Spokane opens housing navigation center
A navigation site to help homeless people get temporary housing, medical care and other support services has opened in Spokane.
The navigation center is housed at the Cannon Street Shelter, and is operated by Empire Health Foundation and Revive Counseling. The city said the facility’s focus is immediate shelter while connecting residents to mental health care, substance abuse treatment, and bridges to more permanent housing.
The navigation center soft-launched in July, concentrating on helping unsheltered people around the Second-and-Division intersection. During that trial period, 39 people were guided to treatment, transitional housing or emergency shelter.
Empire Health Foundation is also the city’s choice to manage smaller, scattered-site shelters Mayor Lisa Brown’s administration hopes to establish.
In a statement, Brown said the success at Cannon Street demonstrates the power of providing stable support and resources to people in need. She said keeping the navigation center running will aid Spokane’s most vulnerable residents.
Looking for LGBTQ books in north Idaho? This non-profit wants to make it easier
An inclusive lending library in north Idaho is now more accessible to readers around the state.
After expanding their collection of books, the North Idaho Pride Alliance created an online database so readers can search for volumes that deal with LGBTQ themes and life experiences.
Patrons who find something they like can email the center and work out a time to check out the book, instead of having to go to NIPA's library at the Human Rights Education Institute in Coeur d'Alene.
“It was more of a passive program," NIPA executive director Sarah Lynch said. "We received book donations from folks, and that was our location for keeping them and making sure that they were accessible to the public.
"But with the new website and the new database, it's a little bit more interactive, so folks can go online and see what books are there."
Lynch says the folks at the center will even mail books within Idaho.
In a time when books that mention such topics are often being restricted or removed from libraries in Idaho, Lynch says that making the library more accessible is more important than ever.
“We know, you know, from our experience as LGBT folks that picking up a book and being able to read about, see yourself reflected in some of the characters in fiction books or to kind of get an accurate history of how the [LGBT] movement occurred," Lynch told SPR News. "And to see some of the progress we've made and some of the challenges that are still in existence. I think that's really important.”
State arts commission adds award highlighting Indigenous artists
Indigenous artists who are working to preserve and continue traditional practices now have a category in the annual Governor's Arts and Heritage Awards.
The goal of the new award is to highlight artists who are keeping tribal practices alive, Tribal Cultural Affairs Program Manager Cheryl Wilcox said.
"It's not all about just restoring what was taken, it's about how do we revitalize that and move forward now," she said. "Because we're still living and we're still in this community, and we want to have an impact going forward."
Honorees will be eligible for a cash prize of up to $5,000.
Artist and woodcarver Philip H. Red Eagle is one of many Indigenous leaders who worked to revive the tradition of Tribal Canoe Journeys in the Pacific Northwest. Red Eagle is 79. He says this award means a lot to him.
"It was a very big surprise because I wasn't looking for reward, or awards, for the work that I've been doing," Red Eagle told KNKX. "It was a necessity for me."
Red Eagle and his late friend, Tom Heidelbaum, got the idea for a youth canoe journey in the early 90s after watching a healing ceremony that involved canoes.
"This was the element that we needed, was the canoe, to teach our young people," Red Eagle said.
The youth canoe journey eventually led to the current annual event in the Pacific Northwest involving multiple tribes. This year’s journey was from North of Vancouver, British Columbia, to Puyallup.
Investigation finds unsafe conditions for Kennewick ag workers
The US Department of Labor barred a farm labor contractor in Kennewick from an agricultural worker program after an investigation of almost two years.
Harvest Plus LLC, a Kennewick contractor, has been blocked from participating in the H-2A temporary agricultural worker program for three years, according to Labor.
An investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division found that Harvest Plus was putting its workers in unsafe conditions.
Violations included transporting workers in unsafe vehicles driven by people without licenses or proper permits; US workers denied access to jobs; and employees housed in moldy motel rooms.
Thomas Silva, Wage and Hour Division's district director, said the division levied more than $252,000 in civil penalties against the company. Harvest Plus claims half of what the Department of Labor reported isn’t true but it does own up to the unsafe transportation.
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Reporting contributed by Brandon Hollingsworth, Owen Henderson, Freddy Monares and Monica Carrillo-Casas.