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IW SHELTER
  • Resident Info
  • Programs
    • Unity Commons
    • Sergio's
    • REST
    • Navigation Team
    • Training
    • Education
  • About
  • Get Involved
    • Volunteer
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    • Donate
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A New Triage Tool Comes to Thurston County!

3/28/2022

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Evaluation

Here comes The HEAT! 

CHALLENGE
In Thurston County, we follow national best practices of vulnerability-based placement for the precious housing and shelter resources in our community. While we wish beyond our wildest dreams that there was an abundance of shelter beds and affordable apartments for everyone who needed them, we have a continuing lack of options for people and solutions are not keeping pace with the increased costs of housing and income that has remain stagnated or decreased for so many during the pandemic.

PRIORITIZING VULNERABILITY
Since there are so many more people that need resources than there are resources available, we utilize a triage system to prioritize those at the highest risk of death, injury, violence, and exploitation out on the streets. Those prioritized by this system are generally a combination of people who have been experiencing homelessness for a very long time, are living with serious medical fragility, permanent disability, chronic illness, and serious, persistent challenges related to their mental and substance use-related health. Think of it as an Emergency Room -- someone with a heart attack will be seen before someone with a broken leg. Both are serious and deserve attention, time and care, but the resources need to be prioritized for the person with the highest risk of death. In Thurston County, we have used a prioritization tool called the VI-SPDAT or Vulnerability Index – Service Prioritization Decision Assistance Tool since 2014.
After utilizing the VI-SPDAT for three years and using it with so many more people than the original pilot pool (130 people in 2014 for placement into 30 low-barrier shelter beds), it became clear that predominantly white; cisgender males were scoring the highest on the vulnerability index. This created an imbalance in how precious permanent housing and shelter resources were being allocated, and further exposed the large racial disparity in the Thurston County Homeless response system. Nearly 40% of people entering the  system are Black, Indigenous and all People of Color, while the people exiting to shelter and housing at the highest rates are predominately white.
SOLUTION
A group of front-line homeless service providers in Thurston County began a thorough study and revision of the VI-SPDAT assessment tool in 2017 because, after three years of using the tool, these providers consistently saw disparities in housing prioritization. It was evident that predominantly white, cisgender males were scoring the highest on the vulnerability index, which was incongruent with the vulnerability front line workers saw with their own eyes. Thurston County was not the only community to see these disparities; homeless response systems across the US were reporting similar trends.

In 2019, the VI Racial Equity Team aligned their practice in response to the “Coordinated Entry Systems Racial Equity Analysis of Assessment Data” study published by C4 Innovations. The C4 Innovations study examined the following questions:
  1. According to CES (Coordinated Entry System) assessment data, are White people more likely to be prioritized for permanent housing compared to BIPOC?
  2. Which subscales of the VI-SPDAT predict vulnerability, and thus housing needs, across racial groups? Are there methods or proxy variables that can be transformed to result in more equitable prioritization? (Wilkey)

​The results of the C4 Innovation study showed:
  1. On average, BIPOC clients receive statistically significantly lower prioritization scores on the VI-SPDAT than their White counterparts;
  2. According to VI-SPDAT data, White individuals are prioritized for Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) intervention at a higher rate than BIPOC individuals, though this is not true for families;
  3. Race is a predictor of receiving a high score (i.e., an assessment for Permanent Supportive Housing/ Housing First), where being white was a protective factor for single adults;
  4. VI-SPDAT subscales do not equitably capture vulnerabilities for BIPOC compared to Whites: race is a predictor of 11/16 subscales, and most subscales are tilted towards capturing vulnerabilities that Whites are more likely to endorse. (Wilkey)

To holistically reduce disparities in housing prioritization, the VI Research Team in Thurston County began discussing and evaluating whether certain assessment questions disproportionately impacted higher scoring, giving a predictable advantage to white people. In line with the recommendations from the C4 Innovation study, the VI Research Team worked to incorporate the following vulnerabilities into the new tool: “prior child welfare involvement and foster care history, criminal justice and juvenile justice involvement, history of trauma and adverse childhood experiences, and eviction histories.” (Wilkey) With this information in mind, and a wealth of lived and professional experience, the Thurston County group developed a new assessment tool (The Housing Equity Assessment Tool - HEAT). The tool, authored primarily by Interfaith Works staff, includes a core vulnerability and risk assessment along with four supplemental surveys. These supplemental surveys are triggered upon answers to specific questions. The four supplemental surveys include BIPOC, GNC LGBQ+, Substance Use, and Families. The HEAT was tested on a small but dynamic sample size group and was found to more accurately capture an individual's vulnerability than the VI-SPDAT. The HEAT generates a score of up to 100 for single adults and 106 for families with dependent children, and then people are triaged for shelter and housing resources based on their scores. 

