Explore Our Projects:
"A PLACE FOR EVERYONE"
Community Development
A Place for everyone is where RBAC’s business engagement, housing developer monitoring, construction trade outreach and assessment projects occur. APE is also where transportation, environment and land use issues affecting Rainier Beach gets reviewed. APE is the least resourced action area ($205K). RBAC convenes the Rainier Beach Economic Development Roundtable that brings together bankers, entrepreneurs, capital providing not-for profits and city departments, who in a collaborative manner, lend counsel and ideas that support businesses in RB to thrive and monitors developers, who are building in the neighborhood, compliance with the our “community development partnership framework”. An area of challenge is not having the capacity to to take on the transportation, environment and land use matters existing in Rainier Beach according to our practice i.e., start with projects, move to systems change, create policy. In 2023 RBAC will continue the above work in addition to convening black-led not for profit organization who are occupying the ground floors of new affordable housing developments coming the the neighborhood.
Project: Priority Hire
Click here to learn about: Priority Hire
We want to measurably increase access to jobs in the booming construction industry for residents of economically distressed ZIP codes as defined by the City of Seattle, women and/or people of color in the construction industry.
Project: Economic Development
Click here to learn about: Economic Development
We want to Develop core entrepreneurship support for existing small businesses to help them succeed and stay in Rainier Beach. Create the groundwork for a culturally relevant small business initiative.
"LIFE LONG LEARNING"
Education
Rainier Beach is home to public and private educational institutions, with the capacity to provide formal and informal education to all 5,000 residents. Situated in one of the nations most diverse zip codes. Rainier Beach residents represent an amazing wealth of cultural experiences. By intentionally welcoming the community into the schools, both the schools and the neighborhood can be uplifted. This is an area RBAC needs an increase in investment. Until that occurs we rely on Southeast Seattle Education Coalition to advise us on education. A major development we are thrilled to follow is the rebuild of Rainier Beach High School. When completed, it will provide permanent space for 1600 students grade 9-12. The project includes renovation of the existing Performing Arts Center. Students will remain onsite during the phased construction.
Project: Back2School Bash
Click here to learn about: The Back2School Bash
For 20 years, we’ve been putting on this event for the benefit of our neighborhood youth and families, and with the support of some amazing volunteers, local businesses, and community organizations. The Back2School Bash has historically been a day of celebration and gathering for neighborhood families, full of music, laughter, and giving.
Project: The Beach Five
Beach fives, represent Rainier Beach Action Coalition in its efforts to support young-adult empowerment and leadership initiative, where young adult leaders learn-by-doing and lead by example. This is a citizen-led neighborhood service for young adults to leverage the neighborhood they come from.
"A BEAUTIFUL SAFE PLACE"
Community Safety
A Beautiful Safe Place is where RBAC’s community safety and arts projects live. It is the second most highly resourced action area at RBAC ($1.2M). The 2022 journey of this action area started for RBAC in 2010 when we collaborated with other Rainier Beach neighborhood organizations to address incidents that contribute to youth crime in RB. It was determined using the methodology of “youth and neighborhood engagement” to address specific street segments where a high number of incidents occurred would be the best thing to do. Challenges experienced in this work included the holding together of a coalition of organizations who came together to decrease the number of incidents that contribute to youth crime. Despite a pandemic we were able to do this. The effort to get the neighborhood to embrace the restorative justice movement proved challenging but we had more peace, healing and conflict circles conducted in the neighborhood than ever. For RBAC, building capacity within organizations we partner with to collaborate at even higher levels is our charge in 2023.
Project: Youth & Neighborhood Engagement
Click here to learn more about Youth & Neighborhood Engagement:
We envision a Rainier Beach in which all members of the community take an active role in creating and maintaining a beautiful, safe place for everyone.
We believe that the YNE program has the power to sustainably transform the neighborhood into a place where residents fear neither crime nor displacement, and where community-based, youth-led organizations consistently collaborate to solve local problems.
Ultimately, we hope that this program will result in a whole volunteer network of adults, youth, businesses, and organizations that continue on the legacy of community-organized public safety strategies.
Project: FreedomNet / Citizen Journalism
Click here to learn about Freedomnet:
Freedomnet supports young adults transitioning to adulthood, as well as voices that have been neglected and/or ignored due to systemic racism in and around the Rainier Beach neighborhood with media and content creation training. Together, they serve the broader Rainier Beach community by providing information on local news, events, resources, and opportunities that make #RainierBeach A Beautiful Safe Place.
Project: Young Adults Transitioning to Adulthood (YATTA) Rising
YATTA Rising is an acronym for “Young Adults Transitioning to adulthood Rising Up.” The initiative will work to enhance participating YATTA’s wellbeing so you can show up in this work at “full attention” i.e., well fed, strong self-identity, cognitively sharp, knowledge about public safety structures. YATTA Rising will also take a deep look at practices within SPD, that, if changed, will empower our community to be better able to police itself.
Project: Restorative Resolutions / Circle Keeping
Click here to learn more about Restorative Resolutions:
The Restorative Resolutions project envisions Rainier Beach as a place where our community and especially folx who are victims of gun violence have ample support and connection to resources that not only offer healing but also provision of basic needs.
"GROWING FOOD TO DEVELOP HEALTHY INDUSTRY"
Food Justice
The Neighborhood Plan Update and subsequent community participatory researches were clear. Rainier Beach residents are looking for access to healthy, affordable, and culturally relevant food, and opportunities for young adults in the community. This is the focus of RBAC’s Food Justice League, working directly with BIPOC farmers and making their produce available in the neighborhood, while YATTAs (young adults transitioning to adulthood) learn how to grow, cook, and eat vegetables. As leaders of Food Systems change, they develop the strategies and plan for new infrastructure like the Food Innovation Center to support their vision.
Project: Food Innovation Center
Click here to learn more about the Food Innovation Center:
The concept of the RB FIC clusters manufacturing, technology, and food sectors around the light rail station to provide access to career-path living-wage jobs, strengthening the local economy through production rather than consumption.
Project: Farm Stand
Click here to learn more about the Farm stand:
We believe in a future for Rainier Beach in which everyone has access to healthy, fresh and culturally-relevant produce that is sourced from local (BI)POC farms, and that supports employment opportunities for neighborhood young adults.
Project: Food Policy Council
Click here to learn more about the Food Policy Council!
The current landscape of South King County’s food system is made up of limited infrastructure and networks that do not support local farms to sustain their communities. This situation is exacerbated for Black, Indigenous, immigrant and refugee farmers.
