Community Grant Program

This article was originally published in January 2017

Community Grant Program January 2017

Pictured left to right: Layton Wakatsuki, Kirkland PCC, Store Director; Blanca Lujan Westrich, Community Advocate Coordinator, International Community Health Services; Dicken Leung, Patient Navigator, International Community Health Services; Edilberto Flores, Community Care Coordinator, Jubilee REACH; Barb Blomstrand, Hospitality Manager, Jubilee REACH
 

We’re excited to announce that our first Community Grant of 2017 has been awarded to International Community Health Services (ICHS).

ICHS provides health care to multiple communities in the greater Seattle region via four clinics in Seattle’s International District and Holly Park, as well as Shoreline and Bellevue. These clinics provide affordable health care for uninsured, low-income immigrants, refugees and other underserved populations in Washington state.

ICHS was started in the early 1970s, as a response to the need for culturally and linguistically appropriate health care services for Seattle’s immigrants and refugees.

One of their programs is called Community Kitchens, which is open and free to the public; it started in 2012 and runs the last Thursday of every month in the International District/Chinatown Community Center. The Community Kitchen program gives participants (between 30 to 70 people each month) the opportunity to cook a planned recipe together and learn about nutrition. Most participants are elderly individuals who use the event as a way to socialize and have fun.  

Our $1,000 community grant, one of four we will award during the year, will allow ICHS to expand the Community Kitchen to Bellevue. They’ll be making use of the kitchen space at the Jubilee REACH Community Center.

Related reading