November 28, 2009 in Washington Voices

Creative crime fighting

Ministry uses graffiti art to counter tagging
Pia Hallenberg The Spokesman-Review
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Tags: Central United Methodist Church Holly Chilinski Shalom Ministries

Shalom Ministries program director Holly Chilinski, holding her baby, Roman, walks by the new mural on the back of the Central United Methodist Church in downtown Spokane on Oct. 22.
(Full-size photo)

Until recently, there were two things one could be sure to encounter at Shalom Ministries at the beginning of the day: hungry people and fresh graffiti facing the alley behind Central United Methodist Church.

Shalom has been feeding homeless and low-income downtown residents in the basement of the church at Third Avenue and Howard Street since 1994, and program coordinator Holly Chilinski was getting more and more frustrated by the constant graffiti problem.

“It was every day. It was tagging, it was marker, and it was petty, silly, lewd stuff that was written all over the place,” Chilinski said. “We …

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