Blog

We’re excited to share messages from members of different communities on why they chose to get the vaccine. Feel free to share through your organization and networks, far and wide.

We currently have messages in Spanish, Mixteco, Tagalog, Korean, Punjabi, Vietnamese, and English, including videos of members of our region’s tribal communities.

Thank you to PeaceHealth for sharing resources to create these videos, the Korean Women’s Association, Northwest Indian Health Board, and to everyone who shared their voices!

ASL:

Spanish:

Mixteco:

Punjabi:

Tagalog:

Vietnamese:

Korean:

Tribal members:

More Indigenous voices at the Northwest Native American Center of Excellence.

Additional videos by CHW Coalition for Migrants and Refugees

The statewide Community Health Worker Coalition for Migrants and Refugees (operating regionally in Snohomish and Skagit Co) have additional videos to increase awareness of COVID-19. These videos are in Trique Bajo, Mam, Triqui Alto, Q’anjob’al, Mixteco, Nahualtl, Purepecha, and Kichua.

Reflections from Liz —

Fifteen years ago, my oldest son got married in Busan, South Korea, giving us an opportunity to visit, meet new extended family, and explore an amazing country. My two teenage (at the time) sons noticed people walking holding hands on every street corner, and wondered why.

My daughter-in-law explained that in elementary school, children take philosophy classes and learn the importance of care for the community. There is a strong sense of being responsible for the people next to you and around you. If you take care of the person next to you, this ensures that everyone has someone looking out for them. This could be part of the reason that South Korea has managed COVID so well, even in densely populated cities, and this idea has been on my mind as we navigate a fragile vaccine distribution strategy.

As North Sound ACH explores a framework of equitable well-being, I wonder if South Korea, with that shared commitment to each other, has a different capacity to address unforeseen challenges we could learn from as we explore strategies to advance equitable well-being.  

In the past several months, local partners have stepped in to set up mobile COVID testing sites, assuring evening and weekend hours were available, and worked to support multiple language access needs with communications collateral to make community members feel welcome and supported. And now many partners are working to do the same with vaccine distribution strategies. 

But what do we do when we our efforts fall short? How do we publicly acknowledge a mistake or misstep that perhaps caused harm, and learn from it, determining what next step to take? How do we intentionally ‘bridge’ rather than ‘break’ our relationships when decisions and actions negatively impact others around us? 

Our team adopted a term in 2017 – ‘failing forward’ – during a learning session which also introduced us to targeted universalism and opened the door to work with john a. powell and the Othering and Belonging Institute.  But ‘failing forward’ means acknowledging that we (or our partners) have made a mistake or misstepped.  At North Sound ACH we are definitely still learning how to hold true to our commitment to equity and well-being, while trying to create a space where all belong. We know we will make mistakes. What comes after the mistake? 
 
Our team has struggled, and so have I personally. A recent sweep of a homeless encampment in Bellingham was painful for our team, bringing forth discussions on chronic homelessness, people with behavioral health issues, and when cities and counties should or shouldn’t use police and sheriffs to respond. As one of our colleagues, Greg Winter from the Opportunity Council, stated:  “I am frustrated that an effort designed to empower people who are disenfranchised led to a situation that endangered both those who were temporarily camped there and the service professionals who were there to help. However, the source of my underlying outrage is our lack of true courage as a nation. The kind of courage that would actually stop the perpetual “othering” of unsheltered people, the kind of courage that would result in access to decent housing with all the protection from human suffering that housing provides.”
 
How do we model the behavior we want to see in others? 
The North Sound Board voted in December on our ‘reason to exist’, moving from a 6-year old mission focused on improving health, to a restating our purpose: “to create a just and inclusive culture and the necessary conditions for all community members to thrive.”
 
We see injustices every day, and while the incident in Bellingham hit close to home, it is but one of many injustices happening in our midst. We’ll be in some unsettling conversations, both with people who agree and disagree with us on strategies to be used. 
 
I wish it was simpler, that there was a clear and bright light shining over the ‘right’ strategy. Instead, we face messy, often inadequate solutions. However, one thing resonates throughout: If we are to build a community where all feel that they belong, we have to make room for ourselves, with our imperfections as we make mistakes, and remain committed to do better next time. We have to find common ground and values with those who aren’t yet on the same journey. Otherwise, we risk narrowing the community who belongs, rather than expanding it. 
 
