COO Funded Partners
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Jump to a section: Systems & Policy Change | Place-based and Cultural Communities Partnerships | Learning Community
Systems & Policy Change
Our institutions and policies shape who has access to wealth, health and prosperity.
Communities of Opportunity partners are working to advance policies that:
Support community priorities
Integrate equity into policies at all levels: neighborhood, organizational, city, county and state, and
Expand representation of cultural communities by stepping into leadership roles
Systems and Policy Change awards are administered by the Seattle Foundation.
*King County Best Starts for Kids funds are restricted from use in political campaigns, state lobbying, or any non-charitable or illegal purpose.
2023-25 Award - Systems and Policy Change - $200,000
The partnership between the White Center Community Development Association (WCDA), Community Roots Housing, FEEST, Healthpoint, Southwest Youth and Family Services and YES Foundation, seeks to mobilize a community-wide policy advocacy effort to create a community preference housing ordinance for King County.
2023-25 Award - Systems and Policy Change - $125,000
Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network (WAISN) will be coordinating and mobilizing its organizing and policy strategy efforts around health equity and unemployment insurance for all, regardless of immigration status.
2023-25 Award - Systems and Policy Change - $125,000
In 2023-2025, Voices of Tomorrow (VOT) will work toward systems and policy change that will bring economic equity to immigrant and refugee Family Child Care (FCC) providers in King County.
2023-25 Award - Systems & Policy Change - $125,000
Funds will be used toward the Tubman Center for Health & Freedom’s ongoing efforts to address the urgent need for more BIPOC health practitioners by driving policy change to secure public investments in innovative, community-designed healthcare workforce solutions.
2023-25 Award - Systems and Policy Change - $125,000
In 2023-2025, The Mockingbird Society (TMS) is seeking to advocate for policies to establish a racial equity focused county-level “Office of Homeless Youth,” a cross-system coordinating body among housing, employment, education, behavioral health service providers, child welfare, juvenile justice systems and service providers which will center youth and young adults experiencing homelessness and engage them as core members.
2023-25 Award - Systems & Policy Change - $125,000
Surge Reproductive Justice (SRJ) will support and facilitate the Doulas for All coalition, a doula and birth worker led effort, working to address maternal and perinatal health outcomes by advancing Medicaid reimbursements for doulas.
2023-25 Award - Systems & Policy Change - $125,000
Through “Campaign for Cash” (CFC) and the CFC's Core Leadership Team, Statewide Poverty Action Network will work to change the narrative around poverty and champion cash assistance policies in Washington State.
2023-25 Award - Systems & Policy Change - $125,000
Through policy advocacy, the Seattle Indian Health Board will continue its work to implement culturally attuned systems and policies for addressing the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People crisis and reducing gender-based violence among Native populations in Washington State and the greater Seattle-King County Area.
2023-25 Award - Systems & Policy Change - $200,000
The partnership between the New Americans Alliance for Policy and Research, Somali Community Services of Seattle, Partners in Employment, Iraqi Community Center of Washington and Horn of Africa Services is looking to give refugees a platform to voice their needs to policy makers in order to tackle the inequities in economic opportunities available to them.
2023-25 Award - Systems & Policy Change - $125,000
Funds will be used toward Open Doors for Multicultural Families’ ongoing efforts to support and provide community oversight to the implementation of new language access programs and policies in Washington’s K-12 public school system.
2023-25 Award - Systems & Policy Change - $125,000
By utilizing tactics that center the voices and experiences of those most directly impacted by the criminal legal system, Look2Justice (L2J) seeks to expand its current network of 400+ organizers to at least 1,200 organizers over the next years to reach 10% of the incarcerated population across Washington State and collaborate towards advancing policies that will transform the state's criminal legal system.
2023-25 Award - Systems & Policy Change - $200,000
The partnership between the Indian American Community Services, Muslim Community Network Association, Eastside for All and the Housing Development Consortium seeks to advance policy and systems change toward housing justice while effectively addressing racial disparities in East King County.
2023-25 Award - Systems & Policy Change - $200,000
This partnership between the Horn of Africa Services, Somali Community Services of Seattle, and the Oromia Center in Washington seeks to address gun violence and the school to prison pipeline that affect BIPOC immigrant and refugee youth disproportionately in the New Holly, Rainier Vista, High Point and Yesler Terrace communities.
