{"id":4299,"date":"2024-04-03T14:18:05","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T14:18:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/?p=4299"},"modified":"2025-11-14T00:53:37","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T00:53:37","slug":"pursuing-a-new-horizon-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/pursuing-a-new-horizon-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Pursuing a New Horizon"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\">[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1763075862896{padding-top: 12px !important;padding-right: 15px !important;padding-bottom: 12px !important;padding-left: 15px !important;background-color: #F9FFC1 !important;}&#8221;]\n<h4>By Beverly Shrumm, Executive Director<\/h4>\n<p>Our history as an agency has relied on faithfulness to our\u00a0core mission and on an openness to strategic changes to\u00a0further that mission. Another significant strategic change\u00a0lies ahead. I have determined, considering the costs we face and our reduced need for a such a large facility, that\u00a0selling our building in the Green Lake neighborhood is our\u00a0best stewardship of the resource.<\/p>\n<p>Presbyterian Counseling Service (PCS) was founded in 1960, two years before the Space Needle became a landmark for the Seattle skyline, built to declare an\u00a0optimistic future for our world. In those early years, the agency\u2019s services were\u00a0primarily offered at University and then Seattle Presbyterian Churches. By\u00a01980, the agency was welcomed by Ravenna Boulevard Presbyterian Church to\u00a0share their building and services grew, expanding into partnerships with\u00a0additional church hosts. And then in 2005, the Presbytery of Seattle deeded\u00a0the property to PCS, in keeping with the wishes of the congregation which had\u00a0closed at that location. It was a welcome move that set us up for further growth\u00a0and expansion of our services as Samaritan Center of Puget Sound.<\/p>\n<p>We made full use of the property in the following years\u2014until the Spring of 2020. With the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic, our counseling service\u00a0became almost exclusively virtual. Today, the number of people who choose to\u00a0meet in person has begun to increase gradually, but many still choose to meet\u00a0virtually. As a consequence, we are not utilizing our office space as thoroughly\u00a0as before. What\u2019s more, the building is showing its age and is in need of\u00a0significant work going forward.<\/p>\n<p>Through the efforts of staff and donors, we have made upgrades over the years and have extended the life of the building. Still, time and circumstances have\u00a0led us to this clear decision point and new opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>We anticipate relocating to a space, perhaps shared, in the north Seattle area,\u00a0as well as developing an office in south Seattle or Renton. Given our\u00a0partnerships with Bellevue Presbyterian, Saint Andrew Lutheran in south\u00a0Bellevue, and First Lutheran Church of Poulsbo, we remain committed to\u00a0providing substantial access for the region.<\/p>\n<p>Our Board of Directors and staff will soon gather to imagine and plan for our future, a future funded in part by the gift of the property by the Presbytery. In\u00a0the midst of this planning, we know one thing for certain: We know that we\u00a0will continue to offer spiritually-integrated mental health services with a\u00a0commitment to affordability for all who reach out to us. This pledge is\u00a0the core of our agency. In the words of our founder, Rev. Neal Kuyper, \u201c<em>be the\u00a0Gospel in Action.<\/em>\u201d[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1763075862896{padding-top: 12px !important;padding-right: 15px !important;padding-bottom: 12px !important;padding-left: 15px !important;background-color: #F9FFC1 !important;}&#8221;] By Beverly Shrumm, Executive Director Our history as an agency has relied on faithfulness to our\u00a0core mission and on an openness to strategic changes to\u00a0further that mission. Another significant strategic change\u00a0lies ahead. I have determined, considering the costs we face and our reduced [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,268],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-shrumm"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4299"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4351,"href":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4299\/revisions\/4351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samaritanps.org\/optima\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}