SPOKANE, Wash. – The American Indian Community Center is raising money to build a new permanent home after moving 11 times over the last 50 years.
The new location will be at High Bridge Park on the corner of Riverside and A Street. The center has raised $2 million of its $16.5 million goal.
The current building is too small for the center’s programs. The center runs a daily food bank, an Indian child welfare program, job training and helps people getting out of jail.
“We have a food bank that is literally every day of the week, busy with families coming in getting food. We have a child Indian child welfare program where parents can come in and get assistance. We’ve got training, job training. We have somebody on our staff that works with people getting out of incarceration,” said Karen Stratton, campaign manager for the American Indian Community Center.
The food bank often runs out of space and has to turn away donations.
“So it’s really tight in the food bank. There’s times whenever we have to send pallets back because we didn’t have the space,” said Courtney Malaterre, a volunteer at the food bank.
The Indian Child Welfare Program helps children when their parents need time to find housing or get sober.
“Right now, things are pretty rough for a lot of our families. And so we can serve anywhere from 20 to 50 to 100,” said Deborah Ost, Indian Child Welfare Program manager.
Moving so many times makes it hard for families to find the center when they need help.
“A lot of times, we all get phone calls, we get Facebook messages. Where are you guys? Where are you at now? I need some help,” Ost said.
Federal and state grants are hard to get due to budget cuts. The center will keep applying for funding until it can build a bigger facility for the Spokane community.
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