JUUstice Washington

A Unitarian Universalist State Action Network

Return Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic and Carolyn Downs Community Clinic to the Black Community

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To: Seattle Children’s Board of Trustees and
Carolyn Down Community Health Clinic Board of Directors

We entrusted Seattle Children’s and Country Doctor with health and lives of Black and Brown families and you have failed them. You have neglected to uphold the very reasons that Odessa Brown and Carolyn Downs were created by Black activists and healthcare professionals—to provide quality and respectful healthcare to Black families. Now, our most trusted and respected managers and health care providers are leaving your employment due to racist environments. The loss of these healthcare leaders and providers is a devastating blow to Black families and the Black Community across King County. More

SIGN-ON to support transferring the Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic and the Carolyn Downs Community Health Clinic back to the Black community. The Odessa Brown and Carolyn Downs Clinic have served Seattle’s Black community for years. After clear failures by clinic leadership to properly serve Black peoples, the Black community is calling for the return and transfer of both clinics back to Black community ownership in the spirit of agency and self-determination. Please sign-on in support of this effort here.

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Hidden Barriers

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Bias, prejudice and discrimination pervade our health care systems. Explore the issues and meet the stakeholders attempting to change that.

Learn About Black History in 7 Unexpected Places

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National parks preserve the legacies of visionaries such as Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington, as well as landmark sites in the struggle for equality, including the Brown v. Board of Education and Little Rock Central High School National Historic Sites and dozens of Civil War battlefields where soldiers fought and died to end slavery and preserve the union.

Yet many other lesser-known parks share compelling and unexpected stories. Here are seven fascinating but less obvious places to learn about Black history.

Read more here.

A podcast about defunding the police and rethinking public safety

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After George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis last May, anti-racism protests exploded across the nation and presented Seattle city leaders with an existential question they are still trying to answer: How might the city rethink public safety while keeping the city safe and eliminating racist practices?

For the second season of This Changes Everything, host Sara Bernard and reporter David Kroman consider this question as well, taking a close look at the challenges facing city leaders as they contemplate whether it’s possible to downsize the police force and create a new public safety regime.

Over the course of six episodes, all available now, Bernard and Kroman explore the history of reform in Seattle, delve into the data and personal stories fueling the call for new solutions, and consider the options and the obstacles facing city leaders.

Read more here.

School to Prison Pipeline Action Group Needs your Help

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The Interrupting the School or Prison Pipeline group is exploring bystander intervention training opportunities that JUUstice Washington might offer to congregations.  We are checking various options and there are a couple of training opportunities coming up in February that help this exploration.

Bystander intervention training opportunities.  One is coming up on February 13th.  Some key providers include Cortney Wooten, Seattle 350, Peace Keepers, and Poor People’s Campaign.

The first, on February 13, is by a training team out of DC.  They describe it as “an interactive, participatory, beginner’s workshop designed for those that may have none to little prior studies of bystander intervention.”  Payment is on a sliding fee scale.  The two times listed are two sections of the same training.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScUlPNGG7coDk5dQPYW-nbntdz08_iEr2Blj4-07g5SOp4N-Q/viewform

Edmonds United Methodist Church is offering a related workshop “Stepping into Allyship” workshop will be on February 9 from 6-8 pm. As we seek to create beloved community and dismantle racism, we are intentionally making the workshop free for all participants. The workshop will be led by local equity consultant and organizer, Courtney Wooten, who has collaborated with Edmonds UMC over the last three years. We hope that this offering will bless your communities as we work to together dismantle racism and white supremacy.  Registration information is available at Stepping into Allyship (google.com)  The presenter also does bystander intervention training.

The Interrupting the School or Prison Pipeline (post-Summit) group is exploring potential ways to find and boost existing programs that directly interrupt the school to prison pipeline.  Two programs that we are looking into are Speaking Justice and Community Passageways.  If you already work with either of these programs or have insights about their work, please let us know by contacting John Hilke at jhilke@juustwa.org.

The Interrupting the School or Prison Pipeline (post-Summit) group is monitoring and encouraging your engagement with the following legislative proposals dealing the police reforms and racial justice improvements.  We welcome additional assistance in monitoring and insights about these bills.  Please contact John Hilke at jhilke@juustwa.org, if you would like to help.

 

HB 1054 (Johnson) banning choke holds etc.

HB 1092 (Lovick) database of police use of force

HB 1089 (Ramos) compliance with I-940 on independent investigations of police violence

HB 1082 (Goodman) reform process of decertification and sanctions for police misconduct

HB 1088 (Lovick) standardizing reporting of police misconduct and impeaching office testimony

SHB 1044 educational opportunities in prisons

HB 1078/SB 5086  restoration of voting rights when persons leave prison

HB 1090  ban on private prisons

HB 1282/SB 5285 reduced prison terms for participating in educational programs

HB 1310  statewide de-escalation standard and limits on use of force

SB 5226  end debt-based suspensions of driver licenses

HB 1186 youth alternative corrections

SB? 5228 Antibias curriculum development

SB 5229 continuing education regarding antibias practices