Community Capacity
Goals include centering the experiences of Duwamish Valley residents and their increased ability - particularly BIPOC, low-income, and other marginalized communities - to meaningfully influence the design of and participate in decision-making processes regarding City policies, programs, and services for the Duwamish Valley.
2023 Progress Highlights
View the full 2023 Annual Update
Community Controlled Spaces
South Park Neighborhood Center
The Duwamish Valley Program successfully collaborated with Villa Comunitaria and the Facilities and Administrative Services Department at the City of Seattle to create a contract for $1.15 million to upgrade the facilities at the Neighborhood Center. The project will be managed by Villa Comunitaria and will occur over 2024 and 2025.
Community-Supportive Spaces for Georgetown
In 2023, the Duwamish Valley Program collaborated with the Georgetown Community Council to establish a community engagement plan to invest $500,000 to improve the availability and accessibility of community gathering spaces in the neighborhood. After 6 months of community engagement, the Duwamish Valley Program put together a community review team to review the top options supported by community input and provide recommendations to the City. The Duwamish Valley Program ultimately supported 4 total projects:
- Hiring MAKERS architecture and urban to lead the neighborhood through a building program analysis for a community owned and operated neighborhood center
- Investing in resilience hub programming and infrastructure improvements to the Mini Mart City Park, including solar + battery storage, free WiFi, all electric kitchen equipment, air cooling and filtration, increased community programming and accessibility
- Improvements to Oxbow Park p-patch including upgrading the shed and general improvements to the raised bed area
- A mini grant to the Georgetown Community Council to support their semi-annual community gathering events like the post-holiday party and the Georgetown Carnival.
Community and Climate Resilience
Duwamish Valley Resilience District
OSE, OPCD, and SPU have continued the work to create a Resilience District in the Duwamish Valley, which is a coordinated strategy to promote climate change adaptation and sea-level rise planning with initiatives like affordable housing to help communities thrive in place. Throughout 2023, the City established a Resilience District Advisory Group made up of residents, community leaders, and industrial business representatives. The Advisory Group worked to finalize Guiding Principles for the work
Duwamish Valley Resilience Hubs
In 2023, the Duwamish Valley Program invested around $300,000 in the Mini Mart City Park to enhance their facilities and programming to better serve the community and function as a resilience hub in Georgetown.
NEW: Citywide Resilience Hub Plan
In 2023, OSE began early planning on the Citywide Resilience Hub Plan, which will guide how the City assists and supports resilience hubs. Resilience hubs are trusted, community-serving facilities that support communities in everyday life and before, during, and after an emergency. OSE contracted with a team of community-based consultants with expertise in art, science, academia, community organizing, policy and advocacy, and climate justice to design and lead community engagement. Potential engagement activities are arts-focused workshops, walking tours, surveys, and more. The plan is anticipated to be released in early 2025.
Youth Programming, Capacity Building, & Leadership Development
In 2023, OSE secured $500,000 for youth programming. This funding supported community-led efforts that foster youth leadership, capacity building, workforce development, and recreational programming. Through this funding, local youth supported community priorities such as tree planting and maintenance, air and water quality improvements, mutual aid, climate and community resilience, emergency preparedness, improvements to parks and open spaces, and more.
Duwamish River Opportunity Fund
This year, the Duwamish River Opportunity Fund awarded nearly $300,000 to a variety of Duwamish Valley community-based organizations who are advancing environmental justice and community priorities.
Environmental Justice Fund
In addition to the Duwamish River Opportunity Fund, the City of Seattle also established an Environmental Justice fund to award financial support to BIPOC and other community organizations leading on environmental justice work. In 2023, the EJ Fund supported three Duwamish Valley organizations with grants ranging from $30,000 to $70,000. The three organizations were the Duwamish Valley Sustainability Association (DVSA), Young Women Empowered (Y-WE) and Villa Comunitaria.
2022 Progress Updates
Community Controlled Spaces
South Park Neighborhood Center
OPCD secured $1.15 million to support operations of the current South Park Neighborhood Center building and helped tenants to secure a new lease on the building.
NEW: Community-Supportive Spaces for Georgetown
The City’s 2022 budget allocated $500,000 for community gathering spaces and climate change mitigation improvements to physical infrastructure in Georgetown.
Community and Climate Resilience
Duwamish Valley Resilience District
OSE, OPCD, and SPU have continued the work to create a Resilience District in the Duwamish Valley. Throughout 2022, community members selected and the City contracted with a suite of consultants to help with racial equity analysis, inclusive community involvement, value capture and municipal financing analyses, organizational development, landscape architecture design for sea level rise, and project facilitation and management.
NEW: Resilience Hubs
In 2022, OPCD received $1.3 million for the implementation for a pilot program of Resilience Hubs in Seattle. The Resilience Hubs are different than the Resilience District. We know, it is a bit confusing. In contrast to the Resilience District, the Resilience Hubs are meant to serve as a trusted space (most likely a partnership with an existing spaces and ongoing community-serving programs) where, during an extreme event like flooding or intense wildfire smoke or heatwave, community members can gather to access resources and relief.