2023-25 Award - Systems & Policy Change - $125,000
FEEST will continue to develop low-income BIPOC and immigrant youth leaders to build collective power and organize for transformative and systemic change in their schools, including building a culture of holistic health equity in schools in South Seattle and South King County
2023-25 Award - Systems & Policy Change - $125,000
In 2023-2025, Fair Work Center (FWC) seeks to build organizing power among food service industry workers to ensure employers follow existing local and state policies and workplace protections.
2023-25 Award - Systems & Policy Change - $125,000
Disability Rights Washington (DRW) seeks to support its Disability Mobility Initiative (DMI) with the long-term goal of advancing policy toward the prioritization of funding to create an accessible and equitable public infrastructure and transit system that benefits all Washington residents.
2023-25 Award - Systems & Policy Change - $200,000
The Crescent Collaborative (Africatown Community Land Trust, Byrd Barr Place, Community Roots Housing, First Hill Improvement Association, Friends of Little Saigon and Seattle Chinatown International District PDA) are working together on a multi-pronged, community-driven anti-displacement strategy that unites and elevates cross-community voices around shared issues in affordable housing; economic opportunity (small businesses); healthful, safe communities; and community capacity with an eye towards equitable community development.
2023-25 Award - Systems & Policy Change - $125,000
Chief Seattle Club will continue building its organization’s platform for long-term homelessness and housing advocacy for Native people in King County.
2023-25 Award - Systems and Policy Change - $125,000
In 2023-2025, Casa Latina (CL) will continue its work to improve the working conditions of domestic workers in Seattle, King County and Washington State by changing the policies that affect them.
2020 Award - COVID-19 Resilience & Response: $125,000
Gender Justice League and partners, The Black Trans Task Force and Heartspark Press will activate, and advocate for trans and non-binary people who are experiencing significant barriers to safe housing (permanent and non-permanent) due to the intersection of transphobia, misogyny, and the COVID-19 crisis.
2020 Award - COVID-19 Resilience and Response: $30,000
InterIm CDA will advocate for the promotion of equitable development and ensure that the COVID-19 crisis is not used to further displace Asian, Pacific Islander and Refugee and Immigrant communities.
2020 Award - COVID-19 Resilience and Response: $125,000
To support organizing with Black and Indigenous communities and communities of color in Seattle and King County towards a just COVID-19 recovery framework that centers policies that prevent further displacement and gentrification and promote resiliency through community stewardship of land.
2020 Award - COVID-19 Resilience and Response: $50,000
OneAmerica will continue advocacy efforts to shape a just, community-led recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic.
2020 Grant Award - COVID-19 Resilience and Response: $125,000
CHOOSE 180 and Community Passageways will work in partnership for the development of a sustainable advocacy strategy led by those most impacted by mass incarceration, thus ensuring the health and well-being of incarcerated or court-involved young people; and that equitable public health and systemic changes made in response to COVID-19 are expanded upon and made permanent.
2020 Award - COVID-19 Resilience and Response: $133,000
The Community Health Board Coalition will support systems change and policy development work that will address the disparate impact of COVID-19 among communities of color by focusing on addressing mental health issues that are rooted in structural racism and exacerbated by the impacts of COVID-19.
2020 Award - COVID-19 Resilience and Response: $42,000
The Muslim Community & Neighborhood Association will advocate for city policies in East King County that protect low-income immigrant and refugee renters from eviction during and after the COVID-19 crisis.
2020 Award - Policy & Systems: $100,000
2020 Award - COVID-19 Resilience and Response: $20,000
Got Green fights for transformative change at the intersection of racial, economic, gender and climate justice by building community power in South Seattle.
2020 Award - COVID-19 Resilience and Response: $50,000
The YES! Foundation of White Center serves children, youth and young adults through relationship based programs that foster self and social awareness, promote education and repurpose power in an under resourced community.
Also See Currently Funded Partners, Above
2020 Award - Policy & Systems Change: $100,000
2020 Award - COVID-19 Resilience and Response: $50,000
Seattle Indian Health Board (SIHB) is a community health center that provides health and human services to its patients, while specializing in the care of Native people. SIHB is recognized as a leader in the promotion of health improvement for urban American Indians and Alaska Natives, locally and nationally.