As of March 1st, the Thurston County Coordinated Entry system officially implemented the Housing Equity Assessment Tool (HEAT) and is in the process of converting previous VI-SPDAT scores to the new index. This is a big step forward for equity in our community and we are hopeful to see improvements on a system wide scale that will create more access for the most marginalized people in Thurston County in need of shelter and permanent housing resources. We have a ton of talent and dedication in Thurston County and we are super excited about the work that is emerging!
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REST End of Pilot Final Report

3/28/2022

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REST Program
At the end of February we wrapped up the 6 month pilot phase of the Interfaith Works REST medical respite program. This was a very successful pilot between Interfaith Works, Providence St. Peter Hospital, Multicare-Capital Medical, and the Thurston County Office of Public Health and Human Services to provide dedicated beds for medically fragile people exiting the hospitals who are unhoused.

We are very happy with the outcomes and we want the community to know more about this exciting, innovative program that is only one of 9 that are like it statewide. It's the first of its kind in Thurston County and is strengthening both the homeless response and the hospital systems effectiveness and efficiency in supporting medically fragile people who are leaving the hospitals.
Often when people have nowhere to go they end up staying in hospital beds for longer than may be necessary because they are still too fragile to go back to the streets.

The REST program provides a transitional place to land with wrap around case management and 24/7 support so that people will be more likely to follow through with aftercare instructions, and reduce recidivism back to the hospital.

This also helps to ensure that all of our precious community hospital beds are being utilized for the people who need them the most. 

REST Reports

Please check out a quick facts sheet and the full end of pilot report below! 
REST Quick Facts
REST Full End of Pilot Report
HUGE Thank you to the authors of, and contributors to the REST Pilot End of Pilot Report:
  • Ivy Ayers - Business and Administration Manager
  • Ti'eri Lino - Homeless Services Program Coordinator
  • Tarryn Bieloh - Navigation Team Program Manager
  • Beau Antonelis - Navigation Team Operations Administrator
  • Rick Scrivner - REST Navigator
  • Wendy Conway - REST Navigator
  • Emily Shippee - REST Navigator
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Unity Commons PHASE 2 Update & Neighbor Meeting

3/12/2022

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Unity Commons PHASE 2

Do you live or work near Unity Commons?

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Informational Community Meeting
Please join us for an informational community meeting If you live or work near Unity Commons, located at 161 Pattison Street NE. PHASE 1 of Unity Commons opened in December 2021, and PHASE 2 will begin construction later this year. 

About
This meeting will be about building another 65 units on the same property as Unity Commons PHASE 1. It will be a 58-bed, 24/7 shelter on the ground floor with 65 apartments of permanent affordable housing above.

Who
This meeting will be hosted by the City Planning Department and held on Zoom. We hope you'll join us to learn more!

When
Wednesday, March 16, 5:30 pm
REGISTER HERE
Notice of Land Use Application
Download PDF
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Reflections on Unity Commons Grand Opening

12/21/2021

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Unity Commons Grand Opening
Today, on December 21, 2021 - the Winter Solstice and National Homeless Persons Day of Remembrance was the grand opening of Unity Commons.

Unity Commons is a 58 bed low-barrier supportive and enhanced shelter on the first floor with 65 apartments of permanent supportive housing. Many of our current shelter guests will soon move into forever homes of their own after staying in shelters for many years in some cases.