NEW: Seattle Assessment of Public Health Emergency Response (SASPER) – Duwamish Valley Pilot
In collaboration with the University of Washington (UW) EDGE Center, the Duwamish River Community Coalition, the Duwamish Valley Youth Corps, Public Health – Seattle & King County, Washington Department of Health, and other partners, OSE is participating in the Seattle Assessment of Public Health Emergency Response (SASPER) – Duwamish Valley Pilot Project. Last year, this work included surveying 167 households in South Park and Georgetown to identify and document household- and community-level climate change and health impacts and access to and needs for information and resources to promote resilience, as well as to provide pathways for community input into ongoing climate change adaptation planning. The SASPER is funded by an UW EarthLab Innovation Grant and builds on methods used by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The findings and results will help inform our Duwamish Valley Resilience District work.
Youth Programming, Capacity Building, & Leadership Development
In 2022, OSE secured $500,000 for youth programming. This funding supported community-led efforts that foster youth leadership, capacity building, workforce development, and recreational programming. Through this funding, local youth supported community priorities such as tree planting and maintenance, air and water quality improvements, mutual aid, climate and community resilience, emergency preparedness, improvements to parks and open spaces, and more.
Inclusive Community Engagement & Accountability
OPCD and OSE were successful in increasing City staff that supports the Duwamish Valley Program by hiring a Duwamish Valley Program Coordinator. The Coordinator will help to increase transparency and work on meaningful, equitable community engagement. With this added capacity, the Duwamish Valley Program will be able to increase accountability to community voice and perspective to center racial justice in the Program’s planning and operations.
NEW: Cross-Sector Collaboration & Shared Decision-Making
Over the next two years, the City will both conduct broad engagement of Georgetown and South Park communities, and convene an advisory group (i.e., diverse set of interested parties) to guide the Duwamish Valley Resilience District work. The Resilience District advisory group will ensure those most affected by climate change, and those who currently tend to benefit the least from environmental and capital investments, guide the planning, design, and implementation of these programs and investments. Among other things, the advisory group will help shape a sea level rise adaptation strategy, advise on the best ways to finance and fund infrastructure projects, and establish a framework for shared decision-making and collaboration. The advisory group will also help enhance partnerships with City departments, non-City agencies, philanthropy, and better connect community-based solutions into government. Lastly, the advisory group will help guide broad community engagement, and ensure this work responds to what we hear from community.
Duwamish River Opportunity Fund
This year, the Duwamish River Opportunity Fund awarded nearly $300,000 to a variety of Duwamish Valley community-based organizations who are advancing environmental justice and community priorities. The organizations include:
- Amigos de Seattle to fund a radio show production training program
- Duwamish Tribal Services to plan and design a new café that will enhance visitor experience
- Duwamish Valley Sustainability Association to support the development of five animated videos and a 3-D model to explain the Duwamish River Superfund site cleanup process
- Pollution Prevention Resource Center (PPRC) to create and deploy a storm drain stencil and wastewater container decal that will help prevent wastewater dumping to storm drains
- South Park Arts & Culture Collective to provide free open mic nights, public painting sessions, and ongoing art classes for young people in South Park
- Utility^2 to support a curriculum project related to municipal utility services to help build the next generation of the City’s infrastructure workforce
- Villa Comunitaria to support the organization and development of a South Park Childcare Cooperative to primarily service Latinx women, children, and families in South Park
Environmental Justice Fund
In addition to the Duwamish River Opportunity Fund, OSE manages the City's Environmental Justice fund to invest in community-led efforts that benefit and are led by, or in partnership with, those most affected by environmental and climate inequities: Black, Indigenous, People of Color, immigrants, refugees, people with low incomes, youth, and elders. This last year, the EJ Fund the EJ Fund awarded two grants of $75,000 to organizations whose work will benefit the Duwamish Valley. The two organizations were the Duwamish Valley Sustainability Association (DVSA) and Young Women Empowered (Y-WE). With the funds, DVSA will develop a roadmap towards zero-waste energy systems in South Park and Y-WE will engage young women in food systems learning and food production at Marra Farm to develop facilitation and leadership skills in health and food justice activities.
2021 Progress
Seattle Human Services Department and OSE supported the Duwamish Valley Youth Corps and Georgetown Youth Council; OPCD and Finance & Administrative Services continued supporting tenants with developing long-term plans for managing and improving the South Park Neighborhood Center; DON, OSE, and OPCD funded community-based organizations via the Food Equity Fund, the Duwamish River Opportunity Fund, the Environmental Justice Fund, and the Equitable Development Implementation Fund; and OPCD and SPR launched community engagement for site planning for the Unity Electric property.
2020 Progress
Duwamish Valley Program continued working with tenants to develop long-term plans for managing the South Park Neighborhood Center, made improvements to the Georgetown Steam Plant, and provided funding for the Georgetown Mini Mart City Park.