Also See Currently Funded Partners, Above
2020 Award - COVID-19 Resilience and Response: $57,000
The Statewide Poverty Action Network is an anti-poverty advocacy organization that works through in-person community organizing and online advocacy to advance equitable policy solutions for low-income people in Washington state.
2020 Award: $200,000
The Collaborative will pursue a multi-pronged, community-driven anti-displacement strategy that unites and elevates communities’ voices for: affordable housing; economic opportunity (small business); healthful, safe communities; and community capacity to engage in equitable community development.
2020 Award: $100,000
Work to strengthen the systems and policy work to build a survivor-led movement in King County that transform the criminal legal system and promote policies that support the people most impacted by violence.
2020 Award: $100,000
Para Los Ninos (PLN) will educate and support Latinx families engagement to support students’ academic success from birth on.
2019 Award: $40,000
The WICRC will build relationships with public officials and develop leadership within the Native community through a series of advocacy and listening events with the Washington State Department of Children, Youth and Families.
2019 Award: $75,000
Civil Survival provides civic education and mobilizes formerly incarcerated individuals and their network of family and friends to advocate for greater participation and advocacy that results in better quality of life and outcomes, including in housing and employment.
2019 Award: $40,000
This coalition harnesses the voice of parents and young people to build community power and advance policy goals and strategies that end the use of discipline practices that disproportionately affect students of color in public schools.
2019 Award: $125,000
A collaborative project to increase the influence of two-spirit, gender diverse, queer, and transgender people of color to lead grassroots movements and demands for change by becoming meaningfully involved in the political process. Participants will work to address issues that are specific to these communities on a local and regional level and in the neighborhoods where they live and work.
2019 Award: $30,000
This organization will engage small family businesses to mitigate changes in the neighborhood and to strengthen Little Saigon in Seattle's International District as a cultural hub for the larger Vietnamese population.
2019 Award: $40,000
This project would increase advocacy capacity among Somali parents through practical skill building. The Task Force will advocate for policy changes to make public schools more accessible to and effective for Somali families and to use those newly developed skills to address other community needs.
2019 Award: $29,700
This project will strengthen cross-sector collaborations between neighborhood organizations and the school district to promote healthy youth development in Southeast and Central Seattle and more effectively address mental health and violence issues in the community that hamper the futures of students.
Partners at the unveiling of the Othello mural.
Place-Based and Cultural Community Partnerships
In King County – one of the most prosperous metropolitan regions in the United States – race, income, and ZIP code are major predictors of a person’s health and life expectancy. Low-income communities and communities of color regularly experience institutional racism that leads to disparities in health and well-being. To reverse these inequities, these new partnerships are designed to support leadership and civic engagement among groups that have historically been marginalized, sharing in decision-making and power, and working together to improve outcomes for all communities in our region.
STACC4J will work towards launching their Community Policy Labs where residents and organizations co-create and test community driven policy solutions. This will be advanced by facilitating and implementing “accountability scorecards” that will enable residents to measure progress on issues that have been raised by airport impacted communities.
Partnership Members: Defenders of Highline Forest, El Centro De La Raza, and KC International Airport Community Coalition. Fiscal Sponsor: Seattle Parks Foundation. Former members: Beacon Hill Council, Equity in Education Coalition, Quiet Skies Puget Sound and 350 Aviation.
The Coalition will continue to grow and operate the shared Referral & Navigation program to improve access to key resources in the Snoqualmie Valley and to address the systemic inequities that hinder the effectiveness of a coordinated nonprofit ecosystem, and to support more residents in accessing the services they need and help shift the culture of participating organizations to increase equity and reduce staff burnout.
Partnership members: A Supportive Community for All, Acres of Diamonds, CarePoint, Eastside Legal Assistance Program, Empower Youth Network, Encompass NW, Holy Innocents Food Pantry, Hopelink, Mt. Si Senior Center, Mamma’s Hands, Reclaim (formerly Snoqualmie Valley Shelter Services), Snoqualmie Valley Food Bank, and Tolt Congregational UCC Community Connections Program. Former members: Helping Hands, Huntington Learning Center, and Sno-Valley Senior Center.