In Partnership
This would never have been possible without our partnership with LIHI. Partnering with LIHI has been a great experience so far and we hope to continue to develop that relationship as we get into the groove of daily operations. 
Learn More
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Unity Commons
This is undeniably a huge day for our community. Depending on your perspective, this moment has been nearly a decade in the making dating back to the People's House effort and even before that the volunteer based shelter program hosted by faith and spiritual communities throughout Thurston County, and grassroots volunteer based organizations like Bread and Roses and EGYHOP. The HOME Fund campaign is finally seeing brick and mortar outcomes and it's genuinely a huge deal. We welcomed HoHoHobos to sell wreaths in the parking lot today (we love you!) and we did our very best to be respectful of people's living space and autonomy. It was so beautiful and overwhelming and represented so much of the best of this community.

Yet, tonight as I start to deeply feel the intense exhaustion from our shelter move on December 17th into the new space, and the intensity of today, I'm feeling very similar to how I felt the night before our shelter at First Christian Church opened 7 years ago. I'm so sad that we need to do this at all. How can we live in such a wealthy society and yet hundreds still will sleep outside in the snow this holiday weekend in our community? That harsh reality doesn't cancel out this moment of massive celebration, AND If the lessons of the pandemic have taught us anything, it's that many truths can exist at the same time. So tonight, I'm holding many truths - in my joy - in my tears - in my grief - in my gratitude. 

My name gets thrown around a lot in moments like these. We tend to cling to charismatic leaders in this society and the by-product of that is we miss so much beauty and skill and recognition of vital leaders in our community. I wish the community could see and know all of the absolute gems who show up to this beautifully difficult work every single day to clean toilets, and clean up people's messes when they are uncontrollably sick, make beds, serve food, dive into to crisis, successfully reverse overdoses that would have otherwise resulted in death, sit with the coroner while a beloved guest is brought to the funeral home to never be claimed by their family. Our staff support people with a mastery that you can only understand if you've been there, in the space day in and day out and have done it yourself. Honestly, we have a team of truly diverse people in identity, in thought, in experience, and I cry when I think about how lucky we are to have the team that we have. We are multigenerational, we value hardship and resilience, we hold onto the hope that things can be better, and it matters that we show up.
Thank you to the employees past and present of Interfaith Works. I wish there was a more meaningful way to say it, but seriously, thank you. I wanted to list everyone's name but I don't have their permission yet. So I'll get that and then I'll post all their names because you need to know them. You need to see them. You need to recognize them for all the ways they hold this community together everyday. 

Here's the other part that is so bittersweet -- since we opened our shelter in 2014, we've lost so many people. People who would have lived here with us. People who we advocated to build this building specifically for because of the challenges they had in our old spaces. These are folks who we didn't build this fast enough for. Again, this truth doesn't take away from all the good that will come and all the lives that will be extended because of the clean safe space at Unity Commons. But the community needs to know, this is the reality. 

We love you all. We hold you in our hearts and minds with every decision we make at Interfaith Works. Thank you for sharing your lives with us. Tonight and every night we honor you.
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In Remembrance
​This is not an exhaustive list by any means. May we never forget why we are here, and what it's all about. We love you Olympia, let's move forward from this beautiful moment and keep getting after it until all people have safe, clean, affordable housing and the community support they need to feel a true sense of belonging. Goodnight!
Meg Martin
Meg Martin, LICSW, CPC
Executive Director
Interfaith Works

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Safe Place for Recovery

9/20/2021

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Community Partnerships

Community Partnerships Offer Unhoused Individuals Safe Place to Recover after Hospital Discharge

Interfaith Works, MultiCare Capital Medical Center, Providence St. Peter Hospital, and Thurston County Public Health and Social Services are partnering to provide people experiencing homelessness a safe place to fully recover after they are discharged from the hospital, with the goal of reducing readmissions and freeing up much-needed hospital beds, the organizations announced today.
Safe Place to Recover
The Interfaith Works Restorative Experience for a Safer Transition (REST) program will provide beds for discharged patients meeting certain criteria, giving them a safe place to recover, and coordinating social service support, hygiene services, and meals during their stay.

