for that.”

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