CURRENT AFFAIRS

Shane: I want to start by asking a question I asked when I first met you, which is, “Is Anwar Peace your birth name?”

Anwar: Yes. That is my God given name. I was named after Anwar Sadat, who was the president of Egypt in the late 70s, early 80s. He happened to win a Nobel Peace Prize for working with President Carter and Menachem Begin on creating a middle east peace process. And so before he won the Peace Prize, my parents had the wisdom enough to name me Anwar. Peace is a generational family name. My adopted dad was half native.

Shane: I’d say it’s a pretty fitting name for the kind of work you do. Tell me a little bit about your background and how it led you to the work you do.

Anwar: Like I said, I was named after a great leader, and so a lot of my childhood was spent reading about great leaders in the nonviolent movement. I didn’t imagine at the time that I would ever be in a position of that kind of leadership. I really thank my adoptive parents for that kind of training in my rearing to make me be able to be an effective leader. Growing up, I aspired to be an audio engineer and so that was kind of my path in life. And unfortunately, I was touched by police violence which really changed the trajectory of my life and what I focused on.

Shane: You’ve mentioned that you call yourself a police accountability expert. What does this mean? What all does it entail?

Anwar: Well, it involves a lot of research and a lot of watching body camera footage and reading police reports. I also attend conferences dealing with civilian oversight of law enforcement and go through trainings, shooting simulators, and ride-alongs. And sadly enough, I have a lot of firsthand knowledge because of the many, many, many arrests I’ve had for utilizing my First Amendment rights in police accountability matters.

It also involves trying to be in the shoes of those officers as well. We can condemn these folks, but the bottom line is that they’re doing a job that we as a normal, average citizen don’t really want to do. I honor their decision to go into this profession. It is a noble profession. I want to see officers that I can be proud of and that our children can be proud of, so I really emphasize to officers that accountability and being held to a higher standard is part of the job. I look at my activism specifically as trying to help these officers do their jobs better, but considering what’s been going on in policing for the past 20 years, folks are scared of police and they don’t trust them. And sadly, police don’t understand why. I try to bridge that gap by not only working in the community on these matters, but also working and creating relationships within these departments to try to better gauge who these folks are and how we can better help support them.

Shane: Tell me, what is the Spokane Human Rights Commission and what do they do?

The Spokane Human Rights Commission is a volunteer commission made up of nine members of the community. Our role as a city entity is to advise City Council on matters pertaining to human rights issues. I’m really proud of the amount of diversity that we have on the commission. We’ve got a senior citizen who has been advocating for the elderly for years. We also have a high schooler, an attorney, a mediator, community organizer, and somebody in academia. All of us come together and we hold monthly meetings inside City Hall the first Thursday of each month at 5:30. I encourage everyone to come down.

Shane: If a member of the public wants to alert the Commission to a certain issue that they’re observing, what would be the best way to do that?

Anwar: So definitely check out our website – just type in ‘Spokane Human Rights Commission’ and you’ll be directed to our web page. You’ll find email addresses for myself as well as our civil rights coordinator. Contact either myself or Jerrall and fill out a complaint form. Another great resource if folks have been impacted by a possible hate crime is our county Human Rights Task Force (www. spokanecountyhumanrightstaskforce.org/). They’ve got a hate reporting page dedicated to capturing those instances of hate crimes.

I want to add that I became chair in January and one of the things I recognized was missing from our commission was advocating for our homeless folks. And so, we as a commission have been studying this over the last few months and are hoping to help support the city on how to address this, possibly with a homeless bill of rights. Our commission wants to help support our homeless folks better, to understand what their human rights are, and have the city better understand how they should be treating our homeless folks.

Shane Gronholz is the Current Affairs Specialist at Spokane Public Library. Find him on Twitter at @LibraryShane.

Did you know there’s a lot of overlap between librarianship and social work? Both value confidentiality, connecting people with resources and information, and meeting people where they’re at. Our libraries are a lively nexus of diversity and a lifeline for our most vulnerable populations. We are blessed to have such caring employees at Spokane Public Library.

Within the first year of developing foundational elements to a social services program in our library system, we’ve collected more than 1,400 surveys, created on-hand directories of 100+ local resources for staff to share with patrons, allocated a space for informational resource support from 40+ organizations at Central Library, offered light case management to 37 individuals, provided support to house 18 neighbors, developed a full social services calendar supporting ongoing partnerships with more than 15 organizations and, in partnership with Peer Spokane, received a $400,000 grant to implement a two-year peer support program!

While incorporating social services into our library system allows us to better support our patrons, we would get nowhere without the consistent support, participation, and growth from staff. A main focus this past year has been to advocate for system change to provide guidance and education beyond the regularly requested library services. For example, to date we’ve had approximately 50 staff members attend two or more de-escalation workshops and started the implementation of a trauma-informed framework.

It can be a challenge to create something new and initiate change. We’ve encountered many experiences where we had to react and adjust accordingly. We’ve had growing pains which help us plan for the future, but the one thing I keep coming back to is the mission that drives me in my work every day. My mission is to empower the community to spin a web of creative collaboration to support individuals in their journey toward more stable lives.

Daily, I see our staff assist a variety of patrons. They juggle daily library-related service needs and diligently work to notice when someone needs a little extra help and be able to refer them to the appropriate team member.

Since September, we’ve had a dedicated Welcome Team of three student interns from the EWU Social Work Program who have been integral in supporting the foundational growth of our social services program. This team takes part in daily rounds to assess and support staff and patrons needs while dealing with additional, more complicated issues as well. Having their support has offered the library an opportunity to provide a higher level of connection and support for our staff and patrons.

We’ve also started Coffee & Conversation, an ongoing community engagement program that provides a space for open dialogue on topics that unite us, rather than divide us. We gather weekly in an effort to help people feel seen, heard, and connected within our community. Any and all are invited to enjoy a cup of coffee and join the discussion. The conversation is usually free form, but there are also low-key activities available, such as coloring pages, puzzles, and conversation starters. This is a peaceful, engaging, all-voices-areinvited-to-speak type of space, but participants are welcome to simply listen, too. So far this year, 216 people have participated.

The abundant partnerships, overflowing empathy, plentiful connections, and the commitment to change is evident in all the work we are doing. Thank you to everyone for welcoming new ideas and embracing the changes within your library. I feel the momentum growing and I look forward to our continued efforts and the impact it will have for our community in the coming years.

Bethiah Streeter is the Social Services Manager at Spokane Public Library. Join us at Coffee & Conversation Wednesdays at 10:30am at Central Library.

Spectrum Center reflects on the need for safe, intergenerational community space and their plans for using their artist residency at The Hive® in 2023 to create just that.