Meg Martin will become Executive Director of the Olympia-based Interfaith Works organization starting Jan. 1, 2020. Martin, who currently oversees the organization’s Homeless Services programs for unhoused people through the Nightly Shelter, Community Care Center and Navigation Team programs, joined Interfaith Works in 2013. She helped to transform one of Interfaith Works longest standing programs – the seasonal rotating women’s shelter -- into the full breadth of safety net services offered today.  
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She takes over at a time when the organization is preparing to grow considerably by building a 24/7 shelter facility below 65 apartments that will provide permanent supportive housing. This exciting development is in partnership with the City of Olympia, Thurston County, the State of Washington, and the Seattle-based Low Income Housing Institute. Construction is expected to begin in 2020.

“Meg is an exceptional and visionary leader,” said Board President Catherine Carmel. “We are confident in her abilities to lead our organization through this exciting transition.”
Martin is a Certified Peer Counselor and a Social Worker. She earned her Masters Degree in Social Work from the University of Washington, Tacoma in 2013. Building from decades of dedicated volunteerism from the faith communities, she founded the Interfaith Works Emergency Overnight Shelter program in 2014 with two other dedicated street outreach workers - Cassie Burke and Jefferson Doyle. Under her innovative leadership the Homeless Services program has grown significantly and positioned Interfaith Works as a trusted leader in our community response to the national crisis of homelessness. 

“I am honored to have the opportunity to build from the rich history of so many who have gone before me and who have taught me so much,” Martin said. “I am excited to continue deepening and broadening relationships throughout all parts of our community – faith traditions of all kinds, business, service groups, tribal partnerships, service provider and community-based organizations, neighborhood associations, governmental partnerships and more. I love this community so much, and can’t wait to serve in this new capacity.”
Interfaith Works is a non-profit, social justice coalition made up of over 30 diverse faith traditions. The organization brings the human and financial resources of faith communities together with business and government agencies to benefit those in need. Interfaith Works will not discriminate on the basis of ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, race, physical ability, religion or religious belief, a refusal to hold a religious belief, or a refusal to actively participate in a religious practice.

​Media contact: Carolyn Cox, Board Member, 360-252-0415

HOT OF THE PRESSES! Check out the Thurston County 5 Year Homeless Crisis Response Plan

Our staff are on the front lines everyday supporting people through crisis, connecting them to vital shelter beds, hygiene, housing, and clinical support services so that they may find their right path to a higher quality of life. Our staff lead with love, humor, compassion, pragmatism, and a strong work ethic everyday to mitigate the many harms associated with the housing crisis that our city is facing. We believe that although our work isn't easy and it has impacts in the community, inaction has much greater impact to us all, and is not an option when there are people literally dying on our streets and in wooded areas due to weather, chronic health conditions, overdose, fatal accidents, major medical events like heart attack or stroke, and more. Thank you to our stellar staff team who show up everyday to face, head-on, one of the biggest and most complex challenges our community will ever face. ​

There is a long history in most cities, as is true of Olympia, of protests on May Day that can often lead to property damage, vandalism, and in extreme cases, violence. Interfaith Works has stated before, and we would like to state again, that we unequivocally denounce violence or threats of violence of any kind. Additionally, we believe that any action that further divides our communities ability to work on solutions to our greatest challenges undermines the hard work of so many (non-profits, government, businesses, neighborhood coalitions, unhoused and housed residents, etc.), who want to see our city be safe and welcoming for all people. Further, it puts our most marginalized neighbors at higher risk of harm and criminalization. Last year we put out a statement and many parts of it still ring true today.  We would like to share those excerpts again: 

"Interfaith Works has worked for peace and justice for 45 years in this community through diverse and intentional bridge-building. Working to heal community pain and bring people together through interfaith understanding and providing emergency shelter and services to vulnerable people on the streets has always been at the core of our role in Thurston County. We are deeply saddened at the strong divisions that are present in our community today. We face huge challenges posed by population growth and a changing economy. We have a humanitarian crisis on our streets, business owners are struggling, affordable housing is severely lacking and people with serious challenges related to their mental health and substance use remain on the streets while they experience long delays seeking help from an overwhelmed health care system.

