For over 22 years, Tricia has been dedicated to making her clients feel beautiful as a hairstylist. She built her business on the principle of creating customized experiences that cater to a diverse range of unique needs. During the pandemic, Tricia recognized it was time to pivot from working behind the chair and seized the opportunity to focus on creating a one-of-a-kind curly hair product line—The Curl Factor! Her passion lies in helping people embrace their natural hair, empowering them to feel confident in their natural beauty.

As a small business owner, Tricia has successfully brought her product to market, but manufacturing costs remain a significant challenge. She currently operates an online shop and sells her products on Amazon. While working with Michael Jordan from the Black Collective Business Navigator, Tricia learned about an opportunity for additional support through a matched savings account offered by United Way of Pierce County and Express Credit Union.

Tricia connected with Kenan, a Financial Coach at Sound Outreach, and began the application process. She was recently approved and is thrilled to receive this extra support. Over the next year, she will work with Kenan to save the money that will be matched. Tricia plans to use the matching funds to market her product to retailers and/or develop new products.

It’s been a few years since Latraia first took the stage at our annual luncheon, the Sound of Progress, where she shared her inspiring journey toward financial health. Latraia moved from Phoenix, AZ to Washington in 2018, seeking new opportunities. To save money, she chose to live in a tiny home village. In 2021, she turned to Sound Outreach for help improving her financial literacy and boosting her credit score. Realizing that homeownership required greater consistency in her budgeting and savings, she partnered with her Financial Counselor to set goals and create actionable steps. With a solid savings plan in place, she seized the chance to buy her first home in SeaTac when the opportunity arose.

Since then, Latraia has become a passionate advocate for Sound Outreach, even serving as our Master of Ceremonies at the annual event. Though she was promoted at work, she continued refereeing on weekends to combat rising inflation and save for her next big goal—a dream home in Tacoma that needs a lot of work. While she has faced challenges, like replacing an outdated septic system, Latraia thrives on overcoming obstacles. These experiences remind her of the financial lessons she learned at Sound Outreach, always seeking ways to save and prepare for future emergencies.

Given her drive, it’s no surprise that Latraia has launched her own business. With her love for networking, helping people feel at ease, and creating lasting memories, E4U 360 Photos & Event Planning is a perfect fit—offering a VIP photobooth experience

Nizamuddin is an Afghan immigrant who arrived in the United States with his pregnant wife, and two young boys in March 2022. After being surrounded by chaos, war, fear, and fury he wanted to find a safe and stable life for his family. They had received aid for three months from another non-profit and these funds and rental supports had concurrently run out. He had been actively seeking employment for some time but had difficulty finding a full-time job. Once again, Nizamuddin was in crisis. He worried about being able to provide a home and food for his family.

Mary Ann is a Financial Counselor at our Sumner- Bonney Lake Center for Strong Families. In addition, she also serves the clients we work with in Federal Way and Kent. She has a background in social work, so it was fortunate that she was able to use that knowledge to communicate effectively and start building trust with Nizamuddin.

It is important to remember that securing personal financial security takes time and effort. Our counselors work with individuals and families to provide tools and resources to empower them to build stability. Sometimes it takes a couple of years to improve credit and remove debt. Another integral part of the programs at Sound Outreach is building trusting relationships with clients. All this cannot happen overnight. We generally don’t have funds to help families in crisis and rarely, do we have an opportunity to make a huge impact as Mary Ann did when she met Nizamuddin.

With consistent effort and collaboration, they worked together on an immediate plan for him and his family. Through the Sound Outreach contract with the City of Kent, his family received two months of rental assistance and a utility assistance referral. Mary Ann sent him multiple engineer job listings, a furniture bank referral, a grocery gift card, and clothing. Recently, Nizamuddin called to let MaryAnn know that he got a job that would start in October.

His commitment to making progress has been a driving factor for his success. The goals outlined for him will continue to evolve as he and his family look to the future here in the Northwest. Right now, Nizamuddin is proud to say that Sound Outreach has substantially impacted his life by providing him with support, resources, empowerment, and encouragement.

Betty reached out to our Silver Financial Counselor, Martin Pirgiotis, in October worried about her finances and high utility bills. Betty had been struggling to pay bills due to an increase in costs stemming from health challenges, difficulty navigating through Medicare. Betty was assisting her family during these challenging times by allowing them to stay temporarily to help them get on their feet. Betty did what she had to do to keep her family safe.

Working with Martin, Betty learned about what resources are available to seniors (including discounts, senior programs, and community partners) and was able to utilize WARM funds to keep her utilities on, catch up on her bills, and create a goal of saving more money. Betty will keep working with Martin, to keep getting helpful information about senior resources but most importantly because she feels like she has “gained a helpful friend who will be there to guide her in securing her future”.

“One thing that is difficult to navigate through the automated systems, robocalls, and navigating Medicare/Medicaid, and avoiding fraud. Having a person  who can actually listen to my concerns and help me navigate through what I need to do and provide me with a step-by-step guide  is very important”. – Betty, Sound Outreach Silver Client

In 2019 Ellie was homeless, jobless and hopeless. She lost custody of her kids and was living in her car with only her dog to keep her company. Ellie was referred to the Bethel CSF site and with help from her employment coach, Lynn, she started rebuilding her life. Soon she got hired as a security guard starting at $17.30/hour and after a while she found a place to live. Ellie had the time and resources to develop a co-parenting plan to have her kids stay with her. She even got a raise and is now making close to $20/hour! Now, Ellie is filled with hope!