I Joined the Faith-Based Committee of Spokane to Help Plan for ‘A Safe, Clean City’
Commentary by Jennifer Hicks | FāVS News
I had the honor of joining other faith leaders in presenting findings of the unique Faith-Based Committee of Spokane (FBCS), which hopes to turn the tide of brokenness in Spokane. This happened at a lunch meeting on Oct. 24 at the Salvation Army Spokane Citadel Corps. About 50 community leaders attended.
Our work started 10 months ago, after then Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich asked the faith community to come together under Carl Tompkins’ leadership and unitedly provide solutions for our criminal justice system.
When Tompkins asked me to join him as a representative of my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I was honored and immediately agreed. I felt the urgency and yearned to help provide solutions to issues within the criminal justice system that were screaming for attention.
We invited leaders of all the known faiths in Spokane to join us and ended up with representatives of 10 religions.
We each also had alternates, so if we had to miss a meeting or two, someone would be there to represent our faith. I was grateful for my alternate, Steve Matthews, who did a great job in my place for meetings I had to miss.
Finding Common Ground
Thompkins, who has extensive leadership experience, began with an exercise to find common values. As a result, he helped us create a FBCS Code of Life Standards. We agreed on 37 standards, and they appear under three categories in our brochure. They are: 1) Accountabilities for Self, 2) Accountabilities for Family and 3) Accountabilities toward Society.
Faith-Based Service Directory
We compiled a master list of the services our organizations offer to the community, with the help of The Fig Tree. These were put in our final booklet, “A Safe, Clean City.”
Our goal is for community leaders to know that we have significant resources to help those who are hurting and who want to put their lives back together. This resource will direct people to the care of the faith community.
Recommendations
We worked diligently to provide recommendations for our community based on our expertise and experience. Our recommendations for the criminal justice system and for helping the unhoused can also be found in our booklet. These recommendations form the main body of our work.
We know that an effective and efficient criminal justice system is essential within all communities for the sake of creating a safe and clean community for all residents. We also believe that homelessness threatens the health and safety of not only the victims of this tragedy, but the surrounding communities at large. We believe that no one wins when homelessness abounds.
I encourage you to read our digital booklet yourself and learn more about our recommendations.
Am I glad that I agreed to serve on this committee? Yes! I’ve made wonderful new friends through this work, and together, we will continue to strive to create positive change.
We want to help people who are struggling become whole and make Spokane a safe and clean city.
The views expressed in this opinion column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of FāVS News. FāVS News values diverse perspectives and thoughtful analysis on matters of faith and spirituality.
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I started to review the booklet. I am so surpised that a Muslim was not on the Committee. We have a large Muslim population in Spokane.
Muslims were invited and began participating but couldn’t continue on the committee due to work duties.