2023 Giving Back

Spokane Public Radio: Your Connection to News, Music, Arts, and Entertainment

Spokane Public Radio provides high-quality informational and artistic programming to 1.25 million people across 20,000 miles of the Inland Northwest. Serving as the region’s only NPR affiliate station, Spokane Public Radio tells stories that matter— connecting people to regional, national, and global news, and highlighting the musicians and artists that help define our area’s culture. SPR stations KPBX 91.1, KSFC 91.9, and KPBZ 90.3 FM provide this service for free every day—on your radio, smart speaker, phone, and online at SpokanePublicRadio.org.

SPR offers information to make sense of a complicated world—with facts, context, reliable information, culture—as well as music, arts, and humanities to inform, enlighten and inspire.

SPR depends on contributions from people who care about their community. Will you pledge to keep this essential service strong? Visit SpokanePublicRadio.org to donate now.

What We Do:

The Arc of Spokane promotes independence and choice and enhances the quality of life for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and their families.

As a chapter of The Arc of Washington and The Arc of the United States, The Arc of Spokane joins over 600 chapters across the country on the front lines to ensure that people with IDD and their families have access to the support and services they need to be fully engaged in their communities. The collaboration of state and local chapters creates a powerful network ensuring that people with IDD and their families have the strongest advocates promoting and protecting their needs at all levels.

Locally, The Arc of Spokane is one of the largest social service agencies serving people with IDD in our community. Our major programs serve over 3,000 people each year through our Community Center, Supported Living homes, Transition & Young Adult Programs, Supported Employment, Community Inclusion, Representative Payee Services and Advocacy & Family Support. In addition, The Arc operates two Thrift Stores, where the proceeds directly support the services we provide.

How Can You Get Involved?

When you give to The Arc, you help support programs for people with IDD to live inclusive lives and engage as full members of the community. Please consider making a gift to The Arc of Spokane at www.arc-spokane.org/give.

The Arc of Spokane 320 E 2nd Ave Spokane, WA 99202 (509) 328-6326 www.arc-spokane.org info@arc-spokane.org

YWCA provides shelter from trauma

It can be incredibly difficult and scary to uproot yourself and your family from all you know to move into a foreign communal environment. To help ensure our domestic violence safe house at YWCA Spokane is as trauma-informed as possible, we focus on creating welcoming spaces that foster a sense of beloved community.

Our shelter includes an expansive garden, patio, and play equipment for children, private spaces to pause and process, access to the Internet, basic food, clothing and necessities, and ample support to help prepare for the future. Approximately 300 survivors and their children stay in our safe shelter each year, totaling nearly 8,000 nights of safety and rest. In addition, our shelter advocates answer over 4,000 calls each year through our 24-hour confidential helpline at (509) 326-2255.

If you would like to help ensure our doors remain open for survivors when they need us most, consider making a gift today at ywcaspokane.org.

WHY YOUR SUPPORT REALLY DOES MATTER

It’s all about the ripple effect.

This term has been used recently to describe the value of giving back. Basically, it means that your donation of time, talent, or treasure (OK, more accurately your money) is able to stretch much further than just one simple transaction.

Basically, your gift, no matter the size, can provide additional resources for a non-profit or charity to continue its operations or get closer to a specific fund-raising goal.

Your support means that the charity won’t have to pay its staff or dip into its savings for that amount. If enough people give in the same way you do, this lets the charity grow even larger and help more people. Essentially your gift is just one positive ripple that the whole community, or at least the population it serves, benefits from.

As a donor, you also receive benefits. These start with the financial ones, since charitable donations can be deducted from one’s taxes. In some cases, donors

can receive a tax credit as well, especially for charities that have an educational component.

Beyond the financial and operational benefits, donors also can receive a good feeling. While not necessarily easy to quantify, giving really can help you feel better about yourself and the world around you.

In some cases, you may even be familiar with a particular charity and have received benefits from them in the past. Maybe a charity or non-profit is particularly close to your heart, perhaps a Scouting

program, maybe a food bank. You may know how much they need the money and what they’re going to do with it.

