These Oregon colleagues are immigrants, vaccine clinic organizers and ‘agents of change’
Meet: Leen Saheb and Maria Hands Ruz Job: Medical Case Managers District: Multicultural Services - Beaverton To protect themselves against COVID-19 this past fall and winter, hundreds of immigrants and other marginalized people in the Portland metro area had to...
Longtime champion of Northwest refugees promoted to agency-wide advocacy role
A widely respected spokesman for refugees, immigrants and other vulnerable people will step into a new job, a capstone to his nearly four-decade career at Lutheran Community Services Northwest. Salah Ansary, currently the Senior District Director of Multicultural...
Graduation Celebration a First Year Milestone for Klamath Falls Relief Nursery
In August 2020, amid the throes of a global health crisis, LCS Northwest took a bold step and launched A Family Gathering Place relief nursery in Klamath Falls, Oregon. The COVID-19 pandemic prevented the team from serving children in a classroom setting at that time,...
A note to those seeking to get relatives out of Ukraine
So many people are desperate to get family members out of Ukraine right now. We empathize with their plight. And we are preparing to resume welcoming Ukrainian refugees to the Northwest when federal plans for this humanitarian crisis solidify. However, this is a...
Ukraine: A message from President and CEO
This message was originally sent to the staff of Lutheran Community Services Northwest by President and CEO David Duea. We want to share it with our larger community. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is on all of our minds. We have several team members who are formerly...
Afghan Women’s Group offers social and community connection
Lutheran Community Services Northwest's Afghan Women’s Group is helping recently arrived refugee women build new lives in the Puget Sound region. Led by behavioral health associate Mastora Hassan, the support group is open to female counseling clients who are from...
An appeal from our CEO – Urge WA lawmakers to come through for refugees
To the LCS Northwest community, Helping refugees find their footing on the path to stability is a team effort. We couldn't do it without fellow resettlement agencies and community-based organizations up and down the Interstate 5 corridor. We certainly couldn’t do it...
Immigration program’s new director aims to ‘break walls and barriers’
With each step of his 10-year professional journey with LCSNW, Alma Jean has kept an unwavering focus on immigrant and refugee rights. He started as a legal intern, then took a job as a staff attorney, winning more than 42 cases for asylum seekers on at least four...
Staff Spotlight: Yolanda Gonzalez
Meet: Yolanda GonzalezJob: Resource Support SpecialistDistrict: North Puget Sound More than seven years ago, Yolanda Gonzalez needed a mammogram. She contacted Familias Unidas, LCS Northwest’s Latino community resource center in Everett, for assistance. When she...
‘Labor pains at midnight’ bring joy – and a U.S. citizen – to Afghan refugee family
In the early morning hours of Friday, Jan. 14, an Afghan refugee family who are new arrivals in Vancouver received the gift of their own new arrival. The birth of a healthy baby girl brought joy to their world – and to the LCS Northwest community, as well. Life has...
Quilt preserves our 100-year history with style
Strategic planning, like the work currently underway at LCSNW, is an important way to step purposefully into the future. Celebrating a centennial, which we're in the homestretch of doing at the agency, is an important way to show respect for the past--and for the...
Juneteenth holiday is a ‘step towards reconciliation and healing’
LCS Northwest will join the party to right a historical wrong this year with the first-time observance of Juneteenth, a long-neglected holiday that recognizes the true emancipation of enslaved people in America. Juneteenth commemorates the date that the last people...
Farewell to ‘Dr. G’ after two-decade partnership
Sometimes youth experience a mental health crisis and need immediate support. Over the last 19 years, Dr. Rinah Gutierrez has partnered with our Stabilization and Wellness in Families together (SWIFT) program in the Tri-Cities to provide medication management...