Providence St. Peter and MultiCare Capital Medical Center have committed to a six-month pilot project, with Providence sponsoring four beds and Capital sponsoring two beds, with a goal of adding more in the future. These six beds are expected to benefit as many as 50 people over the course of six months and free up much-needed hospital beds.
This partnership is the culmination of years of work and relationship building between health care and homeless service providers in our region. I am thrilled because our systems need to support each other and, most importantly, medically fragile members of our community deserve time to heal.
MEG MARTIN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, INTERFAITH WORKS
Traditionally, when an acute care hospital patient is ready for discharge, they return home, often with a discharge plan that calls for differing levels of follow-up care. A simple discharge plan is quickly complicated by homelessness. Without a safe place for recovery, patients often do not have adequate opportunity to heal, leading to readmission. Severe shelter bed shortages in Thurston County coupled with already high hospital occupancy compound an already overloaded system.

“Community partnerships like these are how society’s toughest challenges are solved,” said Darin Goss, Chief Executive, Providence Southwest Washington. “We, along with MultiCare, are looking forward to this program helping us address the appropriate care for our vulnerable patients being discharged as well as helping us with our hospital capacity constraints.”

“We’re committed to partnering with our community for healing and a healthy future, including when a patient is discharged from our hospital,” said Will Callicoat, President, Capital Medical Center & Thurston County Market Leader. “I had a family member who was homeless for periods of his life and was cared for at both local hospitals. I can attest to the challenges that occur — both personally and those placed on society — when the patient is homeless.”

The REST program is designed for patients being released from the hospital after being treated for an acute medical condition, including flare ups of chronic conditions who cannot safely return to a congregate shelter setting. Stays are limited to 30 days and no on-site medical care is provided, but the program will support and coordinate outside visiting health care and caregiving providers. To participate, released patients must have no active infections; not be in active medical withdrawal from alcohol or prescription or illicit drugs; and must be medically stable.

Funding for the six-month, $142,220 pilot project was also a team effort. Thurston County plans to utilize non-congregate care shelter funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) COVID-19 public assistance grant program, in addition to funding from Providence Southwest Washington Foundation and MultiCare.

“The partnership between Providence, MultiCare and Interfaith Works represents the best of our community,” said Schelli Slaughter, Director of Thurston County Public Health and Social Services. “The county is proud to play a part in this vital effort to ensure that people experiencing homelessness who need respite care while they heal, have a safe and supportive place to do so during this public health emergency.”

“This program is our foundation’s Fund-a-Need focus for this year,” said Peter Brennan, Chief Philanthropy Officer, Providence Southwest Washington Foundation. “Our involvement wouldn’t be possible without community support for the foundation through events like Christmas in the Forest and other donations. And the project would not have been possible without Thurston County’s efforts to secure FEMA funding.”

The program has successfully welcomed its first six guests and will continue serving released patients throughout the end of the year at minimum.
Providence
About Providence Southwest Washington

Providence in Southwest Washington touches more lives in the 540,000 five-county service area of Thurston, Mason, Lewis, Grays Harbor and Pacific counties than any other health care provider.

It is made up of:

  • Providence St. Peter Hospital is a 372-bed, not-for-profit regional teaching hospital founded by the Sisters of Providence in 1887 with three-time Magnet® recognition. The Magnet Recognition Program® recognizes the top health care organizations in the nation for providing nursing excellence. Only two other hospitals in Washington have garnered this honor. In 2021, Providence St. Peter named Best Regional Hospital in US News and World Report (Peninsula Region) and No. 3 in the state of Washington. The hospital was named “high performing” in 16 different categories. St. Peter is a regional leader in cardiology, oncology, orthopedics and neurosciences. The Joint Commission has designated the hospital a Stroke Center of Excellence since 2007.

  • Providence Centralia Hospital is a 128-bed, not-for-profit community-based hospital which was awarded Pathway to Excellence nursing designation. The services the hospital provides make it the heart of medical care in Lewis County. As a community hospital with outstanding technology, Providence Centralia Hospital is large enough to provide state-of-the-art services such as MRI, 64-slice CT scans and digital mammography. The hospital is also small enough to offer personal, compassionate care to everyone it serves.

