This meeting is called to order at 601.

Live captioning is available this evening to access this, select the show captions button in the meeting toolbar and select your preferred language.

Staff and commissioners are participating both remotely and in person.

Members of public are welcome to provide public comment and listen to the meeting in person or on Zoom.

I will now call the role.

Commissioner, please see here after I call your name.

Vice Chair White.

Here, Commissioner Fan.

Commissioner Gonzalez.

Here.

Commissioner Hayes.

Commissioner Perlman.

And Commissioner Rashid is absent.

So there is one set of minutes to approve this evening.

Please take a moment to review the November 17 minutes in front of you.

Any discussion about the November 17 minutes.

Any commissioner online?

Is there a motion to approve the November 17 minutes?

Motion.

And a second.

And a second.

Thank you.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed say nay.

The November 17 minutes are approved.

At this time, we are taking the oral communication.

Staff will call the names of the people in the order they have signed up, either online or in person.

Members of public may speak during one of two nights oral communications.

Has been called, staff will ask if there is anyone else who would like to speak.

Staff, can you please call speakers for oral communication?

Our first speaker for oral communications is Sharmila Ratinam from Eat Happy Now.

Hi everyone, can you guys hear me?

We're a food rescue and nonprofit.

But before I get in and explain what Eat Happy Now is, I basically wanted to be here to thank the commission in the City of Bellevue to supporting Eat Happy right from the time we started.

The funding provided by the City of Bellevue has really helped scale and rescue and deliver food for the food insecure population in the city of Bellevue and beyond.

And I also am very grateful and thankful for the additional funding of 30 plus thousand dollars, which came in during the SNAP benefits to really help with our work.

So just wanted to take a moment to thank you all.

And before I go ahead and talk about the impact numbers of what these funding has really helped achieve for those of you in the room who don't know what Eat Happy is about, it's a food rescue nonprofit powered by technology.

We use an app called Eat Happy Now, which brings in all the surplus food in our ecosystem from grocery stores, restaurants, cafes, and connects it to people who need it real time within the hour.

And this kind of helps us bridge the gap and bring in the culturally relevant produce because our niche is to go after culturally relevant produce and we get it to the people who need it.

Because we have over 600 volunteers on our platform who basically help in delivering the food from one end to the other, picking it up and taking it to the people who need it.

70% of the rescue is done by volunteers and about 30% by paid staff.

We have over 100 plus donors who donate their surplus food and over 100 recipients who kind of receive this uh donations from us.

And what technology is really helping us do is to really increase operational efficiency and the futuristic, what we are looking to do is use this technology to help build capacity in food banks probably in a year or two, and how we can help technology and this particular platform help in increasing their operational efficiency.

So that's the goal for Eat Happy.

So the impact which has taken place with the dollars helped by the city of Bellevue.

We have rescued over 261,000 pounds of food and delivered it to over 1900 residents, and we do this every month.

This is the number of residents we touch every month, and there are over 13 organizations, all shelters, low-income housing groups, and food banks in the city of Bellevue who kind of benefit from these services.

So I'm here today basically to give you all an update of how the dollars have been spent, and thank you all for your support.

Okay, our next speaker for oral communications is Alex Zimmerman.

My name is Alex Zimmerman, guys.

I don't come to you talking to you.

You look to me like very primitive animal, you know what is me.

You cannot qualify like a Homo sapiens.

It's my opinion.

So I want to explain to you something, but absolutely critical.

It was this go for a long time.

Mayor Robinson, give me five trespasses.

Yeah, here.

One, two, three, four, five.

Yeah.

Is this very interesting?

You know what it means?

Because these trespass was to be a half five days for appeal.

So I appeal this every trespass.

Five trespasses, more than for one year.

But we can't.

And I bring appeal.

This is my appeal.

Yeah, you know, five trespasses.

This copy from legal guide of handing disruption people in public meeting.

US Supreme Court decision.

Yeah, it's very interesting.

You know what is means.

This all rules here.

So something happened.

Tomorrow they will be to make an order.

My appeal and my appeal never people see.

Five times, never.

It's a crime.

It's a fraud.

You understand?

Who this did?

Mayor Robinson.

Please stay to the agenda.

No, right?

It's about CT business.

You know this.

Come on.

You make me sick.

I never broken rules.

This trespass, not trespass.

This is my election.

They cut my 200 worth for election because I go against Mayor Robinson.

Question right now, why government include Mayor Robinson in six council acting like a criminal?

Can you explain to me?

