Patacara Community Services is a faith based nonprofit offering compassionate and respectful care to those who are suffering. We provide services inspired by the philosophy and teachings of Buddhism. We are a nonsectarian, all-volunteer, grassroots community that takes refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha and values service, generosity, compassion, interdependence, ethical conduct, equanimity, and kindness. Currently our main work is providing supportive services to our homeless neighbors in King County, WA.
Polly Trout is the founder and director of Patacara. Polly has a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Boston University. She has been providing supportive services to homeless neighbors for the past 15 years. She has extensive experience in nonprofit administration and fundraising, and in building cross-class, anti-racist, multicultural community. Polly is a layperson and mother with a nonsectarian Dharma practice. Her root teacher is Venerable Pannavati, and she is ordained as a lay minister in the Embracing Simplicity Hermitage lineage, a nonsectarian lineage led by Venerable Pannavati Bhikkuni and Venerable Pannadipa Bhikkhu.