Community Power
Land stewards engage in and provide ongoing training, education and organizing resources so the people in relationship with the land are effectively able to remember their power as well as participate in decision-making.
The work of cooperation, shared governance, and movement-building takes time and resources that not all people are able to access. Community Stewardship of Land recognizes the need and importance of providing resources to ensure stewards continue to build skills and knowledge, engage in self-reflection, healing and growth, and are able to put in the time to participate in decision-making and organizing. Examples include ensuring there are resourced community organizers, leadership development curricula, and resources, whether it be money or labor, regularly set aside to build community knowledge and power.
Community Vision
West Hill Community Association
The West Hill Community Association (WHCA) is a nonprofit organization powered by volunteers elected by the very community it works for to create a more engaged, informed, and vibrant West Hill. As being a part of the formation of the Skyway Coalition, they collectively fought for and were awarded $10 million dollars from King County to go towards building a Community Center along with additional funding for a Resource Center & Affordable Housing initiatives. In addition, WHCA has now voted to be the Community Development Association (CDA) presence for Skyway West Hill. This will allow them to steward the property of those projects, as well as many more, within a CSL framework and continue to do CSL work in Skyway West Hill.
Jeannie Williams
Board Member, West Hill Community Association
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We let [King County] know that they hadn’t done enough for Skyway and we were ignored for years. King County said ‘let’s look at zoning,’ but once community realized that meant a developer could do what they wanted to do and not help us maintain our communities, we said ‘zoning is not the answer.’ We asked King County to think about it differently and do what WE needed them to do.
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The Area Median Income for Skyway is much lower than any other place in King County; The best way to protect people in that lower AMI is to have community-owned land and to have community ownership. Make it affordable, to keep that diversity and keep that community that lives there, not push people out and make them find somewhere else to live.
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When you are able to organize and you’re able to get that power back, it is a major part of building that community. When you let people see that you don’t need a lot of skill; what you need is for us all to come together and speak up and have a voice, then people listen and things happen and things happen for the good…The stronger a community is, then the more they can be in charge and build what they want to happen in their neighborhood.”