Arsalan Bukhari, Executive Director of the American Muslims Council on American-Islamic Relationships in Washignton State (CAIR-WA) joined the FWC committee to present on topics of Islamic practices and working effectively with American Muslim clients. Arsalan’s presentation was timely as many of our service providers work with Muslim clients who are getting ready to move into the month of Ramadan (starts on/around June 17, 2015). Committee members were engaged and had a variety of questions answered through both Arsalan’s presentation and a Q&A. We hope to have Arsalan back in the future to talk more in depth about these topics and how they interact with homelessness and housing.
View slides for the presentation here. If you have any questions, feel free to contact CAIR-WA. You can also find CAIR-WA on Facebook with photos from our meeting.
www.cairseattle.org
206.367.4081
info@cairseattle.org
Thank you Arsalan!
Coalition updates from the meeting:
- Sign up to volunteer for Project Cool 2015 or let Hillary know if you want to host a supply drive.
- Ask your dentist to be the tooth fairy for homeless students with this letter.
- Legislative Session Updates
- We’re into our second special session and still pushing for a fair budget for a safe, healthy, housed Washington. Make sure to keep calling Olympia to let your legislators know what you support (1-800-562-6000). Sample messages are below.
- Invest (at least) $80 million in the Housing Trust Fund.
- Pass HB 2263 which will allow local communities to raise the funds necessary to help create more affordable homes & maintain valuable mental health services.
- Restore cuts to families receiving TANF benefits. I urge you to make sure that the final budget restores at least 9% of the 15% cut from TANF grants, and fully funds State Food Assistance.
- Support our 2-1-1/ WA Telephone Assistance Program / Community Voicemail systems. Please make sure $1M in funding for 2-1-1 is included in the final budget.
- ORCA LIFT
- Last week the Coalition had a meeting with representatives from sign-up locations for ORCA LIFT to collect thoughts and recommendations of how to spend Seattle Transportation Proposition 1 money that is dedicated to helping low-income people access the bus.
- We need to hear from you! Share your stories, feedback you have heard from clients about the program.
- Smoking Ban
- During our meeting there was a rally at Westlake Park with representatives from Real Change, ACLU, NAACP, LIHI, Chief Seattle Club, and the Coalition on Homelessness. Representatives shared the message: “Don’t Criminalize Homeless People: Say NO to the Park Smoking Ban!”
- You can view more details about the Coalition’s work with the smoking ban on this blog post.
- Case Manager training: Street Drugs 101 & Naloxone.
- June 18th from 10am – 12:30pm (following the 9-10am General Membership Meeting).
- Stay tuned for an RSVP sign up on our website and through Coalition Emails