Announcements:
- Urgent and longer-term needs:
- Overlake Church Safe Parking Program is looking for volunteers to help as they host an evening meal and shower opportunity on Thursdays, 5-7.
- Disability Empowerment is providing training on how to provide appropriate accommodations and is also looking for volunteers to do assessments of whether publicly accessed places are providing what is needed.
- Invitations:
- Issaquah Meals Program, every Monday to Friday, 5-6 pm, 180 E Sunset Way. Hot meals, no questions asked.
- Cafecitos — Continuing immigrant support group meets the third Wednesday of every month at 9 a.m.
**************************************************************************
JULY 2025 PROGRAM [July 2025 Minutes]
Short report from Guillermo Rivera, Housing Justice Organizer, Eastside for All. Update on immigrant lives as shared in the monthly Safe Haven Cafecitos Meeting.
Main topic – Mental Health De-escalation. Marc Oomen, Executive Director of NAMI-Eastside (Eastside chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness). Marc gave a preview of longer training NAMI provides to address mental health crisis with CALM (communicate, assess, listen, mediate).
**************************************************************************
MISSION STATEMENT
Members of Eastside Interfaith Social Concerns Council (“EISCC”) believe we are guided by the moving of God’s spirit in our community to work together in a spirit of caring and celebration. We honor and respect each other’s religious heritages, welcome and pray for each other, and share information about pressing community needs.
EISCC members represent dozens of Eastside congregations and meet monthly on the second Tuesdays at noon at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church, 4228 Factoria Blvd SE, Bellevue WA 98006. map and directions, with lunch provided. Currently meeting in person and via Zoom.
We provide a forum to educate, advocate, initiate, coordinate, and support through task forces and other means, to work for the common good, and to address human needs and improve the quality of life of the citizens living in the eastside communities of Bellevue, Kirkland, Issaquah, Renton, and Redmond.
Linda Hillesheim, EISCC board member, represents the eastside faith community on the board of Eastside Human Services Forum.
EISCC sponsors one sub-agency – Congregations for Kids, which provides school supplies for children in Bellevue schools. Three prior EISCC sub-agencies now operate independently: Congregations for the Homeless, and The Sophia way support homeless men, women and children on the eastside and also operate the Eastside Winter Shelters for men, and for women and children. Recently independent sub-agency Backpack Meals For Kids now aligned with Backpack Brigade. provides supplemental nutrition for Bellevue school children.
EISCC sponsors the Eastside Emergency Services Fund administered through Hopelink.
EISCC is an IRS 501(c)(3) tax exempt entity, EIN 94-3036001.