Katie Coker: Finding work that matters

The first time she found her passion, Katie Coker was a young Peace Corps volunteer stationed more than a decade ago in a rural West African village.

She discovered that strong sentiment again, just a few years ago, when she went to work for the YWCA in Spokane.

"That was the first time I worked in domestic violence, and I really felt that same sense of passion that I did in West Africa - that this is work that matters, that this is work that doesn't get enough attention," Coker said.

Since May, she has served as the executive director of the North Idaho Violence Prevention Center, an organization known until a few years ago as the Women's Center.

Coker stepped into the leadership role following a six-month vacancy in the permanent director's position. She came on board at a time of eroding community support for the agency which was in a state of flux, largely due to extensive staff turnover.

Growing up in rural Cusick, Wash., Coker said she understands how important community resources like the violence prevention center are, and what happens when small nonprofits like it disappear.

"It means that women, victims don't have anywhere to go," Coker said. "That was my desire, to come here, to provide some stability, hopefully, and do a good job."

The NIVPC provides advocacy and other support services for victims of sexual assault and family violence. They offer counseling, court-based advocacy, a domestic violence shelter and more.

"As executive director, my role in that is to be able to provide staff support, strategic visioning of where we go with all these programs, and the funding to do it," Coker said.

With the Peace Corps, Coker spent the first two years of her life after college in Zorofla, a rural village in Cote d'Ivoire, the Ivory Coast.

It's obvious this place, where there was no electricity or running water, is special to Coker. Her eyes brighten and her warm demeanor becomes even more so as she talks about her time there.

After a third year in West Africa, Coker returned to Spokane to regroup and try to decide if she wanted to continue living and working abroad.

She eventually took a position in Guinea, with the World Food program.

"I worked with refugees from Sierra Leone and Liberia," Coker said.

She received her master's degree from Brandeis University where she received a fellowship with Catholic Relief Services. As a fellow, she went to Zambia and worked mainly on HIV programs. From there, she went to Sri Lanka to do work in the months following a major tsunami that devastated that region. Coker then spent three years working in Ghana. She lived and worked a total of 10 years abroad before returning to the states.

What do you bring from those experiences, to the table here?

I think what's kind of haunting, is that it's really made me reflect on how many victims I've known. I think as women, we all know so many victims of either child sexual assault, domestic violence, teen dating violence. That's been one of the things that's made me reflect on the relationships I have had with women here and in West Africa. I've had good friends that had major problems, in both places.

While I went to West Africa to explore and travel, this work has really made me feel like coming home.

When I lived in Zorofla, people there couldn't believe that there are still people in America that don't have running water.

I grew up with some people that didn't have running water. I think that there is wealth in this area, and then there is a lot of really troubling poverty.

It just made me feel like maybe it's good to come back and see what could I do in the place where I grew up.

You spent two years in a rural village in West Africa, as a young person. What are some of the lasting impressions or profound lessons you recall?

Aside from having my daughter, it's the best thing I ever did. It's a cliche, but it's completely true that you learn more than you teach by doing something like that. One of the things that I loved was learning how to live, really, in a community.

I remember this guy who I did not like. His name was Rolan. It just always felt like he was kind of antagonizing me, or criticizing me. After living there for a while, he was such a part of my daily life that one day he traveled away, and I was the first one to say, 'Where's Rolan?' I learned that really living in a community isn't about picking the people that you get along with. It's about learning how to live with everybody and understand that they all have value. Even though their perspectives are different, or they might be hard to get along with that great, they still have a role in that community.

Another thing that was really hard for me to get used to was apologizing for something when you're not wrong. I think that this was probably true of our culture years ago. There, elders are right, no matter what. If an elder says it, it's right.

It was good for me to learn to sometimes just have humility, and to be able to apologize even when it's hard to. Keeping the peace is sometimes more important than being right or wrong.

What is it about West Africa that makes it such a special place for you?

You just develop these amazing relationships and you realize the world is so small. I had really good friends there, people that I think I had genuine friendships with. It's amazing when you realize that no matter the language barriers or cultural differences, you can really just have that human connection.

You spent 10 years abroad. What brought you back to the Inland Northwest?

My daughter was six months old when I was in Ghana. I had some concerns about medical care for her, so I decided to move back. It was hard, but it was also the obvious choice. I never looked back. I realized that sometimes your children set a new path for you, that you might not think is a good path, or might not be your choice, but it's actually been fantastic.

I love the work I'm doing. I love the life that my daughter has, and I love this part of the world. I want my daughter to grow up swimming in clean lakes and playing in the snow, and just those simple, simple things that I think all kids should do. So, it's been a great move.

What's your greatest challenge here?

It's hard because when I think about our challenges, every single one, I think, well, it's a challenge, but it's also an opportunity.

My interactions in Kootenai County make me feel like people here really do care about this issue. They really do get that it's not OK, and they really do want to find solutions. I think there are great partners in this community.

I think some of the challenges are that NIVPC is really in a stage of rebuilding, and that's rebuilding everything. That's rebuilding funding. That's rebuilding reputation. That's rebuilding capacity. So some days, it feels a little overwhelming that in every area we need to do work.

On the other hand, I feel like every time we do a little piece, it starts to create a snowball effect, and we start to gain some momentum and feel like we're moving forward.

How are you rebuilding?

We're really trying to rebuild in small and sustainable ways, and just create that foundation. I don't want to go after some big grant that we're not going to be able to manage, and then burn that bridge.

A small example is that we were awarded a Community Development Block Grant to do some necessary renovation at our shelter. Of course, we'll have more to do, but it's a great first start.

The same thing goes for capacity building of staff. Our staff continue to go to trainings. We have a lot of staff that have been doing this work for less than a year, so that's going to take time.

And there are a lot of resources that I don't think we've applied for or been successful with, so each month I have three to five grants that I'm working on.

Our board is really in the process of trying to grow and trying to diversify, and the same is true with our fundraisers.

So again, every single area needs to be worked on.

What is it about the work you're doing now that drives you?

I've had people say, 'Wow, you've done so much nonprofit work, you must be really compassionate,' or empathetic. I've always thought, I don't think that's what drives me. I think it's this idea of justice. You should be able to go to your own home and be safe. A child should not have to worry that she's going to be sexually assaulted as she's walking home from school.

There are some things to me that are just justice issues, that shouldn't happen. I guess it's the same way I feel about water. People should have water to drink.

We're all humans and we all have this thing in common that we have certain needs that must be met, or we're not well.

Preventing violence is a big one of those.