This fall, we had the privilege of gathering with collaborators and project leaders from our Generational Wealth Initiative to celebrate and uplift the work of BIPOC-led organizations that are advancing Seattle’s Community Wealth Building framework. Launched in 2022, the Generational Wealth Initiative was born from community advocacy for racial justice. It included direct investments into community-led projects, grassroots funding through a partnership with the Social Justice Fund, and participatory research with community organizations, facilitators, and City staff. We collaborated with the People’s Economy Lab, Headwater People, and other City departments to work with communities of color to better understand the racial wealth gap in Seattle and identify and pilot solutions utilizing regenerative community wealth building strategies to address to the racial wealth gap.
A Community Roundtable was established in June 2022. Participants represent community members, small business owners, non-profit leaders, and housing developers. Some members currently serve on the City’s equity-focused advisory groups and others are engaging formally with the City for the first time. The group identified an interest in how whole communities can build wealth and wanted to focus on an economic development model that keeps hard-earned wealth in the hands of the people and communities that create it in the first place.
Nine community-led pilot projects that support community wealth building were funded. Project leads participated in a cohort to share strategies, opportunities, and challenges. The gathering brought these leaders together to share more about their projects and the impact they have had on their community.
Pilot Projects and Outcomes
Central Area Collaborative: Developed a community wealth-building model and secured $1.2M in funding for Central Area small businesses.
Resource Equity Association: Established a non-profit to advance housing justice and generational wealth for Seattle’s African American community, collaborating to assist Black homeowners in maximizing and retaining their assets.
Growing Contigo: Launched a small business incubator for Latinx creatives, resulting in four new businesses and ongoing support from the Office of Economic Development.
Multicultural Community Coalition: Created a prototype website for collective fundraising to resource community development projects through savings-circle-inspired models.
Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle: Built capacity to educate Black homeowners on property tax exemptions and connect them to home repair resources, helping retain intergenerational assets.
Villa Comunitaria: Formed the Rayito de Sol Childcare Services Cooperative, the first Latine childcare coop in the Northwest, equitably distributing wealth among co-owners while providing services to major local institutions.
Kelvin Dankwa: Established the Acacia Council to mentor Black youth in entrepreneurship, securing nine internships for students to gain business education and opportunities.
Chief Seattle Club: Partnered with the Office of Housing to host culturally specific homeownership events for Urban Natives and explore down payment assistance programs.
African Community Housing and Development: Hosted community cafés to inform small business ecosystem improvements and planned workshops for micro-businesses to develop and scale.
We want to extend our gratitude to the community members, organizations, and interdepartmental staff with whom we collaborated for the Generational Wealth Initiative over the past two years. The outcomes have been truly inspiring, and we look forward to continued partnership to foster economic resilience and support projects that circulate wealth and opportunity within communities of color.
