DROP-IN

MON-THURS 10A -1P

Neighborhood Living Room

Drop In Hours offer a welcoming space for our unhoused neighbors to rest, prepare a meal, connect to resources and collectively create a healthy and vibrant community. We seek to be a space for authenticity and conversation, to bring the wider community to the table to learn from one another, to be transformed by one another, and to embrace one another.    

We dive into the messiness of what the day brings, we make food, share the table, grieve with one another and celebrate together. The Commons' desire is to be a space where hope overrides fear, where community interrupts isolation, and dignity is offered to all.

BASIC SERVICES

- Toiletries & hygiene supplies
- Telephone
- Restrooms
- Computer & internet access
- Bus Tickets
- Phone charging station
- Mailing address & collection

WOMEN'S NIGHT

Wednesday Nights from 6-9pm we offer Women’s only Drop-in hours. We provide educational and harm reduction materials, Bad Date List, connections to various organizations and resources around Seattle, and a kind, non-judgmental space for women to rest and be known. Aurora Commons offers the only drop-in space on North Aurora directly serving women who are commercially sexually exploited, many of whom are drug dependent. We have developed relationships with over 300 women who work along Aurora. Aurora Commons is part of the CEASE Network and a part of the Adult Survivor's Collaborative with OPS, REST, and the YWCA.

HEALTH CLINICS

Hosted in Aurora Commons drop-in space in partnership with UW Harborview Medical Center and supported by the Department of Health and the City of Seattle. Everything we do is driven by the neighbors we serve. We empower them to define what they need, and then we provide a beautiful, safe, trauma-informed space to meet those needs.

Clinical Services:

- Facilitating enrollment in insurance and registration at University of Washington Medicine
- Family planning and contraceptive services
- Wound Care and abscess drainage
- Labs and imaging
- Foot washing
- Medication management for chronic medical conditions such as Hypertension and Diabetes
- Vaccines
- Sexually Transmitted Infection testing - Chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis
- HIV and viral hepatitis screening
- Hepatitis C treatment
- HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP)
- Referrals to detox, treatment and housing
- Integrated treatment of the whole patient, including those with opiate use disorder
- Pre-Natal Care

Creating the Clinic Partnership

Since Aurora Commons opened in 2011, we have built trusted relationships with hundreds of female-identifying street-based sex workers who are experiencing commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) on Aurora Avenue N. We have learned from them that homelessness, poverty, drug dependence, and violent victimization create the need for a variety of health and social services, yet simultaneously serve as barriers to accessing these very services. Barriers include both structural and process factors (e.g. travel costs, office hours, social stigma) and individual social and clinical factors (e.g. drug use, mental stability, lack of trust and fear in the traditional healthcare system).

As we continued to witness both the need and barriers to healthcare, we began to leverage our relationships at the Commons by directly involving these women in the development and implementation of what we now call the Safe, Healthy, Empowered (SHE) Clinic. SHE Clinic opened in July 2018 with support from the Pacific Hospital Preservation & Development Authority (PHPDA) and provides a crucial link between UW Harborview Medical Center and the Aurora Commons through an innovative, accessible, and non-judgmental healthcare delivery model that is overcoming these barriers. Since its inception, the SHE Clinic patient roster has been full and continued to grow. Simultaneously the need for a companion clinic offering healthcare for our male-identifying and gender-nonconforming neighbors became increasingly apparent as these neighbors asked for the same services offered by SHE Clinic.

In the spring of 2021, Aurora Commons was able to expand into the retail space next door, allowing for program space expansion and, with the support of Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE), the buildout of a permanent clinic space in the Commons. In November 2021, Aurora Clinic opened on Mondays & Tuesdays offering comprehensive, wraparound healthcare for our male-identifying and gender-nonconforming neighbors. The SHE Clinic & Aurora Clinic staff and Aurora Commons Staff work closely together to provide wraparound services for each neighbor accessing the clinics.

Healing Arts

Art is one of the ways the Aurora Commons loves this world, the community, the neighbor, and the self. Our art therapy program strives to offer a kind and supportive space for people to create, grow, and dive deep into their hearts. The Aurora Commons provides all the supplies and the space needed to create.  Our art groups have focused on fear, on hope, and on the internal struggle we all face. We offer space for those among of us who are uniquely gifted to teach a class in their area of interest, such as making dream-catchers, beading, drawing, and writing. Aurora Commons art classes focus on performance art, self-portraits, drumming, body work, and all types of visual art.

Materials Used & Needed

Gel Pens (Commons Favorite)
Acrylic Paint, Watercolors, Plastic Paint Pallets
Pencils, Pens, Colored Pencils, Paint Brushes
Watercolor Paper Pads, Writing Notebooks, Drawing Paper
Adult Coloring Books
Elmers Glue & Glue Sticks