A Journey to Help Others
Behind a relatively new social media account visible on Instagram called Support Washoe is Rain Cares, LLC. Behind the business is Rain Fernandez, a Philippines born and raised immigrant focused on making the greater Reno-Sparks area a better place for everyone.
Her schooling has ranged from the Emilio Aguinaldo College in Manila, to Long Beach City College, to the University of Southern California and now UNLV as a remote student.
“Give people the benefit of the doubt,” said Fernandez “that’s all I can do,” she said of her approach to helping others in the community here in northern Nevada, through a myriad of ways, including multiple web endeavors including the SparksJoy.biz page to promote businesses in Sparks. Police sweeps have led her to take a closer look at housing first solutions, and pushing local governments at addressing the surging population of neighbors without housing.
Her resume, goals, accomplishments and aspirations in whiteboard style.
Housing First and Keeping it Local
Fernandez has worked with the non-profit Mental Health America Los Angeles, an organization that prioritizes housing first for people, and then addressing their other needs. She said when people are not worrying about where to sleep at night, they can focus on other struggles, like dealing with addiction, mental health, and unemployment far easier than when contending with the added elements of being houseless. Fernandez fully supports local governments adopting a #housingfirst strategy focused on putting people before policy and red tape.
“I want to leave a legacy of kindness,” she said about her self-funded work. Working as a Senior Budget Analyst for Truckee Meadows Community College for six years, Fernandez says she realized her life was not going in a fulfilling direction. She began practicing mutual aid in the form of purchasing gift cards to local restaurants and giving them to people experiencing food insecurity.
This is the idea behind one of her latest initiatives, Support Washoe, which builds support for locally-owned businesses through social media features. Fernandez wants to shine a light and raise awareness for these small businesses throughout the entire region. Like the Korean restaurant we met at, Fernandez visits food trucks, small retailers, and once it was a tire shop in Sun Valley and unabashedly promotes them on her social media channels. She does this every day hoping to “bring money back into the area.”
Her work is selfless and amplifying. Beyond small businesses, Fernandez also highlights other community members and organizations working to improve the community, tackling issues such as houselessness, and food insecurity. “I like aiding, so I was going to do this anyway,” she said. “I want to focus on the positive.”
A screengrab of a recent story Fernandez posted on the Support Washoe Instagram Account. She explained her tiny car can hold up to 25 pre-made food boxes. She considers herself a resource navigator and spends a lot of time picking up boxes of food and bringing them to people without vehicles. Often these people, she explained, with no ability to get to food bank distribution locations, would not be able to feed their kids.
Finding Strollers to Gift and Surviving COVID-19
One of her newest projects is collecting strollers that have served their purpose from mom’s groups, and giving them to people without housing to help with their belongings. This simple repurposing of strollers keeps them out of the landfill and extends their usable life.
As an accountant, Fernandez has a keen eye for numbers and balancing budgets. She is also focused on information management and relies on this heavily to manage the many irons she has in the fire. After struggling with COVID-19 in December, she began to concentrate on what she calls, “fierce compassion”. Her underlying process is to give people the benefit of the doubt and help wherever and whenever and however she can.
After recovering from COVID-19 herself, she realized she was given a second chance. “I’m not going to waste any time,” she explained. This drive has led to the growth of Support Washoe, her self-funding Rain Cares, LLC. and directly supporting businesses. At the end of the day, Fernandez views her resource navigation as a way to help “when you can’t advocate for yourself.”