Who can explain this to me?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I come here talking only because I want what is people listen, what is going on?

All trespasses, what is make is not legal.

This US Supreme Court decision, 15-year-old decision.

You cannot trespass people for different opinion.

It's scare.

And five trespasses here is 6,000 trespasses from another people.

Why?

Why Mayor Robinson acting like a cheap street prostitute?

You know what has been lie in cheating.

Why?

Why motivation?

Everything what is a token is have my opinion.

Yeah, support tribe.

I'm a Jew.

I'm immigrant.

I'm disabled, and I have an opinion.

I live here for four years.

And I'm one from more smarter people, what is the state Washington Hub right now?

Maybe Kincounter too.

So Viva Trump, we have a new American revolution, stand up, slept and happy cow.

Guys, you don't understand.

You all garbage, you copy from this person, Mayor Robinson.

You won't be like, thank you very much for your time.

I very appreciate you.

Go to internet.

Why am I up here?

Okay, that's all the people we have signed up for oral communications.

If there's anyone in the room or online, please raise your hand.

If you would like to speak.

Yeah.

We're good to go.

Mayor Robison, do you have anything to share?

I do, thank you.

First of all, I want to apologize to you, Chair Singh and the rest of the commission for having to endure that.

It shouldn't be part of your job.

And actually, it has nothing to do with human services.

So I'm not sure why we're allowing this person to comment at public comment at human services.

But I apologize that you are dragged into this by my affiliating with my role as mayor.

So anyway, I do apologize.

Am I right?

Renewal, excuse me, renewal food bank.

And just to clarify, uh they were very intent on uh indicating that was not to supplant the funding that we the city provided.

Uh it was the first question I asked was, oh, well, if you're gonna do that, then can we do this?

And they're like, nope, nope, you have to um keep it quiet and operate as if we're not going to do any additional funding.

And then when you're done, we will match what you did.

And so um, I was just really happy to get, I think almost a million dollars of additional funding into food security and uh housing and legal support.

So thank you for helping us get that out so quickly.

You made some really good decisions for the community.

Um hardly anybody here, but I'm glad you're here.

Oh, they're online.

Okay, okay, good.

Um I also wanted to talk a little bit about the climate that we're in right now.

I know um you're at the mid-by, and um next year we'll start a new cycle.

Um it's a really hard time uh in this country, not knowing the future of our food security, our housing security, any security for so many people who um need more need security more than anything.

And so if you have decisions to make, I think we need to really be thinking about the next ball that might drop and really focus on housing, food, and legal support, make sure that basic needs are being met.

Think about medical benefits as well, because it may be that people stop receiving medical benefits.

And um, as a physical therapist for 35 years working with so many different kinds of people in so many different situations, I can tell you that people with long care health problems, long-term health problems.

It a lot of it is derived from not getting medical care as a younger person, whether it be as a child or as a young adult throughout their lives, it creates long-term chronic health problems that just really reduce the quality of life for people.

And so if there's anything we can do to offset that for families, um, that's part of prevention is preventing long-term health problems.

So reducing stress, food stability, housing stability, providing basic needs and uh general health care needs.

I think that that is what council is talking about right now for priorities.

So I just wanted to convey that as you make tough decisions, and again, thank you all for the work that you do.

We really appreciate it.

And it was lovely to hear that public comment to hear the lives that you impacted.

Uh Major Inman, do you have anything to share?

Just uh good evening.

And um wanted to let the commission know that the police department were partnering with um Factoria Mall specifically Target.

Every year we do an event um involving children where uh it's used to be shop with a cop, now it's called Heroes and Helpers, and we have um at least a hundred children, sometimes more where they're given a hundred dollar gift card to go shop, and then we have officers and different um commissioned and non-commissioned, you know, professional staff who assist them in shopping around the store.

So we're doing that on December 13th.

So if you're out down in Factoria at Target, you'll see a bunch of officers and um employees from the police department with a bunch of children and families.

It's a great time um to come out and um let them pick out some gifts for themselves and their families for the holiday season.

And that's it.

Thank you.

Do we have any commissioners' report?

Anyone online?

Any staff report.

Thank you, Chair Singh.

I just want to let you know that after our panel tonight, we're going to do a quick overview of how the voting for new uh officers will happen at our first meeting in December.

So I'll just, there's a handout in front of you that has sort of the script for how elect the elections will work, but we'll review it really quickly after our panel tonight.

Thank you, Chair Singh.

Our first and only item of business is panel presentation on convening and collective impact.

I will hand it over to Seda Hills to get us started.

