This isn't Jan Glick's normal gig, but every day it feels more and more normal.

Glick is a consultant by trade, overseeing and advising on mergers, new program development, partnerships and transitions for non-profit and government agencies.

		Paul Joseph Brown / P-I
	Jan Glick found a new role as interim director of the Adult and Family Service Center in Seattle. The agency runs a homeless shelter, in background.

But for the past few months, he has been immersed in the world of the non-profit as the interim executive director of Adult and Family Service Center.

"The former executive director went to law school," Glick said.

So Glick stepped in to handle the day-to-day operations of the group, as well as providing a strategic overview of those operations.

Going from consultant to doer was as much of a work in progress as the organization that he directs.

"This is my second (executive director) engagement," he said. "It got to the point where I thought, 'Maybe I looked at this wrong.' "

Glick liked working with people, but stepping into an active role within a charity organization, he said, "keeps me current, keeps me applying the practice to what I preach."

"Being in the saddle, so to speak, puts me in where and what I was training other people to do. I thought it would be fun to do it myself -- I was right."

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Looking at his profession "wrong" and making it right runs parallel to the development of the Adult and Family Services organization.

Started in 1966 by Mineo Katagiri, a minister in the United Church of Christ, and Rube Label, a local business owner, the Adult and Family Services first opened the doors as the First Avenue Service Center south of Pike Place Market.

It was little more then a room with a coffee pot, but it served the purpose of providing a safe refuge for Seattle's homeless.

But it mainly provided a temporary haven for men.

It wasn't until 30 years later that there was a nationwide shift in the way the homeless were viewed.

"This history of the whole homeless issue has a different face now than it did 20 years ago, even seven years ago," Glick said. "It was perceived for a long time as an issue of individuality. But it wasn't just the individual, it wasn't just adults."

The fact was that entire families were on the streets.

In 1998, the Seattle Coalition for the Homeless estimated that 784 Seattleites were homeless. In 2002, the number jumped to 2,040, about 570 of whom are mothers and children.

"We, as well as a movement across the country, recognized this and began to offer services to meet that need. We probably could've realized this earlier. That's when this board of directors decided we could do something, and we had the resources to do it," Glick said.

But Adult and Family Services, which is in Belltown, didn't abandon its original mission. Instead, it simply added on.

The building in which the organization is housed, serves the dichotomy of its mission.

There is still a drop-in center, the Adult Center, which provides more than coffee and shelter now. Clients can shower, eat, use the laundry and telephone, receive mail and get clothing, while caseworkers can assist in legal, counseling and health services.

The adjacent Family Center has grown to shelter up to nine families temporarily and employees work with the families to move them toward self-sufficiency.

The Adult and Family Services Center has 17 full-time staff members and an army of volunteers.

"The volunteer corps is predominantly from a whole slew of churches, about 100 churches, and they bring meals, donate goods to the people living here," Glick said. "We rely on an incredible array of generosity from many volunteers.

Last year's operating budget was about $700,000.

The Seattle P-I's Readers Care Fund has raised $5.4 million since its inception in 1978. Readers can make donations through the P-I, and the newspaper pays all administrative costs for the program so every dollar donated goes to the seven charities featured this year.

Other non-profits that benefit from this season's drive are the Forgotten Children's Fund, the Little Bit Therapeutic Riding Center, New Futures, Northwest's Child, Powerful Voices and Rise n' Shine.