Engage Seattle

Engage Seattle Initiative Launch Event

(l to r) Gil Gido (President), Julie Pham (PR/Marketing Chair),

Kevin Chang (Membership Chair)

Seattle, Wa - The Office of the Mayor of Seattle launched Engage Seattle today, an initiative aiming to get people involved with the city in meaningful ways and make Seattle a great place to live. Mayor Mike McGinn kicked things off with a committment to providing people with multiple pathways to engage in Seattle. At a high-level, there are three pillars to this initiative: 1. Improving Access to Government, 2. Volunteer Services, and 3. Developing future leaders. Now to help fund the initiative, the City of Seattle was awarded a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation in the Cities of Service program, in which ten cities were awarded $200,000 leadership grants.

Improving Access to Government
For the first time ever, the city is bringing its outreach and engagment staff together for better coordination in neighborhoods and created new standards for deeper, more inclusive public outreach and engagement. A new online public calendar was released to list opportunities to engage with City staff having features that enable views via map or lists, provide event searches by location down to a 0.1 mile radius, and integration with personal calendars.  Check it out at: http://seattle.gov/calendar/outreach.htm (Contact Sol Villarreal, Civic Engagement Coordinator: sol.villarreal@seattle.gov or 206.233.2656)

Volunteer Services
The service plan initiative is focused on education and youth development priorities identified through the Mayor's Youth and Family initiative.  Please join the effort to ensure every 3rd grade student can read at grade level, every middle school student is supported through the transition to high school, and every vulnerable child has a traned and committed mentor. (Contact Lynda Petersen, Chief Service Officer: lynda.petersen@seattle.gov or 206.684.7020)

Developing Future Leaders
Want to be more effective in the community? In a short series of workshops, community organizations can give participants the tools they need to be organizers for change within and aross Seattle's communities. Projects will be assigned between sessions to help participants develop their skills. The series are offered three times a year beginning in january, July and September. (Contact Sol Villarreal, Civic Engagement Coordinator: sol.villarreal@seattle.gov  or 206.233.2656)

Watch the Video:

Seattle Channel Video can be played in Flash Player 9 and up

If interested about engaging with Seattle, please contact the either Sol or Lynda.

Regards,
NAAAP Seattle Board

More Rice Raised from the Walk this year

Asian Counseling and Referral Services’ annual fundraiser “Walk for Rice” went into its 20th year on June 19, 2010. And this year’s NAAAP-Seattle team raised more than three times compared to last year’s year, with $1166.50. ACRS raised a total of $184,245.

Walk for Rice raises money for the ACRS Food Bank. Over 1,000 community members come to walk or run the 2.5-mile trail at Seward Park while raising money and awareness about hunger in King County. Among them were ten NAAAP-Seattle walkers, including Student Relations Chair Amy Duong, Professional Development Chair Hang-Ping Chen, and President Gil Gido.

NAAAP-Seattle did not just walk the trail. They also came out at 7am to help with the setup of the event, direct traffic and parking, and provide information for participants.

Nartia Ghumman, the development coordinator for ACRS, shared with Community Service Chair David Eam:

“We greatly appreciate NAAAP’s continued support for the event. Your organization has shown great leadership and support of APA community events, year after year. The enthusiasm from NAAAP volunteers at 7:00 a.m. at Walk for Rice is certainly inspiring! Rain or shine, we know that we can count on, thank you and your members for their support their local community fight against hunger.”

Because “every grain counts,” you can still visit ACRS website to make a donation.

Photo: NAAAP-Seattle member and volunteer Tai P. Chainarong holds a sign to direct Walkers.