This year marks the 15th anniversary of our Community Liaisons (CL) Program. The program was established in 2009 to help the City do a better job of engaging with and serving historically underrepresented communities in Seattle. Community Liaisons support departments across the City of Seattle by serving as a neutral bridge between people and city government. Their service helps ensure underrepresented groups have access to City information, resources, and decision-making power. These embedded community leaders represent historically underserved communities, including communities of color, immigrant and refugee populations, people living with disabilities, Native Americans, the LGBTQ+ community, unhoused populations, and seniors.
On September 13, we hosted a gathering to celebrate the CL program’s 15 year milestone at Seattle City Hall. The event included words by various City leaders including Jenifer Chao, Director of Department of Neighborhoods; Andrew Lee, General Manager and CEO, Seattle Public Utilities; Dawn Schellenberg, Deputy Director of Equity & Communications for Seattle Department of Transportation; and Deputy Mayor Greg Wong.
We would also recognized two of our very first CLs Neguse Naizghi and Sokunthea Ok.
Neguse Naizghi
Over the past 15 years, Neguse has lent us his knowledge of community needs, his time, his and energy. He always moves with dignity and respect and has been vital in helping the City meet community members where they are. Though he has worked with the Department of Neighborhoods since the formation of the CL program, he has always been a deeply engaged member of his community. His dedication to service is admirable and we are honored to have worked with and learned from Neguse for all these years. Read quotes about Neguse from fellow CLs and staff.
“I have done different projects and events with Neguse. I can say that Neguse’s bearing is so dignified; I feel it even in the air around him.”
Kathleen Perez Martinez, Community Liaison
“Neguse is one of the chief architects who laid the foundation for Community Liaison program. He is proud ambassador who represent his East African community with care and kindness. I never heard him calling me by my name but brother. He has always been respectful to his fellow CLs and his calm and cool character earned him to be the face of the program.”
Mohamud Yussuf, Community Liaison
“Over the last 15 years, Neguse had worked on a few dozen City projects and dealt with many important and often challenging topics. From transportation to affordable housing to utilities discount to human services, Neguse provided community members with essential program information, language access, and case work assistance. In addition, Neguse led multiple community conversations and helped departments to improve and provide better services + benefits for community members.”
Stanley Tsao, Community Liaison Program Advisor
Sokunthea Ok
We sat down with Sokunthea to ask her a few questions about her experiences as a Community Liaison
When this program started in 2009, it was called the Public Outreach and Engagement Liaisons. You were one of the first few people to apply and start doing projects with the City. Do you have any memories from that time you can share?
I have really good memories of the early days. It was very fun, and we had a lot of work. We were always sharing food and working with people from other cultures who spoke different languages. When I started it was very hard to find anything explained in Khmer, the language of Cambodia where I am from, so I was excited to make sure my community had materials they understood. There were two of us at first — Neguse was there, and he was representing some parts of the East African community. I remember that they took the application process really seriously and after the two of us got hired and started working on contracts, they eventually added people who spoke Vietnamese, Lao, Thai, Tagalog, and Spanish.
We had a lot of projects at the time. I worked full time at Neighborhood House with families with young children and it was really good because it related nicely to my work at the City. I was learning all about what the City does, the projects that needed community input.
What has been your favorite project for the Community Liaison program and why?
I really like talking to people about the new housing at Rainier New Holly. It was good because people really needed it to be better there, and they had ideas about what they wanted like better safety, nicer paths for walking, more housing, community places, more businesses. Now there are beautiful paths, a community center and people with lower incomes can live there. We also talked about small businesses being important and having access to groceries, a bank, and other basics. Whatever we had in our imagination, we helped make it happen. We wanted light rail and now the stop is right in front of Safeway, there is a bank — so many resources like the ICHS. When we did community meetings, people asked for these things and now they have them at New Holly. I feel proud when I walk around there and see so many things that people wanted.
What has been your most challenging project and why?
There is one. Some of it is related to my personal life because I was working on something during a very hard time. The project load sometimes requires a lot of political thinking, resources and knowledge. The transportation projects can be very political and that can be difficult sometimes.
What is your role at Asian Counseling and Referral Services and how does your experience as a Cambodian refugee help you do your job?
I am the Clinical Supervisor for Behavioral Health. Many people from Cambodia and other places have gone through a lot, like war. In my job I hear stories about how friends and family have been killed. It helps me to understand where my own community comes from. Working for the City as a Community Liaison has been helpful because I have learned to encourage people to speak up about the things that they are seeing here and to remind that they are safe here and it’s okay to speak. Many people in my community are used to hiding because they needed to do that. We have a lot of PTSD and they are afraid they will be in trouble. The experiences I have had with the City have helped me to open my mind and to help them open their minds to engage with the City.
What is it like for your family here in the Seattle area? What hopes for them to you have as part of the Seattle Cambodian community?
I have two beautiful children, a daughter and a son. They volunteer and stay involved in the community. My daughter recently graduated from college and my son is in high school. My husband also has a job doing community-based work.
My hope is that they can live in a city that is safe and that they can share their ideas freely.
Is there anything you would like to share with the readers of our blog and / or the Community Liaison community?
I am really grateful for the Community Liaison programs and projects. We want to make sure we have funding to continue the projects. I want to thank the City of Seattle for keeping this program going.
What do you like to do in Seattle?
I love Seattle. I was a Medical Doctor in Cambodia and I got scholarship to come here and study. I joined a fellowship to go to other states and I visited sixteen states during my training. Seattle was my favorite place. Seattle has beautiful parks, especially parks parents can bring their kids to, we can see Mount Rainier, and there are so many good museums and other places to go to. My favorite parks are Seahurst in Burien and Seward Park in Seattle.