The RICH Program Partnership will expand its policy advocacy and systems change work while sustaining existing intergenerational programs focused on culturally-relevant mental health supports and youth leadership. The Partnership will develop community power-building strategies to implement a community-led policy advocacy campaign that trains community advocates, conducts community listening sessions to document lived experiences with housing discrimination, connects with local elected officials, and brings community voice into policy conversations to advance solutions that address root causes of inequities affecting Cham, Somali, and Oromo communities.
Partnership members: Cham Refugees Community, Omar Bin Al-Khattab Islamic Center, and Somali Cultural Center
LGBTQ+SKCC's goals will work towards establishing a cross-sector Civic Engagement Cohort, linking community partners to local ordinances and resolutions related to housing, economic opportunity, and public health that will address the lived experiences of Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Pacific Islanders, Asian, and Immigrant LGBTQIA+ communities.
Partnership members: Queer Power Alliance (formerly LGBTQ Allyship), Entre Hermanos, and PNW Black Pride. Formerly: POCAAN.
The Initiative will address the healthcare disparities faced by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) communities in Kent through education reform, stakeholder/community mobilization, and advocacy.
Partnership members: Kent Community Development Collaborative (KCDC), Community Network Council, and Communities in Schools of South King County (formerly Communities In Schools of Kent). Former members: Communities of Rooted Brilliance, Mother Africa, Being Empowered Through Supportive Transitions (BEST).
CID Worker and Organizing Center’s goals will work towards a community and worker led housing initiative for safer alternatives to employer-controlled housing in the CID, along with a two-year campaign focused on creating a certification and industry standards for Washington state immigrant workers in the massage industry.
Partnership members: Massage Parlor Outreach Project, Chinatown International District Coalition, Puget Sound Sage
Burien Collaborative’s goals will focus on social service providers in the Burien-Highline area, developing a stronger network of systems coordination and access to resources, bridging the gaps between community need and resource allocation; and work towards a shift in public narrative focused on Undocumented Immigrants, unhoused populations, and BIPOC folks.
Partnership members: Southwest Youth and Family Services, Lake Burien Presbyterian Church, YES! Foundation, and Alimentando al Pueblo. Formerly: BLKBRY
The Legacy POWER Council will focus on addressing inequities and disparities in the healthcare field. They will work towards developing a 5-year strategic plan and their Policy Development Program, as well as continue to advance their Youth/Young Adult Healthcare Career Education and Mentorship pipeline.
Partnership members: Build 2 Lead, Momentum Belonging Group, King County Public Health Department, Livia Behavioral Health Services, UW Medicine Physicians Clinic, Morehouse School and Medicine, Leadership Tomorrow and Federal Way Public Schools
Using a community-centered and culturally informed framework, Together We Heal will grow their capacity to build an alternative to the carceral system and disrupt cycles of incarceration by deepening capacity to provide intensive restorative justice training and skill building, and provide healing spaces for the healers within organizations, while providing material resources including housing for communities impacted by violence and incarceration.
Partners: Freedom Project and Collective Justice
Place-Based and Cultural Communities - Previously Funded
Africatown: Replanting Roots, Rebuilding Community
Africatown: Replanting Roots, Rebuilding Community is bringing organizations together in the heart of Seattle’s historic African American community to strengthen the community’s sense of place in the face of displacement due to historic practices and current gentrification. Lead/Backbone Organization: Umoja Peace Center (Africatown Community Land Trust is now a member of our funded partner Crescent Collaborative, 2023-2027)
Comunidad Latina de Vashon Organizamos
Communidad Latina de Vashon Organizamos is working to dramatically enhance community connections and mobilize LatinX residents on Vashon Island to activate their leadership in community decisions and advance greater health and well-being. Partners in this effort include Latino-based organizations in Seattle that will share their expertise in civic engagement with the Vashon Latino community.