We hope you will join us in co-creating the future state we hope to see; it will be harder without you.

Reflections & an invitation from ACH partner Holly Martinsen

Regardless of our identity, many of us remember where we were when we learned of the murder of George Floyd this year. But seeing it on social media, learning about it on the news, or hearing it from another person — people of color (POC) undoubtedly have a different experience than the white population when hearing and processing this news.

Holly Martinsen is a Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Clinician at Lydia Place, a community-based agency in Bellingham.  Holly shared her experience with us.

“I remember when I first heard about the murder of George Floyd by police officers Derek Chauvin, Tou Thao, Thomas Lane, and J Alexander Kueng from the Minneapolis Police Department…my partner showed me the video. Several different emotions washed over me as tears welled up, my eyes glued to the screen: rage, anguish, fear, despair, hopelessness.  Of course, this was just one of so many examples of police brutality against people of color in our country.”

In primarily white spaces, people of color have the challenge of carrying on, processing and grieving on their own, without being surrounded by others who can truly understand.  This is the case for many POC in the North Sound region.

“The morning after I watched the video, I tried to hold it together and get through a staff meeting at work,” Holly shares.  “Even trying not to, I broke down and cried, sobbing while my coworkers sat with me virtually (in an online meeting).  I felt supported by my coworkers in that moment of vulnerability; however, they are all white.

I talked with my supervisor privately afterward about my need for a space to process where I could be truly vulnerable, wondering  if there was anywhere in my area where I could be with other people of color and process what I was feeling…neither of us knew of any.”

Following the suggestion of her supervisor, Holly reached out to North Sound ACH.  We weren’t aware of a space like this, but were excited to offer resources to start a group for POC in the community. With Holly working with ACH staff and consultants from Seed Collaborative, the first convening for people of color took place on June 22, 2020.  Monthly meetings have taken place since, and the group has begun to solidify its purpose.  

“What do we, as people of color in this community, need from our time together?  So far, we’ve decided this group should be a space for us to build community and connect personally and professionally, as well as have a space to share and get feedback from one another about our ideas, projects, and goals. We also want this to be a space to share and discuss resources and network with one another,” Holly explained.

Members of the group agree that one of the most critical components to meeting the needs of this group is to have the voices of participants in planning and continued development.  Planning meetings are open to all participants to contribute ideas.  Moving into the new year, the POC Convening hopes to add new participants and continue to grow.

“This group has provided a safe space for me to be open and vulnerable with individuals who have a richer, deeper understanding of my experience with being a person of color in my community,” Holly shared.  We want to extend an invitation to ALL people of color in the North Sound Region to attend these gatherings.” 

In this spirit of support and solidarity, we would like to extend an invitation to anyone who is a person of color in the North Sound Region to attend upcoming convenings.  To be added to the group list, please email POCGatherings@northsoundach.org.  

A Reflection from Liz Baxter, CEO

Each year we write a piece about gratitude…what we think of when we think of Thanksgiving – not turkeys, busy airports, and large gatherings – but how grateful we are for each other, the people around us, the places we inhabit, and the opportunity to do work that matters to people in the community. We want to leave this world a better place for our children and grandchildren, just as generations before.

A friend recently sent me a post sharing the teaching of Stan Rushworth, who teaches at Cabrillo College in California. Rushworth spoke of the difference between a Western settler mindset (“I have rights”) and an indigenous mindset (“I have obligations”). The Western settler mindset leaves us seeing everything through a lens of how it impacts me, the individual. The indigenous mindset moves us to think about how our actions impact everyone and everything around us. This framing has stayed with me for weeks.

North Sound staff and regional organizations continue to learn from tribal partners. Learning would not be as rich without amazing tribal leaders willing to teach us traditions and beliefs that have existed since time immemorial. This is a special time and place and we are grateful.

Our team is learning the importance of origin stories. Often, we celebrate Thanksgiving without taking the time to learn and understand its origin. Some might ask “why does it matter?” Because without acknowledging the past, we cannot move to a place and time of healing. Learning makes room for that to occur. [For further reading, see the New York Times article, The Thanksgiving Myth Gets a Deeper Look This Year.]