Great.

Thank you, Chair.

Before we invite our panelists to speak about convening and collective impact, I would like to offer a brief background and a shared understanding of convening.

During interviews and surveys and focus groups conducted for the city of 2324 human services needs update.

Providers emphasized a growing need for additional convening partners, organizations that can bring people together, support collective impacts, facilitate collaboration among agencies, and strengthening partnerships across human services networks to continue to support the work.

This investment reflects our ongoing commitment to building a connected and efficient and equitable ecosystem for services for Bellevue residents.

With that context is helpful, helpful to briefly ground ourselves in what we mean by convening.

Convening is the intentional act of bringing people, organizations and stakeholders together to collaborate, share information, and strengthen relationships and work towards a shared goal.

It creates the structure and space for agencies to coordinate services, reduce duplication, and advance common priorities.

Importantly, convening partners do not provide direct services.

They help the broader network function more effectively and equitably.

Tonight's panelists will illustrate how these convening practices show up in real time on the East Side.

We'll hear how coordination, shared learning, and cross-sets or partnerships are strengthening the human services ecosystem and supporting agencies and the uh meeting community needs.

So, with that, I would love to invite Debbie Lacey, who is with ESI for all, and Kalika Curry from Eastside Pathway Pathways to come up and join us.

Oh, you have the questions.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Thank you again for being here, both of you.

Um and commissioners, I also invite you to stay engaged and feel free to ask questions as they come up.

Um, but before we fully jump into the questions, um, would you like to just provide a brief overview of who you are and uh what your agency does?

Yeah, I think you've been voted, Debbie.

I think you got to go first.

Debbie, will you churn on the microphone?

And yeah.

Hi, everyone.

Um, thank you very much for having us.

I'm Debbie Lacey.

I'm the founder and executive director of East Side for All.

East Side for All was founded in 2019 after many years of me being in the community.

Um, but that was our early start to um building infrastructure in East King County for racial justice and social justice work.

And so we're an advocacy organization primarily, just like Sada was saying.

We do have a little bit of direct service, which we do, which is um to provide support for people who are experiencing hate crimes or bias-motivated incidents.

So we do provide direct support for those um community members.

Thank you.

So brief.

Good evening, Cleaner Curry, executive director, Eastide Pathways, she, her pronouns.

Um Eastide Pathways has been with the City of Bellevue, or our initial investors and partners in collective impact.

Uh, we are founded in 2011 by Bill Henningsgarden.

We've continued to serve Bellevue School District, Bellevue residents and now have expanded our programs and services with your all support to all of East King County, all school districts, all municipalities.

And I think the beauty of that is recognizing that our partners, the organizations we serve and convene have always been working all over East King County.

We just needed to shift our lens in order to support them.

And so while we often only talk about the city of Bellevue, I think we also get to celebrate the regional impact that your investment has, recognizing that when an organization learns how to do their work better in Bellevue School District, those learnings get transferred to other school districts in our region.

Eastide Pathways represents over 70 organizations, about 68% of them have been partners for six years or more.

And then we also represent all sectors.

So health, education, government, for-profit, nonprofit, parents, families, and and and so we're bringing the whole community and all sectors to the table when we're convening.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

So the first question: how do you define collective impacts and how does your organization approach that work?

Khalikan, do you want to jump in?

Yeah, I would be helpful there by cueing you up first on the first one.

Um, so I think you you gave a wonderful briefing, but I think what I would say specifically about Eastide Pathways, um, and also touching them on something Mayor Robinson spoke to was kind of like being future ready and thinking about what's coming next.

And I think the most critical part when we think about collective impact is the blending and braiding and continuous improvement of what we're doing and how we're doing it.

And so the fact that we can have um get organizations and leaders out of silos and making sure they're having conversations about their ownership in what's happening in our community, but the intersection, the compounding impacts of what they're doing in other organizations are doing.

And so now more than ever, I think collective impact is critical when you're thinking about housing access, any basic needs is we have to be able to work more effectively and strategically with the finite resources we have.

Um the other thing I would just say about the way that we approach collective impact is when you're working in isolation, you're often solving from what are the limitations of your area of influence, what are the limitations of your organization?

So the student isn't actually centered in that, your organization's capacity is.

But collective impact allows you to actually center the student because we're able to say, what are your needs?

And we're gonna bring everyone on the round the table to meet those needs.

So I think that's what's really critical about collective impact and how we're bringing it to this community.

Yeah.

I think um maybe the slides can come up so I can just share some of that visually while we're talking about these pieces.

