News - Spokane Alliance

Sep
30

New Spokane Alliance member tackling child care

COVID-19 has peeled back a veneer of normalcy that the status quo had blanketed over our broken systems. When presented with public health and economic challenges, many of our institutions were exposed for their precarious nature: unemployment benefits, healthcare, supply chains, schools, and others revealed how decades of underinvestment left them unable to withstand adversity.

Sep
30

Cost of Child Care in Washington

The Child Care Collaborative Task Force was charged by the Washington State Legislature with creating four reports that analyze the status of child care and provide policy recommendations to provide affordable and accessible child care to all Washington families by 2025. The flyer below illustrates the current child care crisis based on information from the first report published by the taskforce in November 2019.

Parkview Early Learning Center's (Spokane Alliance Child Care Organization) Luc Jasmin is a Tri-Chair for the Task Force.

Aug
27

UFCW 1439 glorified as "Heros" in name only

Spokane Alliance member United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1439 and its members have been busy navigating a hazardous environment where the gratitude for their profession has poured in from executives thanking them as “heroes” for their pivotal work to keep our communities nourished.

Aug
08

Say No to Police Contract

Across the country, millions of Americans are speaking out in support of long-overdue police reforms. Yet here in Spokane, Mayor Nadine Woodward is trying to reduce independent oversight of the police.

Jun
23

Tell Board of Health: Racism is a Public Health Issue

As people across the country rally to fight institutional racism, we have the opportunity to further equality within our own community. Racism is not only an issue of justice, but it’s also an issue of health. Discrimination and violence towards people of color, whether by law enforcement or individuals within the community, creates an environment of trauma. This everyday trauma in a person's life accumulates in chronic stress, higher rates of lifelong health conditions, and lower life expectancy. In turn, a greater burden is placed on our healthcare system, and all of our families and communities suffer.

This Thursday, June 25th at 12:30pm the Spokane Regional Board of Health is meeting and will vote on a resolution on address health equity within the Regional Health District. Send an email today urging the Board to vote "yes" on the resolution. There is an email template below.

This Resolution calls on the Spokane Regional Health District to create concrete changes to their internal structure and how they relate to the community to better address health equity. Full text of the resolution here.

You can tune in to view the meeting here and show your support for the resolution via YouTube Live here: https://youtu.be/t0ma8mAlroA at 12:30 on Thursday, June 25th.

Comments for the Board of Health should be sent to Ann Pitsnogle, Executive Secretary of the Board, and will be received by all members.

Email Template

TO: [email protected]

TITLE: Vote Yes on Resolution 20-07- Health Equity Response

Dear Members of the Spokane Regional Board of Health:

My name is _________ and I am a resident of __________.

As you are aware, the last three weeks has seen an overwhelming response to the most recent murders of Black Americans by police officers. As these acts of violence continue to be witnessed across America, we must reckon with the fact that experiences by Black and Indigenous Americans, among other people of color, have been previously dismissed on both a personal and institutional level. We are writing with urgency for the Spokane Regional Board of Health to publicly recognize that racism is a public health issue.

The issue of law enforcement violence and racial disparity in policing is not new. It is deeply ingrained in our social structures. Discrimination and violence towards people of color creates an environment of trauma. This everyday trauma in a person's life accumulates in chronic stress, higher rates of lifelong health conditions, and lower life expectancy. In turn, a greater burden is placed on our healthcare system, and all of our families and communities suffer.

The American Public Health Association released a statement in 2018 calling for widespread policy changes and research into systems perpetuating racism including “interventions that decrease reliance on law enforcement, including decriminalization, increased investment in social determinants of health, and community-based alternatives that promote public safety, such as violence intervention and restorative justice.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has likewise exposed extreme disparities in how our nation’s healthcare system and social structures are systemically failing people of color. The CDC has found that racial and ethnic minority groups have shouldered a disproportionate burden of illness and death to COVID-19 during the pandemic. Disparities in rates of poverty, lack of access to healthcare, lack of racial diversity of healthcare providers and languages spoken and reliance on lower paying ‘essential’ jobs that do not allow for appropriate social distancing are all aspects of a discriminatory society that causes direct harm to people of color.

This is a national crisis, but it must be addressed on a local level. Meaningful progress towards reform and oversight of the Spokane Police Department only began after the death of Otto Zehm, and that progress has been partial at best, and continues to be threatened. As the most recent statistics show: stops, arrests, and uses of force disproportionately target Black and other minority citizens of Spokane. Likewise, throughout Eastern Washington, Latinx and Marshallese communities are experiencing disproportionate illness and death due to COVID-19.

We urge you to stand with our community members that have been brutalized, harmed, suppressed and overlooked. Silence is irresponsible and action is necessary.

I urge you to vote yes on Resolution #20-07 Re: Adopting a Spokane Regional Health District Health Equity Response.

Sincerely,

YOUR NAME

Nov
01

2018 IAF Victories

We're proud to be part of our national network - the Industrial Areas Foundation - local community alliances of everyday people that build power and fight for justice and equity every day. Read about our victories in 2018 on issues from criminal justice reform to strengthening unions and immigration.

Oct
31

Vote your Values - Housing and Homelessness

On October 10th, the Spokane Alliance hosted a Candidates Forum to focus on the crisis in homelessness and housing. All candidates running for Spokane City offices were invited to participate. We asked each candidate if they would work with us on our priorities. Read their answers here.

Feb
20

We Support Prop 1

Why we Support Prop 1

In February, Spokane city voters will be asked to vote on Prop 1, a measure that will raise money for public safety through funding firefighters and police officers.

Feb
04

Action Team Quarterly Update

Here is the Quarterly Update on the Spokane Alliance Research Action Teams - the Jobs Team, Health Care Research Action, and the West Central Development Project - for Winter 2019.

Nov
25

Spokane Responds to Immigration Raids

Spokane Alliance joined the community in rejecting federal immigration agents' practice of searches and seizures on Greyhound buses. The City Council passed an emergency ordinance to outlaw the practice, but it has yet to be enforced by the Mayor.