We want to extend a huge Thank You to all of our amazing volunteers who support us throughout the year! To all volunteers whether you were able to join us and for those that were not able to make it, we appreciate YOU. Your dedication and hard work do not go unnoticed, and we are grateful for your many contributions to the community building work of the DRC.

To show our appreciation, we hosted our annual Volunteer Appreciation Picnic on July 31st at Tumwater Historical Park. 

​Congratulations to Kacia Bernier and Marieke McGovern (pictured below with Executive Director Elizabeth Drake), who we honored last evening as the DRC's Outstanding Volunteers for 2024 at our annual Volunteer Appreciation Picnic.

Thank You to Kacia and Marieke - and to all of the DRC's 130+ volunteers - for all you do to help build a more peaceful and civil community. Our volunteers are the heart and soul of the DRC.

Current and past members of the DRC's Board of Directors gathered at the home of former Board President Mickey Lahmann on June 26th to honor and bid farewell to Jody Suhrbier Leff, who is leaving the organization after nearly eight years as Executive Director.  Thanks to everyone who attended and helped make this special event a success.

Thanks to all the DRC volunteers, supporters and community leaders who attended our Open House on October 19th to mark Conflict Resolution Day.  It was wonderful to have the opportunity to connect in-person with DRC staff and each other, and to show off our expanded mediation space and Training Center.

 As a learning organization, the DRC is constantly evolving and changing to meet the needs of our community. Whether it is staff transitions, new or sunsetting programs, or simply the changing of the seasons, there is always so much change happening around us. We recognize we can get lost in the work that do and sometimes forget to pause and reconnect with each other. 
We want to offer you the opportunity to get to know a little bit about the current DRC staff! Feel free to reach out with any questions that may come up or if you see you have something in common! 

On Sunday, May 7th, we gathered at Lacey Community Center for A Celebration of Peacemakers.  The DRC's first large indoor, in-person gathering since 2019, this new event honored our volunteers, supporters, advocates and community partners - all those whose efforts help create a more civil and peaceful community. 

The highlight of the afternoon was the presentation of the Evan Ferber Peacemaker Leadership Award to Anne Larsen, in recognition of her community service.  Anne Developed the Crisis Response Unit and Familiar Faces Program.  These programs focus on community members in crisis due to poverty, trauma, and mental health issues or substance disorders, with the goal of connecting clients to housing, medical care, treatment, and to their families.

The presence of several past recipients of the Peacemaker Award, or family representatives, made this a doubly-special gathering.

Thank you to everyone that was able to join us for our annual Volunteer Appreciation Picnic. We love any opportunity to spend quality time with you! Also a big thanks to Bayview Catering for providing a delicious BBQ Pork spread!

We are so grateful that our 2022 Evan Ferber Peacemaker Leadership Award Recipient's family was able to join us to accept the award on his behalf. Learn more about Jose Gutierrez Jr. below. 

 Jose served his local community in countless roles, since the early age of 12, using his gifts as a man of faith, an ​educator, mentor, professor, DJ, philanthropist, advocate, certified mediator, founder, leader, entertainer, philosopher, and innovator.

Jose was a charismatic & iconic leader in his community, opposing injustice of all kinds creating dynamic solutions to comprehensive problems that many shy away from. Because of his passion for serving, Jose has spent a lifetime dedicated to being a peacemaker. As a leader, he has stood in the middle of crisis, speaking truth to power while offering practical, innovative, and progressive solutions. He was and is truly a local legend and his contributions to humanity are a reflection of what it means to love, lead and serve.
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Jose saw conflict as an opportunity to creatively reach a common ground using various forms of the arts and media to reach people of all walks of life; synthesizing his gifts and professional knowledge as a philosopher, poet, Hip-Hop artist, DJ, journalist, professor, and Certified Mediator imparting life-long tools, skills and wisdom to his diverse audience.

Mother Teresa once said, “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” Jose’s life’s work has been an embodiment of that sentiment. We were honored to present this award to Jose’s sister Stella Hoioulani at the annual Volunteer Appreciation Picnic August 10, 2022.

Around 9:00 this morning, the DRC office experienced a system outage that affected our ability to access our server and answer phones. This has immediately become our highest priority and technical support is working to identify the source of the problem and get us back up and running.

Many staff members have returned home to work remotely and continue to provide services to our community as best as we can. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience  this may have caused to our volunteers, our clients, and our community. We understand the impact an outage can have on people's lives and we thank you for your patience and support while get our systems back online.

If you have an urgent need in the meantime, please contact Robyn Togesen and we will do our best to help until we get things back to normal.

Update - 2/28/2022 2:53 pm: Our services are now back online and we are fully able to return to normal operations. Thank you again for your patience and understanding!

P.S. Because our phone systems were inaccessible from 9:00 am to about 3:00 pm, deadlines for Eviction Resolution Program cases will be extended through end of business tomorrow, March 1, 2022 to accommodate this outage.