Submitted by Serve Washington.
Serve Washington has selected the Pierce County Community Engagement Task Force and Tacoma resident Mattice Hoyt as recipients of the 2024 Washington State Volunteer Service Awards for the South Puget Sound Region of Washington.
The South Puget Sound Region includes Mason, Thurston, Pierce and Lewis counties. The purpose of these awards is to honor the many acts of kindness that individuals, families, service groups and organizations perform in communities across the state of Washington.
“We believe volunteerism promotes bonds across various races, cultures, beliefs, backgrounds, and experiences,” said Serve Washington Interim Executive Director Serve Trish Almond. “We also believe national service, volunteerism and civic engagement are key to achieving equity, strengthening communities and improving lives. Through these awards, we seek to recognize individuals and groups who reflect the diversity of our state for their contributions toward effectively addressing issues that face their communities.”
Volunteers with the Pierce County Community Engagement Task Force received the group volunteer award, and Tacoma resident Mattice Hoyt received an individual award.
Pierce County Community Engagement Task Force
The Pierce County Community Engagement Task Force is powered by WorkForce Central and is made up of more than 150 organizations and more than 300 volunteers. They all share a commitment to addressing disparities in services among people living in Pierce County.
“The impact they have is everything,” said Kelly Brickhouse, community engagement coordinator for WorkForce Central and task force co-founder. “It’s only possible when we have the community coming together for these events to help stabilize and lift up the power of voice.”
In 2023, Pierce County Community Engagement Task Force volunteers helped coordinate “Collaboration for a Cause,” one of the largest job and resource fairs in Pierce County. The event had representatives from more than 100 employers. More than 1,200 people attended the event, held at the Tacoma Dome. It had on-site résumé prep, on-the-spot-job interviews and resources for basic needs, health, education and training, and specialized resources for LGBTQ+ community members, youths, veterans and people with disabilities.
The Pierce County Community Engagement Task Force also co-presented its first ever “Lens of Equity Summit” in Lakewood filled with tools and information on how to a build healthy framework for diversity, equity, accountability and inclusion for organizations, individuals, workplaces and members of the community.
Task force Co-founder and Senior Director of Community Engagement at WorkForce Central Tamar Jackson added communities become more resilient when people of different backgrounds and experiences come together.
“It really shows impact when we all have a common goal and we have different organizations to reach the goal of impact in communities,” Jackson said.
Mattice Hoyt
Hoyt is the owner of a beauty supply store, volunteer and board member of the YWCA of Pierce County.
She collects and makes regular donations to the YWCA’s Club 253, a charitable club that encourages giving to support the YWCA’s programs that help survivors of domestic violence. She gives to a grassroots group called Tacoma Mutual Aid, which provides meals to people experiencing homelessness and crowdfunds to help people behind on their rent or who need help with medical bills. She also involved with and the Tacoma People’s Assembly, a group focused on anti-racism, Black liberation and social justice.
Hoyt’s business specializes in hair care products for women of color. She regularly donates these products including brushes, combs, bobbles and haircare samples to organizations that provide hygiene kits to people experiencing homelessness and organizations that support foster youth. She says most hygiene items donated to organizations aren’t designed for textured hair types.
She also gives hair care products to schools.
“A lot of kids who are in foster care or adopted in Tacoma, their parents are of different races and might not be familiar with how to care for hair of different textures,” Hoyt said. “If a kid’s essential needs are met, if there’s anything that can make a kid fit in a little better, even if it’s just having their hair done and looking nice for that first day of school can make a difference.”
Hoyt was born in California but has lived in Washington state for most of her life. She and her husband have lived in Tacoma since 2010. Hoyt is also a cancer survivor and double-amputee and as a result, uses a wheelchair.
She says her lived experience and personal values inspire her to serve her community, noting her noting her husband’s family owns a small business in Kansas that regularly gives to charitable organizations. Besides making charitable donations to community organizations, Hoyt uses social media to highlight new and minority-owned businesses in Tacoma.
She says as a small business owner, she has a responsibility to create safe, welcoming spaces and uplift voices in her community.
“I am their neighbor and I always try to foster that kind of relationship,” Hoyt said. “At the end of the day we’re neighbors and it’s neighbors that are going to take care of each other as best we can.”
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