A Village on Hosmer We Call Home
Saturday, November 7 · 5:30–7:00 PM
8810 S Hosmer St, Tacoma, WA 98444
Come for the connection
A room becomes a home because of the people who fill it.
More than 1,250 people have called Thrive Center Tacoma home. Most came seeking safety and the chance to build a future here. Over time, the center became something the residents named themselves: the village on Hosmer. Neighbors have become friends. Kids fill the shared spaces. Families look out for one another.
Join us for a casual evening of stories and reflection in support of the center. Share appetizers and drinks with friends, neighbors, and fellow supporters, meet others who care about this community, and hear from the people who call Thrive home. We'll celebrate what this village has built and help make room for the stories still to come.
Why it matters
Stable, low-barrier transitional housing gives people living at Thrive room to work toward their next steps, even as changes in immigration policy make the future feel less certain. Your support helps keep the doors open for the families who come next.
What to expect
Appetizers and beverages
Stories and reflections from people who call Thrive home
A wall of answers to one question: What makes a place feel like home to you? Come with yours.
A chance to give toward the year ahead
Casual or business-casual attire encouraged.
Details
When
Saturday, November 7, 2026, 5:30–7:00 PM
Where
Thrive Center Tacoma, 8810 S Hosmer St, Tacoma, WA 98444
Stay for the stories
The stories you'll hear on November 7 didn't start that night. In late September we sat down with families at Thrive Center Tacoma and asked each of them the same question: What does home mean to you now?
No one answered with a place. One father answered with a single word: ‘security,’ and he gave up the house in Angola for a room that has it. A young man of twenty-one answered with ‘sleep’: somewhere he could walk out the door in the morning and not be afraid he wouldn't come back that night.
These are their stories, in their own words. Names have been changed, and the families who asked not to be photographed were not. The stories are about curtains that become walls and hotel counters that become kitchens, about the fifteen months it can take to carry a baby from Angola to Hosmer Street, and about what it means to do everything the law asks and still watch the door.
Three of those conversations are below. Read them now, and come hear the rest in the building where they were told.
Smaller and Safer: A family crossed eleven countries with a baby to reach a room on Hosmer Street. He gave up a house to get there, and he counts it a good trade, because of one word.
[Read the story]
Counting the Seconds: He left Angola at nine and São Paulo at thirteen. He is twenty-one now, sharing a room with four siblings, and has been locked up twice for going to his own appointments.
[Read the story]
Eleven Times: He worked security in Afghanistan and came here on humanitarian parole, papers in hand. He was arrested at the airport anyway.
[Read the story]
Two more stories from that afternoon are on the way.
Give for the impact
Can't make it?
You can still help make room for future stories. Give online or mail a check to Thrive International (Thrive Center Tacoma, 8810 S Hosmer St, Tacoma, WA 98444).
Sponsor the evening
Sponsorships help cover the cost of the night and put your name alongside this community. Levels and what each includes: [link].
Questions
Heather Sisson, Community Outreach Coordinator: heather@thriveinternational.org