The good news is that there are literally hundreds of charities in the Inland Northwest that are ready for you to start the ripple. This section can be a handy guide to some of the more interesting and prominent ones around, including sharing how you can help.

Welcome Home, Stranger!

“World Relief helped with everything for us. They helped with our documents, finding an apartment, everything. I am so grateful for the U.S. and World Relief.” — Liliia

Liliia came to the United States from Ukraine in 2018 due to religious persecution. Thanks to the generous Spokane community, World Relief was able to welcome her and provide all the wraparound services she needed to rebuild her life. Today, she is studying for her citizenship exam. She and her family love the U.S. This is their home where they work, play and invest their time and money.

World Relief Spokane resettled 500 refugees and other immigrants this year and plans to welcome 700 next year. Hop on the welcome wagon! These new arrivals have been through so much and have so much to offer.

a minute to Listen. Learn. Give.

Spokane County Human Rights Task Force plans November 2 banquet

The Spokane County Human Rights Task Force, along with the City of Spokane Human Rights Commission, is excited to welcome our community in celebrating our 4th annual Champion’s Award Banquet. While our region continues to face down hate and intolerance, taking time out to recognize and celebrate those who stand up and work every day to make Spokane safer and more welcoming is a must!

This year promises to inspire as we celebrate local people who go above and beyond in service of their community! Join us this year at the Spokane Convention Center on Thursday Nov. 2. Our keynote speaker is courageous local journalist Leah Sottile. Leah began her career in Spokane and has gone onto write and create podcasts about

By Debra, a formerly homeless addict

If I could speak to myself back when I was in my addiction, I’d say, “Don’t give up on yourself. Even though you don’t think you can change, you can.”

My upbringing was rough. People always said I was so ugly I’d die alone. At 17, I decided I wanted a man in my life and was willing to take what I could get, so I put an ad in the paper and met this 45-year-old man. He started buying me alcohol which became my first addiction. Things went from bad to worse. In a few short years, I became like every single human I’d ever judged. I was homeless, addicted to meth, and I started doing things I’ll regret the rest of my life.

Eventually, I decided I’d had enough of the street life. I tried some outpatient programs, but I kept relapsing, so in 2019, I went to Union Gospel Mission for their 18-month LIFE Recovery program.

The program helped me define who I really wanted to be and gave me steps to become that person.

What I want to say to anyone feeling stuck is that, “There is always a way out. Just take the first step and reach out to someone or a program that can help you. Help really is out there.”

Fund What Touches Your HeartWith an Endowment

For more than 40 years, the Catholic Foundation has enabled individuals, families and parishes to achieve their charitable goals through careful investing according to Catholic norms.

Our Lasting Endowments Aid Ministries That:

• Foster vocations of young men and women seeking service to God and community

• Fund parish programs and operations

• Feed and aid the needy in Eastern Washington

• Educate seminarians

• Prepare children for futures rich in knowledge and Christian values

Independent of the Catholic Diocese of Spokane, we are governed by a board of trustees consisting of priests, religious, and lay men and women from many walks of life:

Louise Andrews

Rev. Victor Blazovich

Bob Boehme

Scott Brockway

Chris Codd

Rev. Jeff Core

Julie Czapla

Bishop Thomas Daly

Stephen Fausti

Bob Hailey

Zach Mallahan

Paul McNabb

Peter Moye

Rob Ressa

Dan Roach

Jason Sorge

Plus numerous volunteer committee members upon whom we rely for their expertise and devoted service.

For Today - For the Future

For further information, please contact Sister Mary Tracy SNJM (509) 358-7334 P.O. Box 1484, Spokane, WA 99210-1484 spokanecatholicfoundation.org

The Catholic Foundation was founded in 1981 as a pivotal way for the Church to secure the future of diocesan schools, parishes and other ministries. The initial $5,000 that launched the Foundation has grown to an investment portfolio of over $50 million.

A capable and dedicated Board of Trustees governs the Foundation. Members of the board represent investment specialists, accountants, attorneys, religious leaders, professional volunteers, civic leaders and corporate executives. These board members as well as the board’s committee members serve the broad and diverse Eastern Washington community.

