-So my name is Jenifer Chao
and I'm the director of the Department of Neighborhoods.
I am deeply honored to open this celebratory event today
as we gather to recognize Seattle's
incredible achievement in winning the 2024
All-America City award.
[ Cheers and applause ]
This award is a testament to our collective dedication
and hard work in making Seattle a city
where every voice is heard and every resident is valued.
Today, we celebrate not just an award
but a reflection of the heart and soul of our city.
The All-America City award is a prestigious recognition
and winning it underscores the strength of our community
and our commitment to civic engagement.
This award is a win for all of us, a win for Seattle.
That's right.
We get to celebrate throughout this speech.
Civic engagement is at the heart of how we lead in Seattle.
It is vital that we lead with community voices
at the core of everything we do.
Our success as a city is measured by
how well we listen to, engage with,
and uplift our diverse communities.
This award is a testament to the One Seattle vision demonstrating
that our approach is effective and impactful.
The One Seattle vision is more than just a concept.
It is a guiding principle
that shapes our actions and decisions.
It embodies our commitment to inclusion, equity, and unity.
This vision ensures
that all communities have a seat at the table.
The All-America City award serves as a validation
of our efforts and motivation
to keep pressing forward connecting our neighborhoods
to the livelihood of the city.
Winning the All-America City award for the third time
is a powerful affirmation
that our efforts to engage with our communities
are making a difference.
It also serves as a call to action
to continue our work to keep connecting our neighborhoods
to the work of the city
and to be a national leader in showcasing
how community engagement is done.
I would like to extend my gratitude to Mayor Harrell
for his vision and leadership.
I also want to thank the leaders --
[ Applause ]
I also want to thank the leaders across the city,
our city department partners, city council,
and community members.
This wouldn't be possible without the community
who trust us with their voices to make a better city for all.
Now we would like to share with you the presentation
that helped to secure this award.
This video showcases the heart of Seattle,
our commitment, our initiatives,
and our unwavering commitment to the One Seattle vision.
Please take a moment to watch
and reflect on our collective accomplishments.
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
-Good morning, Seattle. -Good morning.
-We're -- I'm from Portland,
so glad to see some Pacific Northwest spirit.
Are you ready?
-Yes, we are. -You may begin.
-Play the video.
-Hello, National Civic League.
-[Speaking native language].
My name is Jenifer Chao.
We are honored to represent Seattle
and amplify the voices of our community members
you just met in the video and in the story cards
our youth just handed out.
As a Mien woman from Southeast Asia,
I emigrated to the US as a refugee with my family.
I know firsthand
how critical it is to have access to government resources
and feel connected to community.
Four decades later,
I serve as the director
of the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods
where I promote belonging and inclusion.
For years, I have fought for a seat at the table
and now I help to create the table.
And that table needs to be bigger.
In the past decade, Seattle has grown by more than 20%.
We have become more racially and culturally diverse.
Children of color are now over half of the children in Seattle.
Twenty-two percent of households don't speak English at home.
These changes have demanded
and inspired new ways of thriving alongside one another.
We've learned from the National Civic League
that there's a name for this kind of governing,
civic capital. At home,
we refer to it
as our One Seattle vision to build a shared community
where everyone is included, seen, and heard.
-[Speaking native language].
My name is Edward
and when my parents immigrated from South Korea,
Seattle was the city that embraced them
and made them feel like they belong.
Today, we had the honor of sharing three stories
about Seattle's innovative approach
to civic engagement designed to ensure that immigrants,
refugees, Black and Native communities,
and people of color.
Have a voice in their government.
The first story is about our Community Liaisons,
an innovative outreach tool they helped to develop.
Community Liaisons worked with Seattle's
public utility on a strategic business plan.
And as you will see, they played an important role
to include underserved communities
who were being left out of the process.
This story is brought to you by Christian and Lillian.
-[Speaking native language].
My journey begins in Texcoco, Mexico,
but Seattle has been home for most of my life.