  • Providence Medical Group operates more than 40 clinic locations, with more than 300 specialized providers in Lewis, Thurston, Mason and Grays Harbor counties. The group provides primary and specialty care. All 11 primary care clinics are level-3 accredited by the NCQA. Clinics include family medicine, internal medicine, cardiology, neurosurgery, oncology, diabetes care, general surgery, endocrinology, obstetrics/gynecology, infectious disease services, physiatry, psychiatry and urology.
MultiCare Capital Medical Center
About MultiCare

MultiCare is a not-for-profit health care organization with more than 20,000 team members, including employees, providers and volunteers. MultiCare has been caring for our community for well over a century, since the founding of Tacoma’s first hospital and today is the largest community-based, locally governed health system in the state of Washington.

MultiCare’s comprehensive system of health includes numerous primary care, urgent care and specialty services — including MultiCare Indigo Urgent Care, Pulse Heart Institute and MultiCare Rockwood Clinic, the largest multispecialty clinic in the Inland Northwest region.

MultiCare’s network of care includes 11 hospitals:
  1. MultiCare Allenmore Hospital, Tacoma
  2. MultiCare Auburn Medical Center, Auburn
  3. MultiCare Capital Medical Center, Olympia
  4. MultiCare Covington Medical Center, Covington
  5. MultiCare Deaconess Hospital, Spokane
  6. MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital, Puyallup
  7. Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital, Tacoma
  8. MultiCare Tacoma General Hospital, Tacoma
  9. MultiCare Valley Hospital, Spokane Valley
  10. Navos Behavioral Health Hospital
  11. Wellfound Behavioral Health Hospital
Interfaith Works
About Interfaith Works

Interfaith Works has a legacy of promoting interfaith understanding and collaboration in the community through social justice, community, and educational endeavors.

We create and support the intersection between the values of the world’s wisdom traditions and the public square through diverse programming and ongoing nurturing of relationships across and between faiths. Thus, our work in Interfaith Relations exists to strengthen regional, interfaith communities and as a resource and support for social justice and peace in the wider community.

Every night in our community more than 1,000 people sleep in doorways, on cold concrete sidewalks, and in wooded areas around Thurston County. This public health emergency is challenging for those needing shelter and for our community. We are addressing that challenge through our dedication to a continuum of services that meet both emergency shelter needs as well as permanent long-term solutions to resolve homelessness. Our programs are designed to serve people in our community who are routinely and historically screened out of opportunities due to the complexities of the challenges they face related to their physical and mental health. We screen them in. Interfaith Works is a primary services provider for seniors and adults with the most complex challenges experiencing homelessness in our area. We will always prioritize those with the most barriers to service connection and opportunities for a higher quality of life.

Our guests receive 24/7 shelter, two meals daily, peer advocacy, connection to permanent housing, connections to primary care, mental health, and substance use treatment, and access to basic hygiene services, including laundry and showers.
  • 24/7 supportive shelter space for 60 vulnerable, homeless adults currently hosted by two member faith communities, First Christian Church (host since 2014) and First United Methodist Church (host during the pandemic)
  • Community Meals Program, which coordinates the donation of meals to our shelters and the social inclusion and increased understanding of our guests.
  • The Navigation Team peer support-based case management and outreach program that works to support individuals in achieving their goals
  • Advocacy and education amongst community members, businesses, service providers, and government partners to destigmatize the experiences of our most vulnerable neighbors

Learn More about the Interfaith Works REST program.
REST PROGRAM
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Innovative Shelter Solution

11/4/2020

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Innovative Shelter Solution
OLYMPIA – Funding has been secured for purchase and development of a half-acre lot on Olympia’s eastern edge that will serve as a temporary homeless shelter and evolve to more broadly serve Thurston County’s unhoused residents.

Just as it appeared that Interfaith Works would have to turn out the 23 people we’ve been caring for on the site of the organization’s future permanent shelter and supportive housing building at 2828 Martin Way, a new plan has come together. Partners in the $1.7 million plan include Thurston County, the Washington State Department of Commerce, the City of Olympia, The United Way of Thurston County, First United Methodist Church and a private donor-lender.

