There’s a large red brick church on the edge of downtown Kennewick, stained glass windows catching the light as you walk by.
It might look quiet, but inside the Kennewick First United Methodist church, you’ll soon hear sewing machines clacking away. With those machines, a sewing program will aim to help people gain a little economic empowerment.
“(It’s) feeling the need of the community rather than coming in with a preconceived idea of what needs to happen,” said Shirley DeLarme, the church’s senior pastor.
The upcoming sewing program is the idea of Steve Lewis, with Tri-Cities Community Connections. The organization works to increase learning and development opportunities in the area.
When Lewis first moved to the Tri-Cities from Portland, he looked around and wondered, “ What's the economic development strategy here for people in poverty? And there honestly isn't a lot.”
He remembered a program he’d worked on in Portland – a sewing center that could teach people a new skill and maybe one day help them create a home business. So, he pitched it in Kennewick.
“I've seen lives transformed. I've seen folks come in who never touched the machine, and I've seen them sell stuff and then get excited about their own skills,” Lewis said.
Tri-Cities Community Connections found the church – it was important to the nonprofit to find a spot in East Kennewick or East Pasco. That’s where Lewis thought the most economic development was needed.
The most recent census data shows people living in poverty has increased in both places. Lewis said that’s a challenge.
“ There's a lot of development in Kennewick and especially in Pasco. We're building multimillion dollar homes,” he said. “(But) we are creating more and more problems if we don't look at poverty and economic development in the east part of Pasco and the east side of Kennewick.”
DeLarme jumped at the idea to help, especially in East Kennewick the area the church serves.
“ I think this is an area that needs rejuvenation and rebuilding, but it's got fine bones and good history,” she said.
They’re hoping part of that rejuvenation could start with the new sewing classes.
“We might not be a stopgap, but we can be a start – and a beacon of hope moving forward," DeLarme said,Shirley DeLarme, Kennewick First United Methodist senior pastor
The first classes will start Sept. 13. A master seamstress from Pasco will teach groups of 11 soon-to-be sewers. Each sewer will be stationed at their own machine — it’s too hard to teach technical skills to people sharing the equipment, Lewis said.
For each class, instructors will be paid $20, Lewis said. Organizers ask for a suggested donation of $5 for each class, which helps cover the instructor payments.
“ If you're a beginner and you've never touched the machine, like, this looks like something from outer space. They'll learn how to thread the machine. You'll learn how to put the bobbin together, all of the different nuances of a machine,” he said.
If you’re a little beyond that, classes will teach how to make things like handbags and hand towels.
And every class will learn how to make patterns so that sewers will know how to fit people’s bodies. That could lead to their own alteration business, Lewis said.
“ Most (people) can run things from their home. And one of the things that's desperately needed is alterations,” he said. “Some people will pay more for the alterations than they did for the piece of closing themselves.”
Lewis said he’s modeling the Kennewick Sewing Center after a similar program that he helped start in Portland, years ago at the Rockwood Center.
The We-SEW Collective took a break during Covid, but it’s building back up again. Avila De Jesus is the director at the Rockwood Center. Sewers in the collective sell their work at Portland’s Saturday Market, she said, which also helps with entrepreneurship skills.
“We're able to do that and teach them the basics of business management,” she said.
The Portland-based center also has beginners classes starting Sept. 27.
That long-running class in Portland helped with getting buy-in, in Kennewick.
Several area churches asked for donations, including Kennewick United Methodist and Hillspring Church. They got heaps of fabric, now organized by color in the growing sewing room. A volunteer built a specialized cutting table. Many others donated machines, some more used than others.
“ I have probably 20 sewing machines in storage right now,” Lewis said.
That’s helped the program keep around half its budget so far. They’d like to give the extra machines to class members to take home, Lewis said, probably around Christmas.
The generosity has also helped the people who donated, DeLarme said. People who have downsized or given away a machine that belonged to someone who died. Families left to deal with their grief.
“To be able to give it to something that gives back has just helped grief and it helps optimism, and it helped people start new directions in their life,” she said.
The Kennewick classes will be taught in Spanish only for now. If more people wanting classes in English sign up, the organization will set those classes up, too.
If all goes well, Lewis said, they would also like to start a sewing and mentoring program with kids coming out of juvenile detention.