As an immigrant,
I struggled to access local government
until the city provided information in español.
Today, I'm honored to serve as an ally to 45 Community Liaisons
and five Equity and Engagement Advisors
that support ten city departments.
Together, we ensure that outreach and engagement
is culturally appropriate.
-Community Liaisons are trusted messenger
from the community, providing support for the community.
They are great at building trust and breaking the status quo.
-When the utility began planning to update their strategic plan,
we brought Community Liaisons to co-design
the outreach tools and strategies,
which resulted in an emoji survey.
This outreach didn't require literacy in English
and it proved to be a creative and collaborative effort
that resulted in 1,400 responses.
Eight of which -- 85% of which were collected
from environmental justice neighborhoods.
The top things we heard were rising cost,
general positive feedback of the utility services,
simplified communications, and access to programs and services.
-That's how Community Liaisons access a bridge
to make sure city initiatives are inclusive and accessible.
-For our next story,
we take you behind the scenes of a legacy-defining
program called PACE,
the People's Academy of Community Engagement.
Which trains aspiring community leaders to participate
in their local democracy.
Over 12 years, almost 500 people went through this program,
creating an important pipeline
for residents to become civic leaders and employees.
Over time,
however, we noticed that pockets of our community
were underrepresented and missing from the process,
particularly immigrants
and historically underserved communities.
People who might not see themselves as civic leaders.
But this is a story of
how we addressed it presented by Lillian.
-Nineteen percent of Seattle residents are foreign born.
One-fifth of the city population
speak languages other than English at home.
[Speaking native language] Lillian and I'm one of them.
As a former Community Liaisons and now overseeing PACE,
I believe that equitable engagements means meeting
people where they are.
I know -- also know
that community often has the solutions we need.
-[Speaking native language],
Lillian.
Welcome to
[speaking native language].
It's so nice to have you in our space.
-Awesome. I always love being here.
I still remember when we worked together on census,
our city participation was one of the highest in the country
with a 76% response rate.
And a great turnout from Black, Indigenous,
and people of color communities.
You really helped make that happen, Christian.
-Yeah, well, the census taught us that we'll show up
if you guys make it fun and relevant.
-Right on. So now, I do PACE at a city.
I heard great things about our last partnership.
-Yeah, last year's Spanish-speaking cohort was
a hit and we already have a waiting list for this year.
We're including stipends and childcare to reduce barriers,
and we're thinking of hosting the first session in-person
with food, as we did last time, and then shift over to hybrid.
-Awesome. So what about curriculum?
Any specific topics you would like to cover?
-Yeah,
so my community's concerned about displacement
and preserving family homes.
So learning about generational wealth will be beneficial.
We want to be at the table and be a part of the solution.
-Got it.
So our arrangement speakers
from Generational Wealth Community Roundtable
and ensure Spanish-speaking presenters or interpreters.
We will keep the City Hall trip to accommodate
with council members and covering food and transit.
-Great.
I also want Monica from Cultivate South Park
as a guest speaker.
She does economic justice work
and was part of the last PACE cohort.
-This leads us to our final story.
Shared vision is an important pillar of our work
and sometimes it's necessary to address the past wrongs
in order to have hope of creating a better future.
This is a story of how we strengthen relations
between local government and our Native communities
brought to you by Francesca and Lydia.
-Seattle is an Indigenous city.
-Built on the lands and water
stewarded by the Coast Salish people from time immemorial.
-I have spent 15 years on Coast Salish lands
where I live out my responsibility
as an urban Indian to uphold our sovereignty as Native people
regardless of where we reside.
I'm a citizen of the Shawnee Tribe and the Cherokee Nation.
My ancestors were among the last of the Shawnee people
to be removed from Ohio, to Kansas, and later to Oklahoma,
to live amongst the Cherokee people.
-[Speaking native language].
My civic engagement journey on Turtle Island
began in the womb of my Indigenous mother
who raised me in the Fasamora way of life.
