On Tuesday morning, hundreds of representatives from dozens of organizations gathered at Shadle Park High School with a single goal: supporting families impacted by the Spokane Complex Wildfires.
Spokane Public Schools superintendent Adam Swinyard and Innovia Foundation CEO Shelly O'Quinn convened the assembly of government agencies, nonprofit organizations, faith community leaders, health care providers, educators and many other entities engaged in fire recovery efforts.
“There are so many amazing organizations in the room today, we just want to really center ourselves on ‘How can we be best organized in sharing resources and supports for the community?’” Dr. Swinyard said. “How do we work together to provide as much clarity and coherence for our families and community members that are navigating an unimaginable crisis?”
Swinyard was joined by Dr. Oscar Harris, SPS Chief of Community Relations, to explain how the school district and Innovia are compiling resources into a unified digital database at SpokaneCommunityResources.org to help families connect with legitimate information to meet their immediate needs.
“Our goal is to be better help support you,” Harris said, “so when families call us, when community partners call us, we’re not having to run around and run into dead ends. There’s nothing more frustrating than to reach out to a resource and then realize that it no longer exists.”
“This is a room full of people that are going to work together and figure this out so that we can, to the maximum, take the resources that people generously want to bring forward and coordinate them and get them to the people who need them in the most efficient and effective way,” said City of Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown.
Simone Ramel-McKay of Greater Spokane Emergency Management shared about organizing a Disaster Assistance Center at Shadle Park High School later this week, providing a single location where families can access numerous recovery assistance supports in one place.
Lacie Clark, executive director of Red Cross Greater Inland Northwest, provided an update on the organization’s effort to shelter and feed impacted families.
O’Quinn also asked that organizations providing support in other Eastern Washington and North Idaho counties to note those efforts, as Innovia also provides Wildfire Response Funds for recovery support in those area, and asked organizations to share their needs with Volunteer Spokane.
“We are incredibly grateful for all of the generosity, which we define as time, talent and resources, that makes our community work so well during times of disaster,” O’Quinn noted.
Information about the Disaster Assistance Center will be shared as details are available. Look for updates at Spokane Community Resources.
Watch a livestream recording of the event.
The Free Kids Day Camp at Shadle Park continues daily through Friday. Aug. 7.