Healing is justice work.
Healing is justice work.
Our community is experiencing pervasive fear and compounding trauma. Federal enforcement has intensified, with reports of actions that have left many community members – immigrants and citizens alike – questioning safety and shared rights. Nervous systems are on high alert. Some of us are frozen, some activated, many struggling to sleep, to think, to move through our days. It is hard to know what to do or even say.
And in the midst of all this, Walk-In remains what it has always been: an open door.
One of our counselors captured it perfectly: “This is a challenging time and it looks to be an ongoing challenging time. I continue to be ever grateful Walk-In is alive and well in our community.”
We Continue Our Work
Hurt people hurt. Healed people heal. When people cannot access healing, harm continues and compounds. Creating space where healing can happen – consistently, reliably, for anyone who needs it – is how we interrupt cycles of pain in our community. The need right now is urgent. It’s also long-lasting. No matter what your political ideologies may be, the trauma our community is experiencing will not end next week or next month. We cannot focus only on immediate crisis while ignoring what comes after.
This is what Walk-In is doing: showing up, one session at a time, one person at a time, building toward a future we cannot yet fully see.
The calls for support are louder now, more urgent. Caregivers across our community are responding in big and meaningful ways. This is not a moment to do everything because it’s not possible nor sustainable. It’s a moment to anchor more deeply into what you’re uniquely equipped to do – whether that’s counseling, activism, organizing, caring for your family, or simply showing up in the systems you’re already part of.
What we do at Walk-In is justice work. And all of it matters.
Help us shape what comes next.
As we move through the hurt and heaviness that is present, we continue to advance the work of our future because it is critical. We’re building systems that support our clinical practice, putting the finishing touches on an updated Volunteer Handbook, and advancing our strategic planning process. I’ll be reaching out soon to those who have expressed interest to explore next steps, including forming a subcommittee that will meet from February through October.
Help us create refuge.
Walk-In is a collective. Right now, our physical space doesn’t feel like the refuge it should be. And I know I’m not the right person to be leading any transformation of our space (it took me 3 years to hang pictures in my own home).
We’re inviting friends and alumni who have gifts and talents to adopt a room at Walk-In. Make it as big or small a project as you’d like: curate furniture, swap out knick-knacks, paint, help repair a few holes. Use what we have or have fun thrifting. All rooms are available, including the bathroom with a mini pine tree in vintage tub!? I’ve started by adding a couple new chairs in our larger counseling rooms to get us started and have taken before pictures of everything so we can see and show the transformation as it happens. Want in on some of the fun? Just email me.
In real time, we are witnessing what this community looks like in action. A volunteer potter who has been donating his earnings to Walk-In for years held a sale. His work was beautiful – and so were the people who surrounded him, many of them former volunteers, showing up again because this community matters.
Help us build Walk-In into a refuge for what’s here now and what’s continuing to come.
This work matters. You matter. And you are making a difference.
Thank you for continuing to show up, in whatever ways you can.
With gratitude,
Kate