The Fasamora is grounded in service, relationships,
reciprocity, and collected into generational decision making.
I bring these indigenous values to civic engagement to ensure
community takes the helm in creating a shared vision.
-The Indigenous Advisory Council is
an intertribal organizing space advocating
for the 45,000 Native people in our region.
I was one of many community advocates
that co-designed the legislation to create the Council.
Our approach is deeply collaborative
and it addresses the political
and racial equity needs of Native communities.
-Speaker 4:Our Council includes youth, elders,
elected tribal leaders, and urban Indian representatives.
In two years,
we have begun to reimagine the city's approach to tribal
and urban Native engagement in partnership
with the city's office of intergovernmental relations.
It took 168 years for the city to host 11 tribes
at our first tribal nation summit.
Since that time,
we've developed a new data tracking systems
for tribal engagement.
We've begun develop a citywide training
to support our staff
who work with tribes in urban Native organizations.
We've hosted a tribal nations gathering on parks
and open space issues.
And we're continuing to invest in Indigenous place making,
culturally-relevant food systems.
And culturally-attuned housing models for our Native people
who have disproportionately experienced homelessness.
Each day, we're making progress in our role
to be a trusted advocate, connector,
and advisor to our city partners.
-Speaker 4:In the words of Asia Tayo, one of our members,
Cherokee, the city is holding critical space
for Coast Salish and urban Native tribal members
to come together.
And build policies
that will impact Indigenous people citywide.
This small act of reconciliation
goes beyond a land acknowledgement
and begins to honor Indigenous values of democracy
that value self-determination and consensus building.
Together, we're changing the political
and cultural landscape of our city.
-These three stories demonstrate
how the city of Seattle
invests in relationship building at the center
of our civic engagement.
It starts with neighbors knowing neighbors,
builds with city staff holding deep connections with community,
and is strengthened by community seeing itself
as belonging to the decision making of our city.
The power of civic capital
is what makes community engagement in our city
so impactful because together we are --
-One Seattle!
-I would love to welcome our Mayor Harrell to the podium
and to share a few remarks.
-Thank you, Jenifer.
You know, when I met Jenifer and I was evaluating her,
I knew she was a very effective leader.
I knew she was a very good communicator.
But I had no idea you had the rhythm that you have.
I saw you in the video, a hidden skill.
A fun fact that my middle son got married a few weeks ago
and they did the first dance,
you know, right after you get married,
and it was painful to watch him dance.
They were doing this step that was a box
and he literally was counting the steps, one,
two, three, and four, and one, and it was painful.
So when I see that rhythm, it makes me feel good.
I forgot to teach my son how to dance
because I like to dance, too.
So the work that you're doing at DON is absolutely phenomenal.
I'm very proud to be your mayor,
to receive the kind of acknowledgement
that the National Civic League bestowed upon us
with the All-America City award.
Now I know for a fact you all do not --
what are you guys looking at [inaudible]
I'm not talking to you guys.
People are looking over here.
Look at me.
I know for a fact that you all do not do it for awards.
That you chose to go into public service
because someone that perhaps was a little older than you
and a little wiser
than you somehow poured some kind of knowledge into you.
And you said, you know,
your purpose on Earth is to do more than just for yourself.
And the kind of work
that you were doing in terms of building
this kind of inclusivity, I just thank you, thank you, thank you.
And I hope you have a sense of satisfaction.
Now unlike you, I'll take the awards.
They feel sort of good to get, so thank you.
In all seriousness,
the award seems strengthening democracy
through local action innovation.
You all saw the national debates.
Was that like two weeks ago?
You all see the level of either mistrust or pessimism
that some of the younger generation are feeling,
younger that you, I might add.
I know you think, "Well, I'm younger than you, mayor."
It saddens us I think as a community
because it's going to be our job
to rebuild trust in public service and public servants.
The work you're doing in inclusivity,
the establishment of the Indigenous Advisory Council
last year as one of your boards and commissions
and ensuring tribal and Native leaders
have a seat at the table.
