Our Clients
- City of Kent, Human Services Department
- City of Renton, Human Services Department
- City of Seattle,
- Seattle Public Utilities
- Mayor's Office
- Department of Neighborhoods
- City of Tukwila, Human Services Department
- King County
- Local Hazardous Waste Management Program
- Public Health of Seattle-King County
- Puget Sound Educational School District
- Seattle Public Schools
Non profits
- Central Area Senior Center
- Child Care Resources
- Chinese Information and Assistance Center
- Community Capital Development
- Denise Louie Education Center
- Ethiopian Community Mutual Assistance Association
- HOME - Transitional Housing Program
- Horn of Africa Services
- KBCS - Community Radio Station
- Mockingbird Society
- Nonprofit Assistance Center
- North America Association of Street Newspapers
- Real Change Newspaper
- ReWA - Refugee Women's Alliance
- SHARE - organization of homeless and formerly homeless persons
- Somali Community Services Coalition
- Street Outreach Services
- Street Roots, Vancouver B.C.
- The Big Issue Kenya
- The Big Issue Namibia
- The Big Issue South Africa
- Tierra Learning Center, Leavenworth WA
- Washington CASH
Coalitions and Membership Organizations
- Eastside Human Services Alliance
- Health Funders Partnership of Orange County
- HIV/AIDs Planning Council
- HIV/AIDS Prevention Council
- Kent Education and Equity Partnership (KEEP)
- King County Coalition Against Domestic Violence (KCCADV)
- Seattle Human Services Coalition
- South King Council of Human Services
Future search conferences
- Antioch University Seattle, the Center for Creative Change
- Council of World Class Communities, Benton Harbor, Michigan
- Ethiopian Community Mutual Assistance Association, Seattle, WA
- Health Funders Partnership of Orange County, Santa Ana, California
- Mason County Economic Development Council, Shelton, WA
- Seattle Human Services Coalition & Minority Executive Directors Coalition
- St. Joseph Parish, Paris, France
- Wallowa County Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise, Oregon
Sample Projects
Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) Business Plan Inclusive Outreach
Organized community sessions in five geographic regions to get input from historically underserved communities, regarding SPU’s Strategic Business Plan. Compiled a team of multi-lingual and multicultural contractors to recruit, facilitate and record notes in six languages: Spanish, Somali, Vietnamese, Cantonese and Khmer. Also conducted sessions in English for African-American, general low-income residents and seniors. Provided input in agenda design, managed implementation and produced summary report.
Puget Sound Education Services District
Technical assistance for equitable partnerships.
Provided technical assistance for three years to school district and community-based agency partnerships. School districts included: Seattle, Kent, Federal Way and Highline. Aimed to reduce racial disparities in school outcomes, teams included parents and community-based agencies new to district contracts. We worked closely with these new partnerships to improve equitable leadership among school staff, agency staff and parents; equitable power and decision making across race, language and job status.
City of Seattle, Mayor’s Office
Immigrant and Refugee Community Engagement Project - Conducted 12 focus groups and 100 interviews in ten languages. We gathered customer knowledge and experience with a broad range of city services, need for and access to bi-lingual services, needs of grass roots organizations and gathered community advice for civic engagement methods for their community members. Cultural groups included: Spanish-speaking, Iraqi, Asian: Chinese, Vietnamese, Khmer, and African: Oromo, Amharic, Tigrinya, and Somali.
Real Change
Conducted two strategic plans and provided management support to Real Change, the largest street newspaper in the U.S. The first strategic plan, with inclusion of homeless newspaper sellers and general readers, resulted in a new organizational vision, catapulting Real Change to an expansive level of growth and impact. The exploration of racial and class justice issues resulted in Real Change becoming a local leader with major impact and influence. Our recommendations for staffing changes to match capacity needs enabled Real Change to manage its continued growth and community impact.
Depart. of Public Health of Seattle-King County
HIV/AIDS Care Planning Council - 3 finding cicles.
Redesigned processes for the 2-year funding allocation process for the Councils. Consisting of public health staff, agency staff and advocates for various population groups, the Council had a contentious history in reaching funding priorities, which were binding. Our revisions to the Council process enabled all parties to be heard and supported the group to collaboratively make funding decisions for the whole. Emerging Design Consulting facilitated this process for three funding cycles.
Future Search Network
Facilitated the planning and implementation of a
Assisted with design and co-facilitated a future search sponsored by major California foundations to address issues of child obesity in Orange County. Future search conference is a very effective method of community-wide systems change that ‘brings the whole system in the room’. Over 3-days the 90 participants addressed systemic issues including food in schools and food availability in low income neighborhoods, exercise and health promotion, and created an action plan to move forward. From this conference, partnerships with parents, schools, public health, city and county departments emerged. Parent and youth voice rose as leaders in creating solutions and new models of philanthropy emerged that support community activism.