Our investment portfolio contains 291 endowments, custodial funds and donor advised funds.

The Foundation has grown exponentially in recent years because of a heightened interest in donor advised funds as well as legacy/planned gifts. Donors understand the importance of long term planning.

The Board of the Catholic Foundation invites members of the community to consider setting up a fund - endowment or Donor Advised - to honor or memorialize someone, or even an institution or program. Donors may want to contribute to existing endowments for various individual parishes or parish schools, Catholic education, priests’ retirement, priestly formation - just to give a few examples.

Please contact Sister Mary Tracy if you’d like to discuss how an endowment or a donor advised fund can benefit a recipient for life. metracy@dioceseofspokane.org (509) 358-7334

“There is always a way out.”

The Catholic Foundation continues to serve community

Women & Children’s Free Restaurant & Community Kitchen celebrates 35 years of service to women and children

Since 1988, Women & Children’s Free Restaurant & Community Kitchen has been a vital safety net that fills nutritional gaps for women and children in need while fostering dignity and respect, both within our restaurant and in the community.

Women & Children’s Free Restaurant’s mission stems from the belief that access to not just food, but healthy food is a basic human right. WCFR serves women, children, seniors, and teens who struggle with nutrition security and poverty stemming from various root causes. Now in

its 35th year, the restaurant is a two-time AGORA award winner for nonprofit excellence and has achieved GuideStar’s Platinum status. In March 2020, the restaurant made a transformative shift to address the community’s growing need for nutritional support. Since then, WCFR has provided 4 million meals to local families. The restaurant has achieved this level of support by offering fully prepared meals and an assortment of fresh and shelf-stable groceries. Fresh protein, dairy, and produce are at the forefront of every food distribution event.

Safety, dignity, self-sufficiency, and mutual respect are vital components of WCFR’s services. Commitment to helping create a vibrant and robust community is at the center of all they do. Food insecurity is defined as having unreliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food. This problem affects at least 73,000 people – 15% of our residents in Spokane County. Food insecurity has grown exponentially during the height of COVID-19 and its aftermath.

WCFR also prepares nutritious meals for organizations throughout our community, working collaboratively with

agencies providing shelter, domestic violence assistance, childcare, and LGBTQ+ support. These unique partnerships connect Spokane County’s most vulnerable citizens with basic needs and healthy options for improved quality of life.

As grateful stewards of the community’s generosity, WCFR asks for your support. Every dollar makes a difference; every hour of your time represents a nonrenewable gift of lasting impact. If you can make a financial gift, please do so with the confidence of knowing you are supporting a Platinum-level organization. If you have the gift of time, please join the restaurant’s volunteer workforce – a fantastic group of people who are the lifeblood of WCFR. Let’s work together to solve hunger in our community.

DONATE at wcfrspokane.org/donation VOLUNTEER at wcfrspokane.org/ volunteer-openings/ Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

FB: @WCFRSpokane IG: @wcfr.spokane

CAUSE CONNECTION COMMUNITY

Many people associate the YMCA with a swimming pool, treadmills, or even a place to socialize and make friends. But the true power of the Y isn’t found within our four walls. The Y is in the hearts and actions of every neighbor who believes in our vision of a better “us” and a stronger community for all. Thanks to the support of neighbors like you, each year the YMCA:

• Provides over 600,000 meals and snacks to children to help eliminate food insecurity and hunger for our local youth.

• Teaches over 1,500 children essential, life-saving skills through our Safety Around Water program and swim lessons.

• Provides over $2.5 million in subsidized memberships to seniors who are on fixed incomes.

• Helps over 5,000 kids learn the value of teamwork and sportsmanship through our youth sports leagues and clinics.

• Serves 900 children in youth summer camp so they can learn, grow and thrive while their parents are at work.

• Cares for over 800 school-aged children in our afterschool enrichment programs.

• Prepares 200+ children for kindergarten through our early learning program and its focus on hands-on learning and social and emotional development.

No one is ever turned away from the Y due to an inability to pay. Our generous donors ensure that everyone has access to the same quality programming, regardless of their financial status. Your gift today ensures that the YMCA can continue to serve everyone in our community.