Just so will you get that up for us?

Thank you.

So because Eastide for All is uh primarily a systemic change organization at the local hyper-local level, our collective impact has to do with that change.

Um we convene to make change.

And one of our core principles of approach is that um, you know, no one entity can obviously advance racial equity on their own in social justice.

This is a huge issue, involves all sectors, all hands on deck, right?

But particularly everything that Eastide for All does, each initiative that we have, we have an equity lens for that particular initiative.

So when we do work that involves nonprofits and we're supporting them, we are going to support those who are what we call farthest from justice.

They're um least represented in decision making spaces, they have the least amount of financial resources and expertise resources, et cetera, et cetera, right?

So we're gonna bring them together and we're gonna listen acutely to their particular needs, and then we're gonna drive with that.

And we believe that every single person that participates in that not only um is going to receive a benefit from that collective work that we hopefully will accomplish together, but also individually that each each organization is better off as a result of being part of us.

And that means meaningful contributions and and um gifts that they receive back that are concrete.

So if we go to just a couple of quick slides and I'll turn it to the next question.

But we have we assess um the group of people that we've been working with.

Um, and we've worked with many more organizations than these, but the eight core that we have convened for this particular initiative that that the City of Bellevue supports are these organizations here, and again, falling under that frame of what I mentioned before.

Um, and this is comes out of years, by the way, of just assessing what are these nonprofits that are primarily that are founded by people of color and immigrants.

They serve those same communities, and often they're doing A to Z for their communities, right?

They're doing everything, and they have the least amount of resources.

So we assess them on a variety of things all together, and we're partners in this.

So if we go to the next slide, you'll see some more about them.

Good question about this.

Oh, yeah.

So, what is the numbers like uh two and 25%?

How do you explain?

Yes, that means that two organizations indicate that they have staff in-house that speak those that language.

So two of the eight have Vietnamese speakers.

And it was very important for us to be able to share what the in-house languages and cultures are so you can see not just that they're providing translation interpretation, which they do for organ for languages that aren't on this list, but for you to see what they have in-house because that indicates a depth of cultural and language understanding that they can provide to their communities.

Thank you.

Yeah.

And I'll just go quickly, just like one or two more so that I can we can move.

Yes, please.

Well, they will just kind of move on.

Um, so we also assess that one back there that was just before this.

You can look at this later, but it just tells that we um don't come from a deficit perspective.

Yes, we're all looking at capacity, it's a big issue for all of us, but we are really um understanding that we come with a wealth of resources.

And like I said, because we do A to Z, um, these organizations and their communities have a great deal of expertise that often goes untapped by local governments and other institutions.

So the next slide will tell you a little bit about their capacity as far as just funding wise.

And so you'll see none of the organizations that we work with, East Side for All included, have revenue over 1 million dollars.

Six of the eight have revenue less than 250,000 that they expected for 2025.

So this is what I'm talking about when we say we're really focused on the organizations that have the least amount of resources and in many ways are doing the most, like with the communities that they serve.

And to us, the collective impact means that they're not just able to continue doing what they do so well with their communities, but that they themselves as organizations are stronger as a result of coming together and working together as a coalition.

Thank you for that.

Um questions?

Okay.

What types of convening spaces or models are most effective in helping agencies share resources, align services, and learn from one another.

There's a I'm laughing a little bit just because there has to be a willingness and uh uh an interest in doing so.

And I think with uh I'd be remiss to not name the the reality of increased fear and increase a perception of threat and divide and conquer.

Um, there has been a decreased willingness and interest in sharing information, collaboration.

Um, you know, Eastide Pathways has always integrated adaptive leadership into our work and our approach.

And just because of like the, I think um trauma and the secondary and primary trauma that organizational leaders and organizations are experiencing.

There's a decreased willingness to share and be open and vulnerable, right?

So I think there's a reality around that.

Um but with regards to just from like a model fidelity standpoint, um, what we saw was COVID taught us a lot about whose voices would actually be more um effectively equitably engaged when we went fully remote.

And so we saw people with disabilities have more participation because getting quote unquote physically in the room was no longer an issue.

Um, participating wasn't heavily reliant on an ability to use my voice.

I can use digital technology.

So there was a lot more inclusion when we shifted to in-person or excuse me, from fully in-person to hybrid or fully remote.

Um, also that means we were able to reduce our costs.

One of our board members said, like, did you stop doing program?

And we're like, actually, no, we doubled programming, but the cost of programming was reduced because we weren't providing physical space and food at the same rate that we were when we did in person.

