Issue 3: Building Solidarity
Our Mission
We are a group of individuals building solidarity and collaborating towards the abolition of policing and incarceration in Seattle and King County.
This newsletter provides information for those interested in learning about and helping with divest/invest efforts. Newsletter submissions are welcome at any time. We publish every other Tuesday. See “Upcoming” or “Join Us” to get involved.
Momentum Builds for Participatory Budgeting (PB)
Although funding for PB n’ Justice (see issue 1) is yet to be released by City Council, PB has already begun.
PB steering committee
No single organization owns Participatory Budgeting (PB). Instead, the process is democratic and community-led, with the rules and engagement plan determined by a steering committee.
The steering committee will comprise individuals who are most likely to be harmed or killed by systemic racism and violence: Black women who are trans, indigenous women, people with disabilities, among other groups. The application process for the steering committee will begin in late February. A subset of the most qualified candidates will form a citizen jury who will be tasked with selecting the steering committee from the other qualified candidates.
-Peter (he/him)
Community conversations
During a recent community conversation (Feb 16th) I attended on the participatory budgeting process, as Shaun — tireless and enthusiastic as always — described PB, a fresh insight wafted into my brain while I listened to them speak. If budgets tell stories about what matters to society, then participatory budgeting invites each of us to remember that we are authors — not only of our own lives, but our collective lives. We are co-creators.
Participatory budgeting asks community members to create proposals, and then whether to fund them gets voted on by the community. This PB cycle informed by the Black Brilliance Research Project challenges everyone to think of community safety as a set of conditions. It pushes us to look for, understand and define those conditions. It prods us to wonder about what is good not only for ourselves, but for everyone. And it invites us to tell a whole new story. Which we sorely need. Democracy at its best. The story where we take responsibility for creating the kind of community that benefits all of us.
-Pennie
PB outreach
Community members all over the city and surrounding areas have been learning about PB at teach-ins (see issue 2) and have been sharing what they have learned with their networks.
Last week, BBR lead project manager Antonette coordinated outreach to over 75 faith-based organizations and hosted a teach-in for faith leaders. Over a dozen people asked questions, shared concerns, and put forth ideas for projects their communities would like to get funded via PB.
Looking ahead, an early job of the steering committee will be to select members for a PB outreach workgroup. That workgroup will make sure that all communities are aware of how they can participate in all stages of the PB process and make sure that as many people as possible are part of the idea collection process.
-Peter (he/him)
Black Brilliance Research Updates
See the BBR homepage for the most up-to-date information, including the link to attend BBR office hours, which are public and are held every Tuesday and Thursday, 10-11 am.
“The research is about creating a roadmap for what PB looks like.” -Shaun
Final report and presentation
The final BBR project report will be presented to Seattle City Council on Friday, Feb 26, at 9:30 am. This is the culmination of a huge amount of work by over 100 researchers. We recommend you mark your calendars and watch the upcoming presentation on the Seattle Channel. The report itself will be made publicly available by Council afterwards.
-Peter (he/him)
Teach-in
The above teach-in on Feb 15, hosted by Forever Safe Spaces and Converge, elevates several of their amazing artist collaborations as well as the work of Ujamaa Food Circle to distribute wholesale organic food and supplies to BIPOC families. (Follow on instagram: @justcallmenas, @cmehitt, @kiyamac206, @BlackStarFarmers, and @Ujamaafoodcircle.)
The Silent Task Force gave an overview of their critical partnerships with schools, churches, and outreach workers in the Black community. And Shaun provided an update on the planning around participatory budgeting.
-Renee (she/her)
Video podcast
“Seattle stopped being a working class town. If you work for a living, you get pushed out of here.” -William Garling, Esq.
The above Feb 12 community conversation included Shaun Glaze, Dr. Alison Harmon (educational leadership, grant manager, former professor), Vivian Tate, Esq. (community member, attorney), Renee McGahan (special olympics board member, real estate broker), Chris Bailey (Executive Director of Mona Bailey Academy), and William Garling, Esq. (community member, former assistant attorney general). Their conversation ties together findings of the BBRP with upcoming PB efforts.