Since April, the City of Olympia has allowed Interfaith Works to use an empty former podiatry and dental office at 2828 Martin Way as an overflow shelter to accommodate social distancing at our crowded downtown shelter guests after the COVID-19 pandemic hit. We will have to move next week to make way for construction to start on a multi-story building built by the Seattle-based Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI) and staffed by Interfaith Works. It will have 65 apartments above a new 60-bed shelter facility.
There are multiple moving parts to this complex plan involving three sites, building demolition, two construction projects and relocating our shelter guests twice,” said Andrew Rayment, president of the Interfaith Works Board of Directors. “Sometimes miracles do occur. We are incredibly grateful to all of the partners who helped make this happen.”
A Continuum of Care
Sprung Stucture
Photo of the modular building, called a "Sprung" structure, that will be constructed between Nov. 2020-Feb. 2021 at 3444 Martin Way for a shelter in the short term, and a future day time service center.

3444 Martin Way

The plan calls for purchasing a lot at 3444 Martin Way and erecting a 5,250-square-foot Sprung Structure to serve as a temporary shelter. A number of American and Canadian cities are using these heavy-duty modular structures to shelter unhoused people. The new structure is expected to be ready for occupancy by mid-January/early February 2021. Until then, the people who had been sheltered at 2828 Martin Way will be temporarily housed at First United Methodist Church of Olympia.
First United Methodist Church of Olympia

First United Methodist Church of Olympia

“The congregation of First United Methodist Church of Olympia is thrilled to partner with Interfaith Works and support the vital work they are doing in our community,” said the Rev. Amanda Nicol, Associate Pastor. "Our Christian faith compels us to love God by seeking justice, kindness and dignity for the most vulnerable among us. The pandemic has left our building profoundly underutilized, so we feel blessed to offer this act of hospitality to our unsheltered neighbors.”

Keylee Marineau, Thurston County Homeless and Affordable Housing Coordinator, noted that Thurston County has seen a dramatic loss of shelter bed capacity over the past year.
"It’s no secret that we have hundreds of unsheltered people on our streets and in wooded areas with no options to get inside as winter approaches," Marineau said. "Any addition of 24/7 shelter beds to our system is a major win.”
When the new temporary shelter opens, it will have 38 socially-distanced beds, adding to the overall capacity to the system. Shelter residents will continue to receive two meals a day, 24- hour hygiene services, and round-the-clock support from highly trained and experienced Interfaith Works employees. The modular structure model creates a high degree of control over the site layout, allowing for a thoughtful planning process designed to minimize impacts on neighboring businesses and residents
2828 Martin Way Supportive Housing and Shelter
Future home of 65-unit of permanent supportive housing and a 60-bed supported shelter to be completed in late 2021.

2828 Martin Way

Interfaith Works and LIHI expect to break ground in December on the five-story building that will provide a new homeless shelter and supportive housing apartments at 2828 Martin Way. Once the new building is ready for occupancy, the people to be housed in the temporary shelter and those in a second Interfaith Works shelter now located at Olympia’s First Christian Church will move in. When that move is complete, the modular building at 3444 Martin Way will convert into day shelter and a hygiene center. Eventually the private donor who helped with the property purchase hopes it will be possible to build low-income housing units there as well.
Interfaith Works Executive Director Meg Martin was quick to praise the Interfaith Board and funding partners for their willingness to embrace the complex project.
“At a time when the COVID-19 crisis has made all of our lives harder, this community has come together with a pragmatic, generous and heart-strong plan to help our most vulnerable residents,” Martin said. “It’s remarkable, but not surprising. This effort proves that Thurston County is home to some of the most caring, innovative, and courageous people in the world.”

Q&A for Neighbors

More information about the temporary relocation to the First United Methodist Church can be found online as well as any links to future neighbor meetings as they arise.
Q&A for Neighbors
More details and updates about the 3444 Martin Way development will be posted on our website in the next few weeks.
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Shelters in the time of Covid

9/3/2020

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We're adapting, but we need your help!

Check out this short video that talks about how we are pivoting to meet the rising need and challenge of Covid 19! Listen in for ways that you can help!
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Our New Show!

8/27/2020

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​

Interfaith Works tackles conversations at the intersection of justice, humanity, and belief.

