Hello, friends and supporters

Happy March! Here’s hoping it will be in like a lion, out like a lamb—the last week has been wild with rain! We are hopeful that the weather will continue to improve and COVID will continue to recede—we are eager to return to more community cleanups and events, more River tours and walking tours, maybe even some in-person meetings!

You can read through our newsletter to find updates on our programs and campaigns, including work towards health and equity in the form of air, transportation, Superfund cleanup, youth engagement and community capacity, as well as the project I myself am most engaged with—affordable housing in the Duwamish Valley. Our community has been prioritizing affordable housing for years. As displacement has become more and more evident, especially throughout COVID as our low-income neighbors have not had the luxury of working from home and have suffered great economic distress, we feel the tensions of supporting investment in our historically underinvested community. We worry every day that the green space and better air-quality and programming and funding that we advocate for will have a life-changing effect on our neighbors. We continue to hold affordable housing close to our hearts as we seek investment that will allow low-income, BIPOC, and renters to thrive in place as our River Valley grows cleaner and more livable.

Please learn more about our efforts in collaboration with the Duwamish Valley Affordable Housing Coalition here including a great recent article published by the Seattle Times about our joined efforts. 

In solidarity , 

Robin Schwartz

Development and Community Advocacy Manager 

1. Program Updates

2. News

3. Upcoming Events

1. PROGRAM UPDATES

Superfund

1. DRCC has several community based projects which are aligned with the DRCC mission. La voz de la justicia is a segment every Wednesday from 10am-11am where we talk about all the programs and updates going on in the Duwamish Valley.

2. How does Duwamish River pollution affect our health?

Climate Justice-

Duwamish Valley Youth Corps

Our Duwamish Valley Youth Corps took a historical kayak with Alki Tours on the Duwamish River. Our youth enjoyed their time exploring the river and seeing things from a different perspective while connecting what they have learned in the program with the real thing.

What our youth said:

“This experience was really fun being able to go in the Duwamish and looking at the areas around it like Boeing and the bridges also seeing almost no wild life other then half dead tree branches open my eyes on how polluted the river is”

“I see how cloudy and polluted the river is, but I wish that someday it’ll be clean enough to swim in and hangout around when it gets warm because in reality I think it’s a nice river it just needs to be cleaned”

 

“The experience of paddling along the Duwamish river is a completely different experience then walking along the banks from my perspective. I think this because it’s actually a great feeling to be in the river and actually get better views since you can get closer to see some things that you can’t see well from just being on the banks of the river. For example, I got to see the bridge from a closer view and it was cool when we went under because we got to hear the sounds of the cars crossing the bridge. The overall experience was much better than seeing it from the side of the banks and it was a good first time kayak experience as well!”

Advocacy and Stewardship

2. News

Welcome to our new Board President 

We want to take a minute to welcome our new DRCC Board President Hannah Kett!

Hannah Kett (she / her) lives in South Park and has worked in the environmental field for many years, collaborating with communities to bring nature into our city spaces for healthy places to live and play. Currently, Hannah is the Cities Program Manager for the Nature Conservancy in Washington. Prior to that, Hannah worked at DRCC. In her free time, Hannah enjoys exploring South Park and Georgetown's delicious food, working in her garden, baking treats to share, and taking walks in one of the many beautiful parks around here.

Community Updates

Have you heard about our community partner organization Duwamish Valley Sustainability Association (DVSA)? 

DVSA empowers communities in issues related to quality of life, social justice, health, and education in order to identify and implement sustainable solutions.

They work guiding  and educating  youth to identify solutions so that they become projects and programs aligned to meeting the sustainable development goals. Their work revolves around the 17 sustainability objectives. Current and future projects reflect quality education, decent work and economic growth, just to name a few. In all, we  work towards green energy, 

environmental and  social justice.

Currently we are partnering in the Project Adolescentes Animados creating videos about Pollution Control and other community concerns.   For more information click here:   

City of Seattle Maritime and Industrial Strategy Draft Environmental Impact Study

Thanks to our advocacy (and collaboration with community groups, especially the Georgetown Community Council), the Seattle Office of Planning and Community Development has extended the comment period on the Draft Environmental Impact Study on the https://www.seattle.gov/.../industrial-and-maritime-strategy by 45 days, only for the Duwamish Valley community members and organizations. As per their communication with DRCC, this is what OPCD is committing to:

"A work plan for collaboration. Over the next 45 days our hope is that OPCD staff can work closely with Georgetown and South Park community members and community-based groups to continue coordination and focused engagement to help formulate DEIS comments. We will collaborate with you to create a focused engagement plan that could include some combination of the following and/or other

ideas you may have:

• Distribute executive summary translations in Spanish, Chinese and Vietnamese

• Drop-in hours at local businesses in Georgetown and South Park

• A series of meetings with focus topics (i.e., environment, transportation)

• Outreach coinciding with a community event or market

• In-language meetings and QA sessions

• Walking tours of key locations where zoning changes are studied in the EIS"

We look forward to more outreach that is accessible to Duwamish Valley community.

Read more here: https://www.drcc.org/deis

We are hiring - Come join our team!!

Superfund Manager - DRCC is looking for a highly qualified candidate to help oversee our Superfund Program under a Technical Assistance Grant related to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) remediation of the Lower Duwamish Waterway and Harbor Island Superfund Sites in Seattle, Washington. DRCC as an organization emerged as the advisory group to provide community voice and oversight of EPA and other governmental organizations involved in the remediation of the Superfund sites on the Duwamish River. Position description here: 

Community Impact Fellow to help with community outreach and organizing!

To learn more and apply: visit https://rvcseattle.org/communityimpact/appy

Position Description here:  

3. Upcoming Events

March 15th- South Park Library Popup

March 19th- Free Tree Giveaway

March 23- Placeholder - Maritime High School Outreach

March 24th- DVYC Winter Cohort Graduation

March 25th- Kayak Tour

March 29th - Concord Outreach

April 16th- Duwamish Alive Event

August 6th- Duwamish River Festival