Um, but I do, however, think that there to Debbie's point around the composition of people who are providing those bespoke responsive programming.

We know that not having a storefront does reduce the ability for them to serve and engage families.

Um, and there's just not enough spaces we all know and preached in the choir around the places and spaces to physically provide those services.

Um, I think one of the areas where we make that a design feature, not a design flaw is Eastide Pathways.

I think one of our greatest value propositions is we are the archive of what has been done and how we've tried to approach that, because we know that churn and waiting families out is one of the ways that systems don't change and don't aren't held accountable.

And so Eastide Pathways has continued to um collect and report out that information.

So as leadership is changing, systems are changing policies or changing their accountability for the experience of parents and families.

Um, and so I think it's um less about the physical space that we're in, but rather this space where we can archive and report back the experiences of community outside of larger systems and entities that have different policies.

I think the other thing from like a sharing information and learning from one another, it's the consistency that's really critical.

I'll use one brief example to say that during COVID, our um we had about a hundred to two hundred members that were coming on a weekly basis to that call, and the group self-organized into five areas remote learning, uh, mental health and well-being, housing, food security, and philanthropy.

And the housing group actually decided to close its doors because what we found was that there was over five reoccurring weekly forums for housing, right?

And it was a great example of why collective impact is so important is there has to be the place you know everyone's gonna be to have that conversation.

Um you hadn't been housing in that area, nor had I, I think at that point, so there was all these disparate conversations.

So it was a clear data point, I would say when there is a known place, whether that's physical or virtual, where people can go to have um shared interests and investment in an outcome area, it actually reduces the number of hours that are being spread all over and really centralizes that conversation, which I think goes back to question one as well, is like the importance and the function is not only um reducing the redundancies and waste within our systems, but the leadership time that gets wasted when we're running to all these different meetings because the same conversation is being had in all these, you know, rooms all over the place, all these different forums.

So I um I know that there always is a need for physical space, but I think this is more about sustainable space and what is sustainable space look like, particularly if we're making the decision between basic needs and what feels like nice to.

So I just want to be of the times and recognize that that that may be a difficult decision to make to invest in physical space when we're thinking about sustainable space.

Did you want to jump into that?

Oh no worries if you don't want to echo.

Skip right over that.

Okay, um, let's see.

The convening spaces that we find most effective and models um with our group is that um again, because we're trying to make this meaningful, not just collectively in an outcome for our broader communities that we all serve, but also individually.

Um, we have found that a few things are very important.

One is that um we are very committed to compensating um financially all the organizations that participate with us because we do the work together, and so um the this grant is a is a great example of it.

The majority of it goes to the members, not to Eastide for All.

And over the course of East Side for All's years, we've spent over $525,000 in with for other organizations.

And that's not a grant to them just like a donation.

That's hey, we're asking a lot of you if you're interested in this and you want to help us all work together on this, um, we're going to compensate you for that, and not honorariums for you showed up for a meeting, but real compensation for the extreme value that you're bringing to each and every one of us.

So that's that's been key.

And what that has done, because that was meeting one of the concrete needs that they all set.

I mean, you saw the the pie chart, they they don't have enough money.

So they they really appreciate that, and that builds trust in each other.

And so that was that's been a key part of our of our structure.

The other thing is that when we convene, we do that in small groups.

Um, obviously we're small as it is.

I mean, I can probably uh beyond that eight, there's probably an additional additional six to 10.

Um, so less than 20 that are really on a regular basis coming together.

And and you might want to imagine these different Venn diagrams, right?

Of organizations that are similarly positioned, meaning they have lower um revenues, they are themselves experiencing racial discrimination and disparities, and they're serving large populations with with very little, right?

And meant most of them don't have physical spaces to do their work.

And so um, and then they just differ on whatever particular area that they focus on.

So anyway, bringing the small groups together and um also doing the work together.

So the other convening model that works really well is you know, we don't just talk about how we're all gonna advocate together.

We say, hey, who's available to meet with Mayor Robinson next Tuesday?

And then we um, as the the work that we do at East Side for All, we're providing a lot of that administrative support.

So we're we're showing up, but we're and we're working together on how that meeting's gonna go.

We're doing a lot of campaigns like that, but then we're also arranging and making sure that those meetings happen.

And so then um one or some other partner will facilitate, take the lead, depending on the area of expertise that's required by the meeting.

And we do that regularly.

We do it with planning commissioners, with um school districts, with pretty much any entity that this group says we need a change to happen there.