There are so many issues swirling around right now. Questions of public health, public safety, and public good. Everyone is struggling in some way as we all try to find some sort of equilibrium during the pandemic. ​We wanted to make a forum for those conversations. Check out our new facebook livestream, Lean in Olympia! Interfaith Works will be making space every couple weeks on Tuesdays at noon to have these talks on topical subjects. ​
​This episode discusses how Covid 19 has impacted local homeless services. There is information about how quarantine and isolation works, what the challenges are, how Thurston County is doing things differently than some other places, and a whole lot more! 

The conversation also touches on the subject of overdoses and the significant impact of the opioid epidemic as we prepare for Overdose Awareness Day, August 31st. 

Join the conversation!

If there are topics you would be interested in seeing us cover, reach out!
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Ready for What's Next

7/14/2020

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Providence Ends Services

Providence ends partnership with Interfaith Works at the Community Care Center. 

Good evening
Interfaith Works has been striving to increase access to services for those experiencing chronic homelessness for more than 25 years, and on a much larger scale since 2014.

We provide 24/7 shelter, peer support based case management services, and until last week, we were a founding partner at the Providence Community Care Center.

The unprecedented collaborative effort at the CCC included 16 different partners from local mental health, primary care, and shelter and housing services. There are countless stories of success from this model, particularly for people in our community who have the most complex challenges related to their physical health, mental health, and substance use.
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Interfaith Works employees Dave Wade and Chris Harnish working the front service desk at the Community Care Center.
As we have said many times before, this work is not easy. It takes a toll mentally, emotionally, and politically. In the world of providing for the basic needs of people regardless of their circumstances, it doesn't always look pretty from the outside, and the complex realities of homelessness are often misunderstood and misrepresented.
Gratitude
Without leaning into the painful places and bearing witness to human suffering, one will never get to experience the transformation in yourself, in others, and in our community that comes from taking the time to accept people exactly as they are without judgment and strings attached. We thank Providence for the time, resources, and energy they have spent leaning in with us over these past three and a half years.
Last week Providence decided to terminate the role of Interfaith Works and SideWalk in the CCC partnership and shift the program model to be primarily appointment based. We are deeply saddened by this decision and very concerned about the additional gaps this will create in our already struggling local safety net. We are concerned not only for the people we serve but also for the business community and other downtown organizations that become defacto hygiene and day centers in the absence of dedicated places for people to be.

Further, in today’s vitally important conversation about dismantling structural racism, community policing, and alternatives that center the safety and support of Black and Indigenous people and all people of color, we now must recognize that one of the primary spots for people to come to daily, for the CRU team, law enforcement, Familiar Faces, the clinical providers at the CCC, the hospital discharge planners to find people and to bring them to connect to services will no longer be a tool in our tool belt in the same way -- particularly not for houseless people who are most disconnected from traditional services. People of color make up 35% of people experiencing homelessness in Thurston County. That is nearly twice the rate of the prevalence of people of color in the general population.
Ready and Willing
We stand ready and willing for what’s next. We hope you'll join us.
Today is a beautiful sunny day -- one of the few we’ve had all year, and all I can think about is winter. It’s mid-July, and we have no plan for a day center, no plan for additional shelter capacity for the cold-weather season for the single adult population, a likely decrease in shelter capacity once construction for the new IW/LIHI shelter and permanent supportive housing development at Martin Way begins, no real plan for providing safe parking alternatives for the dozens of people on Deschutes parkway and Ensign Road…. But you already know this. For everyone in our community interested in this issue please contact Thurston County and the cities of Lacey and Tumwater to share your thoughts on the intersections of race, class, and housing issues. I hope our community will not miss this moment to meaningfully connect the dots that racial justice and housing justice are intrinsically linked.

Today I am grateful for the collective and diverse lived experiences that exist within Interfaith Works because we are resilient, creative, and will do what it takes to continue building a community that allows dedicated space and care to every person regardless of their circumstance! We hope you will join us in that effort to find a place where people who are unsheltered and living in substandard housing can go, can be their full selves without judgment, and can get their basic needs met regardless of their circumstance.

