Mother Of Five Invests Energy In West Central Neighborhood
Don’t confuse Lisa Samuels with those high-brow organizational leaders usually associated with Leadership Spokane.
No, the 32-year-old mother of five may look at ease with the business types, but she knows few will ever share her life experiences.
For instance, when her Leadership Spokane class was diving into a discussion on the the myths of welfare, Samuels didn’t hesitate to pipe in.
“My children eat free breakfast and free lunch,” she said. “If it wasn’t for WIC, my baby wouldn’t eat at all. That’s welfare.”
Samuels doesn’t care if people don’t like her message. She will continue to speak and be an advocate for her children and those in her neighborhood.
That’s the way it’s been since she chose the West Central neighborhood as her home.
“Home is not just your home, but your neighborhood. My home is this neighborhood,” she said.
Born in North Carolina, Samuels is a self-described Army brat. Her father, a recruiter, moved the family to Spokane in time for Samuels to graduate from Deer Park High School in 1982.
Her parents left for Texas when she was 18. Samuels decided to stay.
“We moved once a year every year for my entire life. I said, ‘No, I’m tired of moving.”’
She has lived in the same home at 2618 W. Dean since 1982. She married and had a family. And with each child has come a new commitment to the neighborhood.
With two kids at Holmes Elementary, she’s been active in the school’s parents association, which helped bring about a system by which kids can move along at their own pace.
When her oldest son dropped out of school and started flirting with gangs, Samuels became involved in community policing and the city’s Youth Gang Drug Prevention Program.
Now she’s on a committee to help bring together a drug-education program that can succeed DARE, which the Police Department is phasing out.
She has also helped organize the annual West Central kids carnival, promoted children’s theater and been an advocate for the federally funded WIC (Women, Infants and Children) nutrition program.
As a mother, she found the play equipment at West Central’s A.M. Cannon Park to be less than satisfactory. It doesn’t even meet safety codes, she said.
So Samuels joined the neighborhood steering committee that allocates money from federal community development funds.
“I didn’t even know what a steering committee was,” she said. “But I went and thought, ‘Boy, they have a whole lot of say in where the money goes.”’
She did research and went around to other parks with her kids.
She learned that one way to get adults back into parks - and gangs out - was to get playground equipment aimed at toddlers. Equipment for older kids brings out the kids by themselves.
“It’s taken us two years,” she said, “but that’s good because we needed $70,000.” The equipment is set to be replaced this summer.
“When I just hear people complain, complain and complain, my attitude is, if you don’t like it, change it,” she said,. “I’m tired of hearing people complain.”
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