We want to come together and make that happen.

So those two in particular, I would say have been most effective in the kind of convenings that we do that actually result in in the accomplishments that we have.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

Um, all right, are you ready for the next question?

Absolutely.

Okay.

Um what kinds of support do agencies, especially smaller and culturally specific organizations need the most, and how does convening help meet those needs?

You kind of already started speaking into that.

Would you like to go first or you can go ahead?

Okay.

Um always taking a pause because you know, speaking on behalf of a lot of people, I think is a big ask, right?

I'm not here just to speak on behalf of our small team, but the partners we represent.

Um we are fortunate that we recently just did our uh biannual partner survey.

So I feel like I have fresh insights on what our partners are saying they're needing.

Um I think the kind of like metaphor I might give you is to be able to be like acquire and sustain a note, knowing that you have strategic coordination so people can drop out and that note can still be sustained.

And I think that's the biggest call to action right now is how are we coordinated so well that the students and families aren't experiencing loss because I need to take a break, right?

Uh, leaning into Debbie, what you're talking about, some of the folks who do the greatest work and have the least amount, there is absolutely a um archetype of leader that shows up in those places and spaces where the magic, I will say the magic of women of color to say that if we have a pound of rice or a loaf of bread, everyone will eat by magic, right?

Uh, and so I think now more than ever, it's so important that we're coordinating people so well that we can sustain that note like acquire.

You would never know when someone stops to take a breath, right?

And I don't know that that's actually the experience that our families are having.

Um, but that's the goal whenever I'm thinking about how well I need to coordinate these providers.

And again, it goes back to that analogy of if it's just me as an organization, that's not reasonable, right?

We're open Monday through Friday, or we don't have enough staff, or we reduce program, we reduce staff.

And that's a siloed narrative, but when we're thinking as a community, as a sector as a type of provider, we can provide that sustainable experience for our programs and families.

Um, if I think I got specific into the types of agencies, the smaller, more bespoke um organizations that are the speed boats, if you will, that are agile, responsive.

I think they would uh honestly just say um trust-based low barrier funding, nothing new there.

Um but I also think there's something really critical, and as we all know, the shift in funding um protocols, particularly uh King County funding, right?

So now there's increased insurance needs, there's a increased reporting needs.

And so Eastide Pathways has been shifting some of our services to help fill that gap.

So smaller organizations, we can say to them, it's okay, you stay focused on helping the kids, we're gonna help you with the reporting.

Um, those are technical services.

We don't need these magic superhumans to be crunching numbers in a closet somewhere.

We need them to be serving kids.

And so what we're really stepping into is making sure we can provide that overhead around data reporting.

Um, we're even having conversations about do we want to support with insurance and things like that, where we can provide some um reduced risk taking, shared risk taking, uh, to blend and braid the resources and the cost because it's not necessary for some of these smaller agencies to have that level of protection and coverage.

Um and it just doesn't financially make sense for them.

I know the most recent best arts for kids funds that we got, it's costing us more money to manage the funds and the funds actually cover for the kids.

Um, and that is the current reality is when the funding was released, the expectations look different.

And so the contract was built upon different standards.

And so I think many of us are finding our ourselves under contract in places and spaces where the demands of managing those funds actually cost more than the funds you're actually receiving to do the things for the kids.

Um I think that's one of the areas where uh our board and our leadership council are thinking strategically about how do we support the direct service providers to help with some of that overhead so they can just stay focused, particularly when they have reduced staffing.

Um, and they're also not thriving because many of us come from the communities that we seek to change alongside with.

So we're experiencing that uh secondary and primary trauma.

And so again, how do we coordinate so well that we have shared risk taking, shared burden, and we can sustainably provide that consistent experience for our families?

Um I think the last thing I would just say is uh, and I'll be a little vulnerable here.

I think one of the greatest pain points that I see is um, and one of the areas where I think we've been really helpful is helping people have a systems understanding.

Uh, often we see people who come from populations where they don't have the time to sit around and study systems and they're really frustrated because they're not making impact or progress.

And I think that's where we become really responsive is because we are under contract with our partners and our partners have already pre-committed to change behavior.

When something comes up, we can say to the partner, now's the time to lean into that contract, that agreement.

You agreed that you would change your behavior when that time came.

So whether that's pre-compliance on things that have been coming out of our federal government and having communities and families coming and saying we're closing all gender bathrooms or we're having pre-compliance here, they know they can come to Eastide Pathways because we have access to people that are going to help um address those changes, whether they're policy based or practice based.

