Joy Gilfilen, host of iChange Justice Podcast, talks with Jason McGill, the Executive Director of Northwest Youth Services about what it was like moving from Seattle to Bellingham to work with homeless and displaced youth.

He arrived right in the middle of the pandemic while our entire community was under lockdown, and emergency declarations from the Covid Crisis created a human disaster and a civic collision of organizations, groups and corporations. It was the same weekend of the Jan 28, 2021 incident where the police were confronting the issues of extreme homelessness with a sweep of Camp 210.

Joy and Jason discuss the impacts of the complex context of our time as he was learning how to navigate through the community while everyone was in upheaval. He talks about recognizing the various stigmas, perceptions, judgements, beliefs, blinders and blindfolds affect our ability to team up then, how now he is navigating today to build a coalition of people working together to serve our youth.

Joy Gilfilen, Host of iChange Justice discusses with Ben Hoppie, Mental Health Practitioner, and Trisha Johnston, Peer Counselor the delightful way they work differently and together with other professionals in Cowlitz County to provide emergency services and essential support for people facing substance use, behavioral and mental health issues, homelessness, poverty, and various court and criminal justice issues.

Their lived experience and professional training put them in an extraordinary position to work hands-on with police, in court and in the emergency department at the hospital to intercept lives at the crisis point, where people can be coached to redirect their lives towards recovery. Come find out how it works!

iChange Justice Host Joy Gilfilen talks with John Fitzpatrick and his guest about peer mentoring, supportive housing, and supportive employment services that Changed their lives after reentering society from prison. Why did it matter? How has the industry expanded over the past few years - specifically post covid?

John explains in real terms what it means to be a peer mentor and how it works. Then explains why community-integrated services (all supports in one central location) really increase the success of people who are dealing with life challenges, different kinds of trauma, addiction, or abuse. Their supportive housing program is at least a 90-day program, with fully supportive services...and that really helps stabilize people.

Joy Gilfilen, the host of iChange Justice, engages Reverend Mel Hoover in a more conversational discussion about asking questions: "How can we learn together how to navigate into a new economy post covid?"

Acknowledging that the world has changed is Step 1. Step 2 is knowing that "nothing will ever be the same again" which allows you to engage your creative mind: "How do we adapt?

Joy has been asking this question. As did Mel, who retired from congregational ministry where he served as an internal change agent. Over 60 years he's successfully worked to create a beloved community helping to solve interpersonal, social, civic, and economic challenges.

Listening to people with lived experience bring their wisdom to share with others is key to innovation. Then, sharing ideas and resources is what we can do in any city, anywhere.

Joy Gilfilen, host of iChange Justice podcast talks with Lee Rusch, Director of the Westside Heroin and Opioid Task Force about the issues facing families who are dealing with Fentanyl, homelessness, Narcon and why it matters.

Lee has been working in social services for almost 40 years on the streets of Chicago, so his knowledge is broad, strong, and based on lived experience of helping families in crisis. He is clear that educating families is essential in this world.

Lee talks about the historical trends in policing and policy-making have contributed to the problems we have today; then how simply becoming aware of the patterns can affect change in your community! He talks easily about common sense things that can save lives!

Joy Gilfilen, Host of the iChange Justice podcast, interviews Eve, a native grandmother who discusses the critical importance of having community networks and family support when facing the very deep challenge of healing from repetitive suicides, ancestral family grief, and civic trauma.

Eve found that her first leg of healing came through personal work and support from NACA - Native Americans for Community Action - a national and regional resource. Then doing her own personal work, meditation, and connection to the earth, then cultural dance were needed along with the relationship building and connecting with others at NAYA - Native American Youth and Family Center in Portland, OR were invaluable to her.

Today, Eve has reached out to be a trainer herself and is now developing more programs and ways to optimize the wisdom and knowledge from the whole community to help people connect in many different ways. The importance of healing dance circles is clear, and ultimately the capacity of everyone increases as people help each other grow! It's heart-warming to understand the impact of the collective heart, and the power of intention!

Joy Gilfilen, Host of iChange Justice talks with Atul Deshmane, a member of the Whatcom County Stakeholders Advisory Committee about why he cast a dissenting vote against the majority members who were producing the jail building "Needs Assessment Report". It is a very informative discussion about policymakers' objectives inside the business of justice. Is there a better way of solving the real poverty, homelessness and mental health problems?

Atul's views are critical thinking processes from the view as an engineer, as a businessman, and from his experience in policy making as a Whatcom County Planning Commission member, and as a Public Utility District Commissioner.

