COVID-delayed drug treatment graduation brings tears in Klamath Falls
Completing treatment for substance use disorder (SUD) while pressing through the hardships of pandemic isolation is a major accomplishment, times two. It’s a feat worth celebrating with cupcakes and goody bags. With a dramatic reading of a parable called "The Cracked...
LCS Northwest applauds introduction of Afghan Adjustment Act in Congress
One year after U.S. troops pulled out of their country, a shadow of uncertainty may begin to lift from our Afghan friends and neighbors with news that the U.S. House and Senate have introduced the Afghan Adjustment Act. Lutheran Community Services Northwest welcomes...
Pandemic can’t stop 150 from completing drug treatment
Coping with substance use disorder (SUD) is difficult in the best of times. The pandemic made it even more challenging for people struggling with addiction. “The social isolation imposed by the pandemic was especially hard on our clients. They experienced increased...
Teens bring servant hearts from Southwest desert to Puget Sound
Who says you have to live in the Northwest to volunteer for Lutheran Community Services Northwest? An energetic group of youth and their adult chaperones from Arizona recently proved that faithful service knows no bounds, and you don't need a passport to enter...
Port Angeles Family Center has bigger space to go with big hearts
Early this year LCS Northwest’s Port Angeles Family Center moved to a building more than four times larger than the old center. On the road to Hurricane Ridge, behind a chain-link fence 150 yards from Olympic National Park, this new home base for the agency’s Clallam...
Puzzle art reconnects Portland communities fragmented by COVID
If life can be explained in metaphors, here’s one that helps sum up the last two years. The COVID-19 pandemic turned many people in our communities into puzzle pieces scattered across a table, unattended and disconnected. But the good news of society’s gradual...
As Hope House closes, a different hope arises in Astoria
LCSNW is marking the end of an era and celebrating the start of a new chapter in Astoria, Oregon. For 30 years, the agency has partnered with local Lutheran church members to operate Hope House. There, children and families in the coastal community found counseling...
Counselors help others find healing, wellness and hope
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. At LCS Northwest, our counseling teams help people heal from trauma, regain wellness and find hope. Last year, we provided 63,349 counseling hours to 4,565 Northwest neighbors in need. Mustafa Mohammed and Nadia Kolomiyets...
No more half measures – Afghan refugees are on borrowed time
As Americans, it’s easy to transfer all our concern for the world’s refugees onto the good people of Ukraine. In this time of short attention spans and fast-moving global emergencies, it’s a natural impulse. More than 5 million Ukrainians have crossed European borders...
Attempting to level the playing field for families seeking asylum
Violence and political persecution have driven a record number of migrant families to seek asylum in the United States. Most are arriving at our Southwest border. In May 2021, the Biden administration announced a Dedicated Docket initiative to expedite cases of...
Ukraine: LCS Northwest ready to help, needs federal resources
A statement from President and CEO David Duea April 21, 2022 The announcement today by President Biden offering a lifeline to war-weary Ukrainians is a positive development. It begins to give structure to his pledge last month to admit up to 100,000 Ukrainian...
Santa for Seniors will go national, thanks to $15 million gift; Tacoma’s Bill Looney would smile
A local businessman's visits to his mother’s Puget Sound area care facility dressed as Santa Claus will grow into a national campaign to ease loneliness for isolated seniors. This is the legacy of Bill Looney, seven years after his death, thanks to a minimum $15...
Tri-Cities District opens Pasco office, drawing ‘awesome’ review from mayor
Families dealing with a youth mental health crisis know that being wait-listed for treatment can be a harsh fact of life. That goes double in the Tri-Cities area. There aren’t enough places in the Columbia Basin region of Eastern Washington for children and teens to...