Kent Community Development Collaborative
Kent Community Development Collaborative (KCDC) is a partnership of community-based organizations working to ensure everyone can participate and benefit from decisions that shape their neighborhood and greater community. The partnership will convene community forums focused on creating affordable, safe housing for Kent residents, as well as opportunities for living-wage jobs and access to healthy, affordable foods. Lead/Backbone Organization: Community Network Council (KCDC’s Community Navigator Healthcare Initiative is currently funded, 2023-27)
Since the launch of the initiative, Rainier Valley has made progress in planning for an urban village near light rail stops in the Valley. Community partners and coalitions are focusing on shared ownership models to prevent displacement of historic cultural communities and to increase economic security. The Rainier Valley Partnership included over 50 organizational partners including HomeSight, Multicultural Communities Coalition (MCC), On Board Othello (OBO), Rainier Beach Action Coalition (RBAC), and South CORE (SCORE).
Partners in SeaTac/Tukwila took a bold approach to expanding economic opportunities and promoting health. The Community Coalition partners are working to keep communities in place by ensuring refugees and immigrants are empowered to be part of decision-making processes, and by creating a space for refugee and immigrant women to build successful businesses. SeaTac-Tukwila Coalition members were Global to Local, Congolese Integration Network, Food Innovation Network, Partner in Employment, Somali Health Board, and Somali Youth & Family Club.
Seattle Urban Native Nonprofits (SUNN)
SUNN is a roundtable that aims to unite the efforts of Native-led organizations to advocate for policies and positive changes that will improve health and well-being. The partners included the Potlatch Fund, Seattle Indian Health Board, Na’ah Illahee Fund, Chief Seattle Club, and NAWDIM, who all have a long history of engaging in the needs of urban Native families and relatives through a unique cultural lens. Lead/Backbone Organization: Potlatch Fund
Snoqualmie Valley Supportive Community for All
Snoqualmie Valley Supportive Community for All worked to strengthen community connections by building an inclusive coalition of service providers and key community stakeholders around a shared vision of coordinating human services across the Snoqualmie Valley. (Now leading the Snoqualmie Valley Human Services Coalition, a currently funded partner 2023-2027)
The Transgender Economic Empowerment Coalition
The Transgender Economic Empowerment Coalition will address the economic barriers transgender and gender-nonconforming communities and LGBTQ people of color experience as a result of transphobia, homophobia and racism. The Coalition will build leadership development programs and engage area employers to develop model employment policies.
In White Center, a key priority driven by residents and grassroots organizations is anchoring multi-cultural businesses and partnerships in the community to prevent displacement. Paramount to this work is increasing community leadership, with an emphasis on engaging young people. The White Center partnership included: White Center Community Development Association (WCCDA), FEEST, White Center Food Bank, YWCA, Southwest Youth and Family Services. (This partnership is now funded as White Center CDA, 2023-2027)
Learning Community
Capacity building and shared learning are central to the vision of the COO Learning Community and are necessary in disrupting systemic racism and building greater equity in King County. Through the Learning Community strategy, COO provides opportunities for people to learn from one another, develop tools, test models together, and build and strengthen skills, knowledge, and organizations.
The outcomes of these activities create skills, tools, relationships, and the infrastructure needed for long-term community power building.
Learning Community resources are currently directed to support the following:
Innovation Projects: We work with partners who help us design, implement, and evaluate pilot projects like the Commercial Affordability Pilot and the COVID-19 Storytelling Cohort. These projects support trying new models and programs that build capacity and learning and ultimately move the needle on policy and systems change outcomes.
Capacity-Building Consultants: We support and co-design capacity-building opportunities and resources provided by community consultants and values-aligned providers who create and hold learning and skill-building relevant to the essential capacities for community power building. These include trainings, workshops, learning circles, cohorts, and convenings. Find upcoming opportunities and ongoing resources/tools here: Communities of Opportunity — Resources
If you’re interested in learning more about partnering with the Learning Community, please contact us at info@coopartnerships.org.
We are grateful to work with many local and national partner organizations in support of innovation and capacity building resources for King County organizations and leaders. They include:
Contacto Consulting, a consulting firm that supported COO communications capacity building.
Headwater People, who designed and hosted a series of communications workshops in 2021.
The National Development Council (now GrowAmerica), who led a consultant team including BDS Planning & Urban Design (now Uncommon Bridges), Craft3, and Moving Beyond on the COO Learning Community Commercial Affordability Pilot Project.
Sama Praxis, who previously served as the Learning Community administrator.