International Rescue Committee in Spokane

Thank you to The Spokesman-Review for highlighting the Eastern Washington Refugee Coalition’s “Longest Table” potluck in partnership with the Innovia Foundation. It’s always exciting to see people caring about the work we do!

“Attendees dined on Venezuelan pasta salad, Ethiopian Injera bread, Sudanese saffron rice, cookies from Panera Bread and Afghan Bolani, just a handful of the dishes attendees brought.

Just as the servings of the dish sat together on one plate, community members from myriad countries sat together at “the longest table,” a global initiative intended to bring strangers together to literally “break bread” and get to know their neighbors.

“We are focused on building community for refugee and immigrant groups, newcomers to Spokane,” said Margaret Hinson, director of the International Rescue Committee in Spokane, one of the organizations in the coalition. “One of the pillars of our coalition is to put on events like this where we can facilitate interactions across different communities.”

'Sharing is caring': Spokanites unite, build community in international potluck The ingredients on the heaping plates were as diverse as the people in a room at the Shadle Park Library on Saturday.

Thank you to FāVS News for attending our info session last week and for the call to action! We always appreciate the collaboration with our faith partners in navigating these changes.

“We can’t do it alone,” Curry said. “At IRC, we work with our faith-based partners extensively and genuinely couldn’t do what we do without their support.”

It has been meaningful gathering with religious leaders, providers, members of the media, and concerned community members to share and learn more about what we can do together!

Spokane Faith Groups Help Refugees Navigate Medicaid Changes Spokane faith groups are being asked to help refugees navigate Medicaid changes that could leave thousands without health coverage.

Today, in partnership with CHAS Health, Better Health Together, and Spokane Workforce Council, we hosted an HR.1 Impact Info Session for educators, employers, city officials, journalists, and members of the faith community who were interested in learning more about the cuts and changes to Medicaid that will affect refugees and other vulnerable populations beginning October 1st.

We shared data, anticipated impact, the challenges that will arise for those affected, and the preparations and shifts in service provision we’ve made to accommodate needs.

We recognize that while not everyone will be individually affected, each of us knows or works with someone who is, which is why it’s important for us to provide awareness and consider what resources or support we may have to strengthen safety nets, advocacy efforts, and targeted support to help our neighbors navigate and lessen the burden of these changes as much as possible.

Thank you to everyone who joined us today! We’ve spent the last several months collaborating with many direct service providers across the county, and we’ve all realized that no one organization or group can address this issue on their own. We need the support, resources, and expertise of the Spokane community, which is why it was inspiring to be in a room of nearly 50 people today coming together to learn about the issue and ask how they can help!

We have been working with our partners at Aging and Long Term Care of Eastern Washington to make sure that the clients they serve who will be affected by the cuts to Medicaid beginning Oct 1st as a result of HR.1 can access case management and other wrap around services we provide to help them navigate the challenges that arise with their loss of care.

While we have been working with our clients for months to prepare for these cuts and changes, today, we were introduced to 37 newly impacted individuals, many navigating cancer care, loss of vision, and cardiology needs.

We met to assess their greatest deficits, create customized referral plans, provide letters of guidance and P*P requests for advance prescriptions, complete emergency preparedness education, connect them to our language communications channels, and enroll them in our mobile food delivery program. Moving forward, clients will be able to access weekly drop-in hours and have regular touch points with IRC staff to help address needs and connect to low cost/no cost medical providers.

While no service we provide can make up for the loss of healthcare, we’re here to help old and new clients through targeted support and strengthened safety nets to try to lessen the burden of these changes as much as possible.

We are grateful to the Washington Women's Foundation for the invitation to join a panel on women and immigration at this year's convening.

WWF's thoughtful, intentional focus on issues impacting women and girls continues to create space for conversations that matter and drive real change in our communities.

It was an honor for our director to share the stage with colleagues from the Office of Refugee and Immigrant Assistance, Lutheran Community Services Northwest and the Satterberg Foundation for such a meaningful discussion. Thank you for the work you do! 🙏

Thank you to Greater Spokane Incorporated for inviting us to attend your community connect event at KREM 2 News!

We loved getting a station tour from Laura Papetti and having the chance to meet with organizations across Spokane who are interested in partnering with us to provide resources to our clients and referral pathways to our services for theirs.

It was great talking with the YWCA Spokane about how we can expand on our existing relationship to better serve women in our community and a pleasure to make new connections with organizations like Excelsior Wellness and Thrivent Member Network- Northwest Region to learn about their services and opportunities for collaboration.

People and partnerships help make our programs possible, and we are always appreciative of every chance we get to work with members of our community to provide stabilization and support services to newcomers!