Thank you to all our amazing service partners at the CCC, particularly the core partner group -- Providence clinical mental health team, Valley View, SideWalk, Community Action Council, Behavioral Health Services, and The Olympia Free Clinic. We would also like to thank the office of Thurston County Public Health and Social Services, the Olympia City Council and city staff who have put countless time, energy, and resources into making the CCC what it was.
Meg Martin
Meg Martin, MSW, CPC
Executive Director

Community Care Center Model

​Please check out this beautiful video highlighting the unique model of the Community Care Center that we are very proud of co-founding. 
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Providence Temporarily Closes Dayroom and Services

3/16/2020

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Make a Donation

Community Care Center

CLOSES MARCH 17, 2020
Due to concerns regarding COVID-19, Providence has decided to temporarily close the dayroom and hygiene services at the Community Care Center, effective March 17.
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On March 13, Providence released the following statement to The Olympian.

"… Providence will continue to offer mental health and medication services downtown, but will screen patients at the door for an appointment. If a guest presents who does have symptoms, we are partnering with Thurston County Public Health to put a plan in place to help meet the need for testing homeless in our community."

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Interfaith Works appreciates Providence's desire to slow the spread of COVID-19, but we are highly concerned about the health and safety of unsheltered people in Thurston County and the lack of options available for people who are living with permanent disability and chronic illness and who are at high risk for transmission.
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The Community Care Center drop-in dayroom provides a vital service to over 200 people a day and has the most accessible hygiene services in the city for unsheltered people.

These guests are at the highest risk of infection and death from COVID-19.

What We are Doing to Keep People Safe

  1. On March 12, Interfaith Works staff began conducting mandatory screening of guests at the Community Care Center and the Nightly Shelter to monitor symptoms. 
  2. We are creating a plan to extend hours at our nightly shelter and provide meals to our shelter guests so they don't have to leave to go to congregant meal locations.
  3. Additionally, we will be partnering with local outreach efforts to increase bringing support, medical services, and supplies to people where they are. 
  4. We plan to work closely with our mental health and clinical partners at the CCC to increase access to clinical services provided there despite the closure of the dayroom. 
 

How You Can Help

  1. Sign up to bring a meal (either home-cooked or consider food from a local business who might be struggling right now as well), to the nightly shelter and drop it off with staff across the street so we can bring it in and serve it. If you are already signed up, please consider if there are other ways to keep that commitment rather than canceling. We are happy to talk through ideas with you! Check out our volunteer calendar to see what nights we need meals.
  2. Are you a medical provider or work in a medical office and you could consider donating oral thermometer devices with disposable plastic covers to shelter providers or outreach workers?
  3. Do you work for a union who utilizes N95 masks or Personal Protective Equipment and you could consider donating these supplies to us?
  4. Do you work for an entertainment company and you have excess bulk wristbands you could consider donating to us? Wristbands are how we are tracking our screening process.
  5. Are you healthy, at low risk of transmission and willing to help us with our increased personnel needs due to mandatory screening each day? We have volunteer roles, and may have temporary paid positions opening up as well.
  6. Do you have one or more rechargeable, oral thermometers you could donate that is compatible with Welch Allyn thermometer probes? 
  7. Can you donate food items like Cup O' Soup, Easy Mac, single serving yogurt cups, string cheese, coffee, sugar, creamer, soft drinks and bottled water, bulk items that we could use to make meals with?
  8. Do you sew and have extra fabric/elastic around that you could make our staff and guests cloth face masks such as [this pattern]?
  9. Can you help make DIY facemasks such [as this]?
  10. Do you have light to medium weight machine washable blankets, twin size sheets, and pillow cases you could donate? Can you ask your neighbor if they have any to donate as well?
  11. Can you donate clothes, socks, underwear, hand warmers, sleeping bags, tents, tarps, gloves, hats, rain gear, etc.? 
  12. Make a purchase on our Amazon Wish List and make an immediate impact on our most needed items.
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Learn More

If you want to learn more about how you can help, contact us.
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Can you donate to help us cover the additional costs of responding to this pandemic?

The bulk of the public health response to COVID-19 for people experiencing homelessness is falling to front line healthcare and homeless service providers.

Thank you in advance for considering a donation. We could not do this work without you.

Meg Martin, MSW, CPC
Executive Director
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    Meg Martin

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    Meg Martin, LICSW, CPC, is the Executive Director for The Interfaith Works.


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