Advocating For You and our Neighbors.
At United Way of King County, we’re working side by side with communities to build an equitable future for everyone. Guided by our commitment to racial justice, we envision a community where everyone has access to resources, quality education, enough to eat, and a safe place to call home.
From city halls and county chambers to the Olympia State House, we’re working with our community partners—and you—to petition lawmakers to enact policies that’ll ensure a better quality of life for all our neighbors while undoing systemic racism and economic inequality.
Interested in how we’re changing the systems to build an equitable future? Sign up now to get the monthly scoop.
Real People. Real Stories.
Community-Led Systems Change
Advocating for community-led systems change is part of our approach to amplify and make permanent the impacts of our investments in programs and services. We invest funds in newly formed systems change organizations led by communities of color that bring their unique views to our region. We also fund advocacy capacity building—including lobbying dollars toward work that aligns with our agendas to ensure everyone has access to resources, quality education, enough to eat and a safe place to call home.
Community Collaborations
When we examine the needs across King County, we see that Black, Indigenous, and other people of color disproportionately experience poverty, homelessness, and lack of educational opportunity. We believe that people in those communities must lead the way in solving their problems. We collaborate with these communities to provide them with funding, resources, and our voice to form coalitions, share best practices, target problems and solutions together, and lead the way in changing the practices and policies that continue to create disparities. Our collaboration with the Black Home Initiative supporting the end of homeownership disparities is a good example.
Public Policy
While our investments work to meet the most immediate, critical needs of our neighbors, our advocacy work addresses long-term solutions to systemic problems in our institutions, our public and private sectors, and our governing bodies. We work to transform systemic issues that create disparities, and we do so primarily via policy advocacy and community outreach.
How You Can Help
You’re helping us do good work. Energized to make even more change happen?
Learn: Learn about the needs and issues in our community.
Advocate: Tell your elected officials and candidates about critical needs in your community.
Volunteer: Take action with like minded people about the causes that matter to you.
Give: Give to help us build an equitable future for everyone. Every dollar counts.
For more information on our advocacy work, contact Colleen Laing at claing@uwkc.org.