Supporting the Chinatown-International District Worker Hub

Through Grupo de Solidaridad, we’ve continued to host family safety planning sessions to help families prepare for their children’s care should their parents get detained. In June, we were invited by our partners at Puget Sound Sage to support the CID (Chinatown-International District) Worker Hub which was developed as a safe landing place for impacted workers during FIFA games.

Chinatown-International District received a lot of disruption by FIFA, with impacts to traffic, family businesses, and parking. There was an increased threat of ICE and federal officials, which put residents at further risk. The CID Worker Hub was created for workers to rest between shifts, find resources, have somewhere safe to go with support of Rapid Response volunteers, and be able to enjoy the games.

Our immigration organizing team provided a family planning session at the Worker Hub. We were able to create a few family safety plans with families, as well as support a larger group of aunties in learning how to spread the word about this resource. The CID aunties are the pillars of their community and did much of the organizing to keep workers safe during FIFA. This was an important extension of our work, as Asian migrants tend to be overlooked in immigrant justice work, and everyday threats against Asian communities have escalated since Covid-19. The Church Council has not held meaningful relationships in the CID in recent years, so we are hoping this shared purpose will spark ongoing collaboration.