I think you know how important this work is
because it sort of begs the question of who we are
as a country and who we are as a city.
You know, I was telling someone,
I think many of you know that I'm biracial, of course,
and I explained to a young person.
I said, "You know, it was the Loving decision
in I think it was 1967 or so that allowed mixed marriages."
And now you think about equal rights here.
A hundred years from now, someone will look back, "What?
A person couldn't marry a person just
because they were different?"
We are reverting as a country so much in some of our policies
that we can't take for granted the work
you are doing in Department of Neighborhoods.
And I close with this by saying that at the open house you did,
Jenifer, which I just was mind boggling to see how
and I'm glad City Light's here and other departments are here.
Oh, I didn't see you here. Our most recent hire.
Why don't you stand up and introduce yourself, if you may.
-Rob Lloyd, new chief technology officer.
Nice to be with you. -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, come here for a second.
You never know with this mayor, I got to say.
Introduce yourself a little about where you came from
and this kind of just so you know.
-Sure.
-When your computers go down, guess who we get to blame.
-Yes. -Right here. Right here.
-It's entirely my fault every time.
Rob Lloyd, chief technology officer for the city,
very glad to be here.
You've been nothing but gracious and warm in your welcome.
It is my fault every time anything breaks.
I accept that.
But I'm biracial, too, Taiwanese American.
My grandmother's Black and wonderful community.
I'm just totally impressed by Seattle
and was drawn to this opportunity
because of actually everything
that you've posted about partnership
and how you engage community, digital services.
And you've been on this quest for over ten years.
This isn't short term.
This is something you've been dedicated to.
So thank you for the welcome
and thank you for actually attracting me to Seattle
and being with such a wonderful community.
You've actually been a partner for me
for over ten years, as well.
I've partnered with Seattle colleagues for over a decade.
So I think that's it,
but it is my fault if anything breaks.
-And I do want to recognize --
I'm going to call them just by first names.
We have other department heads here.
We have Don.
I'm going to call you Chief,
though, Chief Amy, Michael, Rico are here,
coming to celebrate this work.
This is -- oh, Steve is here, as well, and deputy mayor --
well, I got to introduce everyone now
when I start doing that stuff, so.
This is all -- we're all one family and, you know,
when you hear me talk about One Seattle
and I hear you saying One Seattle, this is what it is.
I think many of you know my mom and dad worked for the city.
I take our city family very, very seriously.
We're trying to build connections.
You all at DON are building connections
that we have to have out there in the communities.
You're doing it and you're doing it in great fashion,
so thank you for that.
I'll close by a quote from Reverend Jesse Jackson who said,
"Inclusion is not a matter of political correctness.
It is absolutely the key to our growth."
So as we grow, we have to grow with the lens
that you are seeing things through.
And I don't do a lot of things well,
but one thing I do well is I see talent
and I try to recruit talent
by demonstrated by everyone in this room.
You are public servants, and you are very talented,
and I'm very honored to be your mayor.
Thank you very much.
[ Applause ]
-Thank you, Mayor Harrell.
Next, it is my pleasure to introduce Rebecca Trout,
the director of the All-America City award.
Under her leadership,
the National Civic League continues
to champion the values of civic engagement,
innovation, and community collaboration.
Rebecca's dedication to recognizing
and uplifting communities across the nation
has inspired cities like ours to strive for excellence.
Please join me in welcoming Rebecca Trout
to present the award.
[ Applause ]
-Good afternoon, everyone.
Thank you so much for having me. My name is Rebecca Trout
and I'm just honored to be here to help you celebrate Seattle's
third All-America City award receipt.
For those of you
who don't know much about the National Civic League,
we are a good governance and democracy reform nonprofit.
We have been doing the work of advancing civic engagement
for close to 130 years now.
The All-America City award is our flagship program
and it was really started it to recognize communities
who believe in the power of civic engagement.
Who believe in the power of public participation
to solve big problems.