He breaks it down as he speaks about the original purpose of the planning work, and discusses how different questions elicit different results from the original purpose of the process. Is the purpose to do a critical assessment of the public's real needs by doing discovery processes, and working out the hard questions to solve their needs and the needs of the real 1st responders needs? Or is the purpose to do the job of public relations while building consensus (or manufacturing consent) to pass forward a tax, and gain support to build a new public safety building? It's a kind of chicken and egg process.

Atul discusses the contradictions that exist at the intersections of the people's human needs who are asking for public safety services outside the jail system (prevention) as different from the various corporate, financial, and fiduciary needs of those who operate and manage the jail, as still different from the law enforcement CEO needs, the Prosecutor's needs, the Whatcom County corporations needs. Where does the taxpayer fit...?

Irene Morgan and Joy Gilfilen, Hosts of iChange Justice, discuss the very real post-pandemic human fallout from multiple years of economic domination by the Whatcom County Executive branch officials. Homeless emergencies started being declared in 2017, and the emergency declarations for covid and other disasters have been ongoing for over 3 years while people were in lockdown, dealing with high-risk situations, loss of their companies, jobs, livelihoods, family members, community, and social networks.

Ironically, few of us realized that virtually the whole economy ended up being either directly or indirectly controlled by the operating 'command and control' rules of states of emergency when people are under threat of public safety.

Functionally, this meant that in effect three people were essentially in charge:

1) Whatcom County Sheriff Bill Elfo was the CEO in charge of Emergency Management, the Whatcom County Jail(s) and commanded law enforcement and emergency systems. (This means not only his Sheriff's Deputies and Corrections Deputies, but other local, state, tribal and national jurisdictions fall under his command and work as Unified Command.).

2) The Sheriff is protected by, and works directly in tandem with the Whatcom County Prosecuting Attorney Eric Richey (who is not only in charge of criminal courts, but the civil courts as well as being the corporate attorney for the Whatcom County public corporation protecting the corporation itself (and the employees of the corporation) from any liabilities and lawsuits from people).

3) Together as attorneys themselves, they are protected by and in turn protect the Whatcom County Executive who is the Chief Executive Officer essentially in control of the entire management, budgets and business systems. This means he is in charge of contracts, roads and facilities, human resources, planning, licensing and everything else about where our money goes.

Think about that. For three full years, virtually our economy was in one way or another tied to how three law enforcement officials in our County held the reins of power. They directed and controlled the administration of law and all our public safety and protection systems. What happened that that happened?

Joy Gilfilen, host of iChange Justice, and Irene Morgan, founder of the Restorative CommUnity Coalition, talk about what they saw happen on January 28, 2021 when they went on a peace-making mission to help the homeless talk with officials to resolve emergency crisis needs.

Instead, at 7 am they found that four law enforcement agencies "jumped the gun" on their promises and converged a day early to "sweep" the homeless out of the civic center at "Camp 210". They used military-style force, bringing in heavy equipment, riot gear, guns, snipers, drones and cordoned off multiple blocks surrounding the entire civic center to conduct their operations.

The "Unified Command" special public relations managers claimed the police were justified in acting preemptively "for the public's safety". In Joy and Irene's experiences, this was contrary to public safety and does not reflect the truth.

Instead, their actions immediately exacerbated the conflict, created a police vs. public standoff, and resulted in local people being arrested, thousands of local employees, first responders, and people from across the county being immediately and directly traumatized. This set off a law enforcement CEO-driven civic systems war over money, jurisdictional power and control, and the dramatic escalation of demands to build a regional jail. All against the will of the people to get their essential and humanitarian social services needs met.

"Joy Gilfilen, the host of iChange Justice, interviews Irene Morgan, the founder of the Restorative CommUnity Coalition, about civic trauma, court processes and how glacial the systems of justice seem to be working post pandemic. Irene was observing one morning as a Whatcom County Superior Court Judge meets with roughly a dozen Prosecutors, Defenders, and various staff to schedule felony cases for trial. She observes how the people going on trial are nowhere to be seen as their lives are placed on hold for months.

Then they discuss the many layers of civic trauma people are facing as short and long-term impacts are being felt across the community as families have been coping with compound distress, duress and upheaval. The psychological impacts of sustained trauma – such as loss, separation, isolation, grief, shutdowns and lockdowns affected all of us. Suicides, illness, poverty, homelessness – these symptoms require deep compassion and adaptive thinking. The Coalition is prepared to bring their wisdom to the table to serve the people.