Alliance connects people to have impact

By Mary Stamp

Laurel Fish, senior organizer with the Spokane Alliance, knows that many solutions to issues people face are not realized because people lack the social and political will and skills as individuals to enact policy changes on their own.

The Spokane Alliance gathers people in faith communities, labor unions and community organizations like nonprofits and childcare providers to share and listen to each other's stories and concerns—on healthcare, housing, homelessness, childcare and other issues. In the process, they identify common threads for working and acting together so they have an impact.

As the grandchild of Jewish refugees from Poland, Laurel was raised militantly secular but knew that her grandparents survived because people of diverse faiths took risks.

"As I reflect on that part of my history, I respect institutions of faith as they work with secular institutions to bring their best and highest values into public life," she said. "It's powerful when institutions work together to bring meaning, solidarity, kindness and compassion to do what individuals can't do alone," Laurel said.

Her parents were role models for her political engagement. In grade school, she testified at the Spokane City Council against drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge.

In high school, she participated in Los Hermanos Youth Solidarity group at St. George's School and Lewis and Clark High School, a project of Phyllis Andersen in Huisisilapa, El Salvador, and at 14 raised funds to travel there to mentor students.

She saw how people she cared about were affected when a paper mill dumped waste into what the community called "Rio Sucio" or "Dirty River." It flowed through their community and was where they bathed and washed their clothes.

After graduating in 2009, she spent a year in San Salvador, El Salvador's capital, with Salvadoran students and working there and in rural communities.

Returning, she studied cultural anthropology at Stanford, earning a bachelor's degree in 2014. In college, she helped friends navigate the immigration system for asylum and became involved with a student labor organizing group.

"When Stanford's administration tried to lay off campus workers, we mobilized students to talk to the administration about solutions. I wanted to be part of getting a wealthy, prestigious institution to do the right thing," Laurel said.

While working for the hospitality workers union in the Bay Area, she organized alongside immigrant workers advocating for the right to negotiate their working conditions.

"We organized them so they gained the support of the local community and churches, which made a difference and made them feel less alone," she said.

During the pandemic, she and her husband, Ryan McWilliams, came home in 2020 with their six-month-old baby to be closer to their families.

Laurel began working with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, challenging working conditions at a food processing plant and then with SEIU 1199NW, before starting to work in 2022 with the Spokane Alliance, where she said she has found a group that "feels the issues in their bellies."

In sharing stories, issues emerge that one person could not do anything about alone.
"I have seen the alliance bring people together in a broad-based way across the community," Laurel said.

One of the first issues she helped them address was childcare. It was an issue that affected her, because she dropped off her child at a center that did not have enough staff.

"We talked with health care workers who did not earn enough to pay for good childcare," Laurel said. "Working with faith communities and unions, the Spokane Alliance won $10 million for childcare stabilization. It changed the narrative about who needs childcare—not just parents and children but the whole community. It is a 'public good' for children to be in a safe, enriching place."

Laurel could see broad-based community organizing had an impact by developing the Community Workforce Agreement, which the Spokane Alliance presented to the Spokane City Council. Many alliance members testified in favor of it and the council voted on it Aug. 25 as the Public Dollars for Public Benefit Ordinance.

More than 140 supporters signed in and many stayed more than four hours in the standing-room-only lobby to see the ordinance passed. Supporters came from more than 34 diverse local organizations, including Dignified Workday, St. David's Episcopal Church, Health Equity Circle and Creole Resources.

The ordinance was designed to ensure that when the city spends tax dollars on large construction projects, jobs created go first to Spokane residents—especially people who were once incarcerated, unhoused or veterans, and others often shut out of good jobs, she said.

Before the meeting, many met with elected representatives, city staff and stakeholders, including contractors and businesses, to craft a strong, workable ordinance. In the weeks before the vote, contractor lobbyists pushed back, claiming the ordinance was "too restrictive," she said.

The alliance, however, asserted that the real cost to Spokane comes when public dollars leave the community instead of creating good, family-supporting, local public works jobs for underrepresented communities.

"Many lives are impacted by what happens to employees in construction: Who is recruited? How are they recruited? How do companies access jobs in Spokane? How are labor laws enforced? Is it just on a catch-me-if-you-can basis?" she asked.

"We found various forms of wage theft. Trade unions provided knowledge on the impact of policies on faith communities and neighborhoods," she added.

In her work, Laurel sees people learning about each other's worlds. She offered examples.

• Bob Feeney, pastor at Westminster United Church of Christ, understands the need for equitable access in the workforce.

• In gathering college-age youth for a Bible study, Emily Kuenker, a Lutheran pastor, learned about their struggles to access food, meet immediate needs and find employment. She realized those issues relate to values that inspire faithful action for her as a pastor.

• West Central Abbey, a small congregation, started the Spokane Alliance work on a housing levy that brings $7 million a year for housing. The abbey had persisted in examining systemic causes of housing insecurity that they learned about from people attending their meal program.

"They were not a megachurch, just a small institution who were deeply committed to values of compassion and who thought strategically about how to realize their values in the world," Laurel pointed out.

The alliance held a series of table talks to ask people in institutions across Spokane what social or economic pressures impact them that would take the power of more people than themselves alone to address.

In many congregations, people shared experiences with housing crises, homelessness and housing insecurity, making the congregations realize that those struggles do not just happen to others, but impact their own members.

• One told about their child being homeless.

• Others told of living in intergenerational households because young adults cannot afford their own place to live.

• Many are rent burdened.

"We tapped into people being curious about each other, and realized homelessness and housing insecurity were not about other people but affected people in the congregations," Laurel said.

That led to the current Housing Equity Action Research Team (HEART), which is exploring publicly financed housing as a long-term solution.

"We find many good ideas that would not happen if people did not gather to develop well-reasoned solutions to bring to the table, so civic leaders are likely to listen," she said.

The Spokane Alliance's community organizing includes a broader analysis of who makes decisions on the impact of policies in the city or region.

"People want to have a say in the community," she affirmed. "We need to create a negotiating table as a society and say this is our table and we have an idea for the city council or mayor.

The Spokane Alliance, which started in 2002 and now has 35 member institutions, continues to expand.

For information, call 532-1688, email laurel@spokanealliance.org or visit spokanealliance.org.