And I think um, I'll just synthesize that to say responsiveness and account paired with accountability is really critical.

And I'm proud to say that Eastide Pathway structure has pre-compliance around a um clear scope of what I'm willing to pre-commit to changing.

Often I think we get into these change movements and we hope someday that something's going to change versus the front end work where someone says, within this building, within this program, we're already committing to change once we figure out what that change behavior looks like.

And I think that always gives me hope, knowing that we have a pre-commitment to change behavior, um, because there is that tipping point where if you don't have change, you just experience more loss.

And I think that's one of the areas where we've been really strong.

I 100% agree with everything you've said.

I think also, you know, specifically to that point about how the costs of running nonprofits and keep in mind, particularly in in the groups that I focus on, the organizations, um, a lot of them are immigrants.

Um they have English as a as a second language, um, and they know what they know and they know that really well, but they really did not understand.

And I think this is true for a lot of people who start not profits, the amount of work that you have to do that's outside of your mission to accomplish your mission.

So we ask, we have asked this for many years of like, if what what if there was not to call it a fiscal sponsor because a lot of our organizations are not comfortable with that concept and that relationship and partnership with the fiscal sponsor.

But if there was some entity that would hold the administrative um some of the back end office support for your organization, insurance, HR, accounting, you know, would you be interested in exploring those kind of pooled resources?

And all the organizations that we have in our network say yes to that.

Um, and we've been um consulting with Kim Sarnecki of the Together Center because I understand she's having some conversations with the East Side Human Services Forum and the Alliance for East Side Agencies about really what is needed in the network of care caregivers to really ensure that we have a strong nonprofit infrastructure.

And of course, our world role with East Side for All in this convening orgs work is on um anti-displacement.

I have said over and over again that I'm very worried that if we go through another COVID, we may not have the nonprofits in our community to do the response that's needed.

And it could be anything, substitute COVID for anything.

We're seeing that right now with the crisis around ICE.

Um, we're very fortunate that we have a handful of organizations that are on the front lines here in Bellevue throughout the east side, literally can show up within minutes to support a family whose income earner has just been taken away.

Um so I don't need to tell you about the trauma and the extent of that work, but um the point is is that anti-displacement is a real priority for us to make sure that our nonprofit, not only that our nonprofits that are here can stay here and serve people locally, but that we're able to grow our nonprofit infrastructure and welcome more nonprofits to meet all the needs that are here.

We can't just like businesses are leaving by the dozens because they can't afford to lease space here, the same thing is happening to nonprofits.

And that disparity only increases when you're talking about the ones with the fewest funds, and they're also experiencing racial discrimination and cultural problems and barriers.

So I have a couple of slides about their specific needs, I think that are coming up.

Yeah, Tony.

Um, from a place of curiosity and just not knowing.

Um, you mentioned agencies have some hesitation around the fiscal sponsor concept, and I just wouldn't have insight on that.

Could you just share a little bit more?

In the case of a fiscal sponsor, the fiscal sponsor organization is essentially the executive um organization that has the legal responsibility of the sponsored project.

And it is a project of the fiscal sponsor.

So a lot of organizations are not comfortable with giving that control and authority over to another entity, understandably.

Yeah.

So it requires a very um closely aligned mission, mission alignment, and then lots of alignment in order to make that work well.

Can I add to that?

One of the things that was really useful in our conversation with uh the best arts for kids representatives was um that the level of um top down that would so in this case east pathways, because we are in contract doing exactly that is where we have some um that were passing through funding to that are for-profits and some that are nonprofit.

Uh, best starts for kids, if we are acting as a fiduciary sponsor would require the same level of detailed reporting and oversight that they require of us.

And that is not a financially sustainable model.

All of the funds then go towards the collection of data and not actually doing the work.

And so um, this is where we get into like nuanced language, and so their guidance for us is that you have consultants that you're paying for projects, not that you have subcontractors that are doing the work, right?

And so these are all these workarounds that to your point one, has that information been shared effectively so that everybody in these situations knows how to reword their work.

Um, but then also how are we just strategically positioning organizations to do that, right?

And that's the area where um, you know, last year we were fortunate to invest, reinvest 175,000 and due to reduced funding, we've had to reduce how much we've passed through as well.

Um, not only because of the amount of money that was coming in, but then the cost of providing that support.

Um, and then lastly, I think we all know that there is a lot of um risk taking that comes into uh providing employment for different types of employees.