We had the most wonderful time last night at the YMCA’s annual Welcome Week event! Every year, and all year, the Y goes above and beyond to provide an accessible and welcoming space for newcomers and IRC clients through free classes, memberships, garden use, donated resources, and ongoing collaboration.

Their Welcome Week event brought everyone together yesterday to share culture and community through friendship, music, crafts, activities, free books from New York Life Insurance Company and free food from Feast World Kitchen!

Families were all smiles, and we’re so glad we could be there to join in the fun with everyone! Thank you to the YMCA of the Inland Northwest for your thoughtful and impactful work and for organizing and hosting such a fantastic event!

Today was the first day of a really special new experiential learning partnership we’ve been busy building out this summer between Gonzaga University’s International Studies class and IRC Spokane!

In addition to their classroom instruction, students will have monthly encounters with IRC staff at our office and on campus as part of 6 regional teams spanning across Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, South America and North America. They’ll learn directly from IRC staff who call those countries home and discuss migration from an interdisciplinary perspective through the lens of history, geography, anthropology, political science, and economics.

Sharing their culture and experience, IRC staff from Columbia, Afghanistan, Congo, Syria, Ukraine, Nepal, and Colville helped students explore academic questions about how the history of a region shape places and movement, as well as practical questions about how identity and community shape belonging.

Our first gathering was filled with meaningful storytelling, engaging discussions, and even a few tears. Staff shared that it was an honor to represent and speak about their home countries, and students shared that it was a privilege to learn from IRC staff. The students left inspired, and within an hour of finishing our time together today, two of them signed up to volunteer and one reached out about an internship.

And that was the hope with this curriculum and partnerships, that the lessons learned would go beyond the walls of the classroom and become the foundation for new relationships, experiences, perspectives, and growth. Thank you to Dr Albania Dwonch for your developing such an impactful curriculum and partnering with us to develop this community engaged learning opportunity!

Our team is already excited and dreaming up ideas for their next student encounter. In the meantime, if you’d like to learn more about this innovative collaboration, check out our episode of Dr Dwonch’s class podcast on Spotify at:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1QYK0FtBP5E93m8kzeLdum?si=ponuAlO5R3G9K6mdOqydBg&utm_source=sms

When we say that we walk alongside our clients on their path to safety, stability, and self-sufficiency, this is what we mean!

Our Housing Specialist, Abby, has been busy helping clients find temporary and permanent housing… providing application support, rental assistance, communication with landlords, eviction prevention, connection to utility assistance, and a long list of other resources.

She worked tirelessly as part of our fire response to keep clients from being displaced or in shelters by navigating short and long-term hotel stays and ensuring they had access to our food distribution, hygiene supplies, and other needed items.

On top of that, she welcomed 2 different walk-in cases last week, mothers from out of state who arrived on their own with their kids, not knowing where they would sleep that night in Spokane. When they showed up at our office, Abby jumped in right away to to find an Air B & B that would accommodate a family of 8 and a hotel for a mother and baby, not wasting anytime afterwards reaching out to her housing contacts to try to get them into permanent housing as soon as possible.

After attending to their immediate situation and needs, she referred them to our case management team, our employment team, our food security team, and our youth team to ensure that they get the wrap around services they need to be successful.

The path to rebuilding can be long and challenging, but when we work together we can help ease some of that burden because welcoming and walking alongside newcomers makes our community better. If you would like to join us in volunteering or helping to provide much needed funds for rental assistance for clients in crisis, please email [email protected] or donate to IRC Spokane at https://help.rescue.org/donate/us-spokane-wa

We want to give a wholehearted thank you to the YMCA of the Inland Northwest for coming to our office on Friday to sign up nearly 100 clients for free swim lessons!

We had been meeting regularly to coordinate on some activities for their annual Welcome Week event and shared with them the urgent and ongoing need for access to free swim lessons for children and adults within the refugee and immigrant community after the devastating loss of three Spokane community members over the summer to drowning.

The YMCA responded immediately and agreed to expand on our initial partnership so we can continue to provide lessons beyond Welcome Week to refugees and immigrants of all ages.

We did our first round of sign ups on Friday at our office with the YMCA team, registering youth, ages 6 months old to teen, for the upcoming sessions. In addition to the YMCA lessons, families will receive a water safety education class from IRC’s Health Promotion team, offered in multiple languages, with a free life jacket upon completion.

In addition, the YMCA and Spokane Transit have teamed up to offer free bus passes to families in attendance, with IRC volunteers providing bus training to the Y for any clients who need it, to ensure there are no barriers for families to access lessons.

We are so grateful for this partnership to be able to come together to respond to a critical need in the community, and we will continue to work with the Y to open up additional registration opportunities in the coming months as they become available.