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...
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...