This is a time, more than ever, to draw on our individual and collective strengths to weather these challenges together, without violence and/or threats of violence tearing us apart and weakening our ability to make long-term, sustainable change. The residents of Olympia and governmental, non-profit and community leaders have a deep well of compassion and strong motivation to make positive, effective changes -- we always have. We have overcome differences many times before in this community to come together for the greater good. We’ve done this by having open and civil conversations, respecting each other even if we are not seeing things from the same side, hearing each other out and allowing for the raw emotion that is inevitably part of these complex issues to be valued. Interfaith Works remains steadfast in our commitment to bridging divides and staying grounded in our core values of peace, justice and partnership among all facets of our diverse community."

Enjoy the beautiful weather, and please be excellent to each other! Have a great May Day, everyone! 

We've been hearing a lot lately around social media that as a community we need to be harder with negative consequences for people who "don't want treatment" or "don't want to help themselves" or "refuse the help they are offered". Please take 5 minutes out of your day to hear Maia Szalavitz, world renowned author, addictions specialist, and long time chaotic, heroin and cocaine user, speak about addiction as a learning disorder. Addiction by definition is not only a physical dependence to a substance, but it is also compulsively using substances DESPITE negative consequences. If we want to change the behavior of people who use substances in our community, we need to bring them in without judgement, teach them how to be responsible and self aware about how their actions affect those around them, and teach them different ways to cope with the world around them. If compulsive use despite negative consequences is the definition of addiction, why would more negative, punitive consequences get people to change their behavior? We've tried that for decades and it hasn't worked. This framework for understanding addiction helps to de-polarize the conversation of what is right and what is wrong and see this issue in a new light. If you spent time to watch Seattle is Dying, please give this video the same courtesy. To be clear, we believe there is no one pathway for people in their road to recovery. For some people abstinence based, 12 step models are vital. For many others, alternative treatments are necessary and life saving. We meet people wherever they are at on that spectrum and support them in getting connected to the resources they need and want in a  non-judgmental and de-stigmatized way. I want to acknowledge that this is a nuanced and painful discussion for many of us with loved ones or personal experience with addiction and recovery. As a community we must find ways to bridge the divide in this conversation, to recognize that what works for one will not work for another and that we all need each other to continue shifting towards a safer, more supportive community for all of us. <3 <3 <3

• Vulnerability is transformative.

I think it's safe to say that people who have fought for resilience through serious hardship have been transformed by their experiences. The most resilient people I know have survived unimaginable hardships. Part of their stories include moments of being stripped down, broken open, being physically alone or maybe in a crowded place feeling a profoundly lonely void that can't be filled. There's generally at least one other person (or furry being) that was a key support beam during the crisis that kept us alive. There tends to be a moment where the truth smacked us so hard in the face that we had a life or death choice to make... Turn towards it or run the hell away and lose people we love. Turning towards hardship and choosing to see the daily transformations in our guests and in ourselves due to the relationships we have formed through this work, has been dramatically transformative in both tiny and gigantic ways. I am forever changed.

• We can and must do better. 

Thurston County is growing at an enormous rate. We are currently seeing the push and pull of what it means to be a small, under resourced town, with big city issues playing out on our streets and in our neighborhoods everyday. While Interfaith Works does our best to carve out spaces for people who are on the streets to just be, to be included as part of the broader community, to reduce isolation, to hold up a mirror to our community about the realities of how many people are suffering right in our own backyards, to get access to what they need on their terms, to see everyone as human and worthy of love, we often fall short. We are not perfect. We have a long way to go in our understanding of how racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, classism and all the intersections of oppression cloud our judgement and the way we see people in our community. We don't always treat our guests or each other with the unconditional respect that is so core to our values as a program because this work is emotionally draining, we're human, and we all bring our baggage to the table at some point. Our work is messy and has impacts on other sectors in the community. We are operating within an oppressive system that creates more problems than it solves, and requires the under resourced "solutions" to eternally push beyond our means, yet never get ahead of the issues we are dedicating our lives to solving. Admitting that this work is dichotomous with both light and shadow sides, with tides that rise and fall, with complex outcomes... Doesn't mean that we have failed, or our work isn't important, or that none of our efforts have brought us closer to understanding what a solution for each person experiencing homelessness could look like. It means that we are willing to walk into a consciousness that doesn't have a linear pathway in or out. It doesn't have a playbook yet because we haven't evolved enough as a society to write it. It means that we are turning toward the truth which is scary, and requires strong, beautifully cultivated armor. Thank you to everyone who has supported us and challenged us along the way. We could not have gotten here without you. <3