For me personally, I miss my family during this season. But I think of my parents, who didn’t have the tools I have to stay connected when they moved from the Virgin Islands to New York in 1953, then to California in 1965. They were dependent on phone calls that charged by the minute. By a measure of income, we were poor.  With six kids, we could only travel to see family every 3-4 years. Yet we never felt poor, never felt disconnected. Sharing letters, pictures, and phone calls kept us tied together. So, while I miss my family, yet they are still there for me as I am for them.

My eldest son studied in Beijing in the fall of 2001. Calls were by phone and $4.95/minute. It was so hard, yet we stayed connected. When he returned to Beijing the following year, we had the innovation of Skype. I thought it was miraculous. (And for those who know what a tech geek I am, yes, we were definitely early adopters!)

COVID-19 has changed our world. For more than ten years the public health community has said, “We are one flight away from a global pandemic.” And here we are, finding new ways to watch out for each other, recognizing our responsibility (or obligation, as Stan Rushworth might say) to do everything in our power to diminish the spread of this virus.

Is it sometimes a burden? Yes, families being asked to change their behavior and expectations. But for the good of all – that is why we must take these precautions. Wear your mask, wash your hands, use physical distance as a tool, and find ways to be socially connected with those you love and care for. It will help bring the day when we can gather again that much closer.

We look forward to continuing our work with you and finding more ways to recover and thrive together.

Since late summer, North Sound ACH has distributed more than 2 million masks across the region. Our team has received shipments, taken orders, organized deliveries, and distributed PPE.

We can’t MASK our gratitude!

Two million masks take up a lot of room! We are so fortunate to have generous organizations who provided storage space and helped with distribution: First Presbyterian Church of Bellingham, Everett Gospel Mission, North Sound Behavioral Health Administrative Services Organization, Whatcom Family YMCA, and the Port of Skagit in LaConner. Also a big thanks to Greg Aanes Furniture for the use of their pallet jack…we are so grateful!

Some responses from partners:

The Everett Gospel Mission is extremely grateful for these masks! We house 70 men, plus 30 women and children at another location, as well as serve lunch at dinner to about 150 people at the shelter everyday– all have been given masks! On top of that we also provide services for those that are signed up for the Snohomish County’s Housing and Essential Needs Program, for those on a low fixed income or who are disabled. We’ve been able to provide them with almost 800 masks a week!

Also because of your donation we were able to provide 3,000 masks to Esther’s Place in Everett, an organization that provides a safe place and hot meals for women in our community that are currently homeless or on low incomes. And finally, we were also able to provide 30,000 masks to the Eagles Nest sober living house in Marysville, an organization that provides food boxes and clothing to more than 150 families weekly. They have been able to get masks to those that would not be able to afford them for their families without your help. These are only some of the ways in which your generosity is impacting Snohomish county and from the bottom of our hearts we say thank you and God bless you all! ~ Everett Gospel Mission

Thanks to your mask donation, our community outreach team (Nurse Practitioner, RN, Case Manager and SUD specialist) is allowed to return to the streets daily offering services to the homeless population. We have been handing out free cloth masks to anyone in need. As fall progresses, the masks allow us to offer water, snacks, blankets and socks to those in need as well. A big thank you to the North Sound ACH as this helps those who love to work with the public in a hands-on fashion, return to providing such essential services to those most vulnerable within our communities. ~ Consistent Care Services

We are so grateful for this donation of masks. We will be using the cloth masks for our clients, giving each client a mask (or a few). We will be using the KN95 mask for our Mental Health counselors, Substance Use Counselors, and office support staff. With this donation it allows us to be able to give more masks to our clients. Clients are not allowed in the office if they do not have a mask. A lot of our client population is homeless, living in their car, don’t have a washer and dryer, and this helps eliminate that barrier, that they don’t have to worry if they lost, forgot, or their mask is too dirty. Having this donation of masks is a huge help when it comes to having clients in our office. The more people we see through our doors, the more masks we may need. This worry is off our plate now! ~ Seamar Community Health Centers

Targeted Universalism:

Using the framework of Targeted Universalism, North Sound ACH aims to ensure that universal goals – in this case, getting masks out to community – are best achieved when the strategies are tailored to meet specific identified needs. That led us to distribute masks to targeted populations, advocating equity and whole person care.

PPE is still available to organizations in the North Sound. Please click here to submit your request.

Center for American Indian Health presents,
Invited guest speaker Mr. Oren Lyons and Rex Lyons:
Indigenous Lessons for the World

November 23, 2020
9:00 – 10:30 am
REGISTER HERE