"What is new about Seattle: we're putting our money where our mouth is and we’re running towards justice." -Shaun
-Peter (he/him)
Building solidarity
On February 18, Shaun Glaze gave an update on the Black Brilliance Research Project (BBRP) at the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness February Membership meeting, which aims to mobilize community members to challenge systemic causes of homelessness and advocate for housing justice. Members emphasized that systemic racism and anti-Blackness in particular are major underlying causes of homelessness, and that to be effective advocates, we should be working to acknowledge and dismantle racism both in policy and in ourselves. The meeting was well attended, bringing together over 80 community members representing several different organizations working to address homelessness and increase housing equity in the Seattle area.
The BBRP identified housing and physical spaces as the foremost community need. They discussed rental assistance and moratoriums as ways to address the housing crisis and proposed programs designed to assist single moms with housing.
After the presentation, BBRP researchers and Coalition members discussed the intersection of the housing crisis and job loss resulting from the pandemic that has hit BIPOC communities especially hard. Solutions proposed to address these intersecting crises included cancellation of back rent and an increase in affordable housing. BBRP and Coalition members agreed that Participatory Budgeting will be an effective way to generate more community solutions.
You can watch a recording of the meeting and read a full meeting summary here.
- Ray (he/him)
Political Action
Support housing priorities
From the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness (above): Ask your state lawmakers to act with urgency to support homelessness, housing priorities. It takes less than a minute to follow this link and send an email.
-Peter (he/him)
No new crimes
A call to action from Angélica Cházaro:
No New Crimes WA is a campaign to halt the expansion of criminalization, and to redirect resources into community solutions. Even “progressive” crime bills — such as HB 1071, which would introduce harsher penalties for hate crimes — funnel resources into a criminal justice and policing system which disproportionately harms BIPOC communities. HB 1071 was dropped (victory!), but many other current bills criminalize protestors by prioritizing police (HB 1394) and government property (SB 5059). Expanding the punishment system is not the solution to civil unrest.
Overview: bit.ly/NoNewCrimes
Sign on to No New Crimes as an individual: bit.ly/NoNewCrimesIndiv
Or as an organization: bit.ly/NoNewCrimesOrg
-Tova (she/her)
Direct Support
BBR teams Forever Safe Spaces and The Silent Task Force have been active in getting the research report finalized and doing outreach. Follow them and support if you are able.
South King County and Eastside Mutual Aid provides “mutual aid support for survivors, sick & disabled, immunocompromised, undocumented, and QTBIPOC folx in South King County & Eastside.”
They are in need of funds for their regular delivery of groceries and essential items to community members. You can follow them on instagram @skc_e_mutual_aid or join their facebook group and can send funds through Venmo @MutualAidSKCE, CashApp $MutualAidSKCE, or PayPal Covid19MutualAidEastside@gmail.com.
- Renee (she/her)
Upcoming
PB artwork creation
Calling all creative people! Matt, Renee, and Peter will be hosting a 2-part PB artwork creation jam session on March 4 and 11 at 7:00-8:00 pm. Please contact Peter (shellito@gmail.com) if you would like to join. Our first session will involve lots of brainstorming, so please come even if you do not consider yourself to be artistically inclined.
Volunteer office hours
Holding questions or not sure how to get involved? I will be hosting volunteer office hours this Wednesday, Feb 24, 7:00-7:40 pm. Drop in for some or all of the time. Help identify needs, share information, or just chat. Zoom link here.
-Peter (he/him)
Volunteer Highlights
In addition to the great contributions people have made to this newsletter, I would like to recognize the following people for their recent efforts:
Renee, Raymond, and Pennie for reviewing and consolidating past public safety initiatives that the City of Seattle has funded. We now have a more complete picture of what has been done to this point and what the lessons-learned have been. These findings will be contained in the forthcoming BBR report.
Emma for researching and fact-checking progress that other major metropolitan areas have made towards defunding the police.
Kelly for transcribing an interview between LéTania Severe and Elmer Dixon, Co-founder of the Black Panther Party in Seattle.
Megan for proofreading and helping with layout for the BBR report.
I’m surely missing a few people, for which I sincerely apologize.
-Peter (he/him)
Join Us
You can contribute to this newsletter or take part in efforts similar to those highlighted above by reaching out to any of us. Or read our guiding principles and join us here.