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.

Meg Martin, MSW, CPC
Executive Director

CLOSES MARCH 17, 2020

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.

Additionally, we are taking the following steps to keep our guests and our staff safe:

1. Closely following State and County Health Department recommendations and talking daily with healthcare partners at the Community Care Center like Providence, Valley View, and The Olympia Free Clinic for most up to date recommendations.
2. As of March 12, 2020 we started mandatory and daily screening of all guests at the Community Care Center and the Nightly Shelter to determine if their symptoms meet criteria for testing. Through our partnership with Providence, we are coordinating closely with three clinics who are now testing people in Thurston County. We are arranging for safe transport in the event someone meets the criteria and needs to be seen at a clinic.
3. Increased outreach and information sharing with our staff, partner agencies, and guests who utilize our services about who's at highest risk (older folks, folks of any age who have weakened immune systems or complicating health factors like chronic illness, substance use, and people with lack of access to basic hygiene). We have posted Health Department posters about how to wash hands properly, signs and symptoms, and what to do if someone is symptomatic.
4. All guests and employees are being directed to avoid touching their eyes, nose, and mouth.
5. All employees who are sick are being directed to stay home whenever possible. We currently offer paid leave for all of our employees, but in addition to their normal accrual, we are creating an internal emergency declaration policy regarding paid leave for employees who may require additional time off to get well.
6. Our services rely on maintaining a safe and adequate staff-to-guest ratio, and we are prepared to modify our hours of operation if we cannot adequately staff any of our programs. This would be a worst-case scenario that we hope would not ever be necessary.
7. All guests and employees are being directed to cover coughs or sneezes with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash.
8. All guests and employees are being directed to wash hands multiple times per day!  To be effective, wash hands for at least 20 seconds, especially after going to the bathroom; before eating; and after nose blowing, coughing, or sneezing.
9. All guests and employees are asked to fist bump, elbow bump, or shoe bump to say hello to people -- no high fives, no handshakes. If they forget, they should wash their hands immediately and avoid touching their face.
10. All guests and employees are being told to get a flu shot if they haven't already.
11. We are making sure that hand sanitizer and disinfectant cleaning supplies are well stocked and promoted regularly.
12. We are buying as many N95 masks as we can and prioritizing them for immune compromised employees and guests at highest risk of severe illness. 
13. We are performing regular bleach wipe-downs of door handles, light switches, table and counter tops, computers, phones and other frequently touched surfaces multiple times on each shift. During daily cleaning shifts at our shelter, we open windows and run fans to promote air flow and ventilation. 
14. All employees are being told to increase their use of protective gloves and to distribute gloves to guests.
15. We are working with partner agencies at the Community Care Center to minimize the congregation of high-risk populations by asking all non-medical providers to stay home or provide service consultations by phone.​
16. We are actively lobbying the State and Local governments to increase allocation of resources to create a clear and culturally relevant plan for increased hygiene access and quarantine for people who are living in shelters, encampments, and sleeping on sidewalks and in doorways.
17. We are suspending group meetings and conducting them online whenever possible. We will be cancelling this month's Program Council and the Homeless Services monthly volunteer training. ​
    

Please let us know if you have any questions:
office@interfaith-works.org
We are sending love and strength to you and your families during this difficult time.

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