2021 Racial Equity Update & Opportunities

Seattle Neighborhood Greenways embraces the powerful idea that mobility — the ability to get to the goods, services, and opportunities of daily life, safely, comfortably, affordably — is a basic human right.  Yet we know that access to safe, healthy mobility is not equally shared in Seattle. Quite the contrary. In so many aspects of people’s daily life here — where we can afford to live, our ability to own or drive a private vehicle, how far we need to travel to get to work or to the nearest grocery store, how safe we are when walking, rolling, or crossing the street, and how we are viewed by police officers on our streets — race and racism play a huge role in determining our ability to get to where we need to go. Seattle Neighborhood Greenways works to make every neighborhood a great place to walk, bike, and live — for people of all ages, languages, races, ethnicities, genders, and abilities. Achieving this vision requires changing the underlying systems that create race-based disparities in our city and starts with creating a movement that welcomes, supports, uplifts, and celebrates people of color at every level, and centers and amplifies the voices of those currently furthest from justice. In 2018, we began work on a racial equity action plan that aligned with and added onto every part of our strategic action plan and theory of change. After three years, we’ve now updated our Racial Equity Action Plan for 2021-2024 to strengthen our goals and accountability. Also new this year are two exciting scholarship funds:
  • Sponsorship for all volunteers to attend equity-focused workshops and training.
  • Sponsorship for BIPOC community members to attend continuing education workshops and training within transportation, urban design, and public space fields. This fund is open to people of color whether or not they are active volunteers within our coalition.
Find out more about our Racial Equity Action Plan here, or get involved in your local Greenways group today! We are also gathering enthusiastic folks together for an ongoing racial equity workgroup to help us plan events, workshops, and programs. If you are interested, please contact: clara@seattlegreenways.org Last but not least, please SAVE THE DATE for our annual internal racial equity workshop: Thursday, Sep 9th, 2021 - more details to come!