And so every year, we have a different theme with our award.
And the mayor's remarks about what we're seeing
at the federal level in terms of the threats to democracy,
the pessimism around public service,
is exactly why we chose this theme of strengthening democracy
through local action and innovation this year.
And our job this year was to really find finalist communities
that are creating best practices for strengthening democracy
at the local level.
So earlier this year,
as you know, we had the 75th annual event
in Denver and communities
presented their work on this topic.
And it was not an easy journey.
It was not quick.
I think I've been working with your team
since about November of 2023,
as you all compiled
an incredibly extensive application.
And that application focused primarily on your efforts
to adapt and to find innovative ways
to improve your People's Academy for Civic Engagement.
The tribal and urban Native representation
and political engagement work. And then just know the easy --
the basic work of making utilities more people-centric.
Our applications were all reviewed by external committee,
a really extensive process,
and that committee came back and found
that Seattle was doing really well in a lot
of our key indicators.
So the capital civic infrastructure, as we call it,
you all sort of scored through the roof on civic engagement,
collaboration with stakeholders.
And just really impressed by your clear focus
on equity and power sharing.
And so for those reasons,
Seattle was recognized
and invited to be a finalist in March of this year.
And then the real work began of creating teams of residents,
nonprofits, businesses, to come and join us in Denver
with the 19 other fellow finalist communities.
And it was just an incredible weekend of being in community
with people who believed in this work.
You all shared ideas with other communities.
I hope you -- I know you inspired others.
I hope you were inspired by others
and brought some other great ideas back with you.
Heard from some national experts,
but most importantly, presented
that wonderful presentation to our jury
who had some really, really hard decisions to make.
Our jury deliberated for hours about which communities
to ultimately name as this year's All-America Cities.
I was in that room and it was not an easy process.
It looked a little like what I imagine a detective's
investigation board looks like with paper lining the walls
and there was a lot of green under Seattle,
a lot of good work going on.
They were really, really impressed with the innovation,
with the creative ways that you're meeting people
where they are, with your efforts with the tribal summit.
And also your understanding that there's still a lot of work
to be done there and that the work continues.
And so for those reasons and on behalf of that jury
and the National Civic League,
it is my honor to be able to present you as one
of the 2024 All-America City award winners.
Congratulations.
[ Cheers and applause ]
And I have your plaque.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Don't start dancing. You'll show me up.
-On three, folks. One, two, and three.
Now stand [inaudible]
-So thank you all for joining us today
to celebrate this impactful win for Seattle.
Your presence and support mean so much to us
as we continue to strive for a more inclusive
and engaged community.
Before we conclude,
we would like to share our last video
from the All-America City award
which highlights our amazing experience in Denver.
This video serves as a reminder of the power of civic engagement
and the impact we can make when we come together.
Please enjoy the video, and feel free to get more refreshments,
and connect with folks until 12:30.
♪♪
[ Cheering ]
-This community is reimagining civic leadership training.
This community developed
innovative engagement strategies.
This community is embracing their Indigenous roots.
The three-time All-America City, Seattle, Washington.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-I try not to get too emotional.
This work is so personal, right, to all of us.
So this wouldn't be possible without our community members.
So first, we want to thank them,
thank our community for trusting us with your voices
to make us a better city for all.
Thank you to Mayor Harrell and our department partners
for believing in us and supporting our civic journey.
It takes a village
and I want to thank the team at the Department of Neighborhoods
for doing the work every day.
Winning the All-America City award
is a message to the residents and leaders of Seattle
that we are doing something right
by creating a government that is not only
for the people but by the people.
And we're going to continue to work hard to make sure
that everyone's voices are heard.
Last but not least,
I want to thank you to the National Civic League
for the opportunity to share our stories
and to learn from other communities.
This was an amazing experience from the moment
we stepped into this space.
It is beautiful to see the diversity
and feel the love in this space. This experience gives me hope
that we are changing the world together.
Thank you so much.
[ Cheers and applause ]