And so um I I hope that that's an area where we can be thoughtful about how we're investing in community in a way that really does fund different types of employees and organizations and employers.

So thank you for naming and asking that fault question.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So just a couple of slides on this.

I think that'll help um with the particular group that we work with and there, some of their needs that have come up before Click already mentioned funding.

We can say that till we're blue in the face.

Um, space, we we have that as well.

Um yes.

So we asked them to um rank their top three needs, and um, you'll see there's a lot of consistency there with what we've been saying.

Um and interestingly, when we ask these questions, again, um people are they're they understand that there's there's obviously lots of needs, but when they're triaging them, it just makes a lot of sense that that these come up and they go hand in hand because we know that when organizations have physical space, they are more visible in the community.

It's easier for them to fundraise, there it's easier for them to do their work because they're more visible to their own community that needs them, et cetera, et cetera.

So it it really is hard to separate these out one from another sometimes, and people really talk about that in our groups about the overlap of all of these, how well you need that one because if you don't have that, then the other, so it's a little bit hard, but it hopefully that's that's helpful.

And I think we there's one more slide about um space potentially.

Um, this is just what we've come.

That might be helpful.

Go back to that one just real quick, and I'll say um, so everyone that we've worked with has received newer additional funding since um being part of this collective.

Um the majority report that they've they've gotten more confidence in their fundraising um skills and their ability to fundraise.

And of the six organizations of the eight that need space, three have found space that they can use on occasion or when needed, and two have found space for regular use.

Um we've also had success in our joint advocacy um bringing in extra dollars for the um response to the ICE activity that's been happening, specifically from Kirkland and Redmond with designated funding.

And then you heard at the beginning of this meeting about the investment from Bellevue, of which I believe that the 200,000 for legal will help support the organizations that are working on that particular crisis situation.

Um so that's been really um good to see.

And and the organizations that we work with, um, I mean, Kalika knows this.

It's it's it's heartbreaking to have to call on each other and say, I know you're exhausted.

I know you just helped a family that had this awful thing happen this week.

And we have an opportunity if you can show up to potentially get some city investments specifically to support what you're doing.

But time and again, I mean that's just what we do.

We just roll up our sleeves and we show up and it's it is exhausting but I think there was so much pride and just um a great feeling of camaraderie and solidarity that people from different cultural and racial backgrounds came together to make that funding happen.

And I think we're just all really proud of that.

And so that keeps us going keeps us going.

And thank you all for all your work to help make that happen too.

It looks like we have a question online as well.

Hi quick question about physical spaces what's what kind of square footage would be an ideal space for for a group oh I I can't really answer that very well because it really varies by organization the type of work that they do.

Some of them and in fact most of the ones that we work with in particular need larger spaces not because their staff is so large it's less for office space it's more for the community gathering spaces um you know like I said these organizations are lifelines and they're also doing A to Z.

So in addition to the crisis response and all the direct services that they're providing they're also the convener and the the community builder for their particular communities.

And so if they can't gather it is just devastating they need that in order to do their to do everything that they do well.

So sometimes that ends up being large um square footage that's required beyond just a little office space of you know 200 to 500 square feet.

We're talking about you know well over a thousand square feet.

Thank you.

I can say that we do have data on square foot and I don't want to um not represent my operation director's work well we can definitely follow up with the research that we've done because that is an area where we've done significant research.

As many of you know our previous contract with the city of Bellevue included uh collaboration in the execution of the contract that we had so in that contract said you're gonna have eight racial equity council meetings you're gonna have two all partner meetings and the city was collaborating in the execution of that so we had access to City of Bellevue facilities which we no longer have and so not only did we see a hundred thousand dollar decrease in our funding but we saw a significant increase of the cost of programming because now we have to pay for facilities that we used to be a part of our contract with the city of Bellevue.

So that 100,000 we were receiving we spent this year probably 7600 just on spaces to bring people together so that investment went towards a space to be in versus providing the convening support and refunding into paying for program strategies and services that families needed.

We do have data on space just um to avoid giving you the hard numbers what I would say to you is that um on average Eastide Pathways meetings are each of our collaborative action networks have anywhere between 15 to 30 organizations that participate in them.

Those organizations tend to send one to three employees so on average our monthly meetings tend to have anywhere between 20 and 45 people we can house that within St.

Andrews Lutheran Church where we're housed out of but then our other meetings where we're looking at you know 150 to 200 people coming four to five times a year that's where we get into having to pay for the maiden bower.

We've outgrown the crossroads community center we've outgrown North Bellevue community center um and also I think libraries the other real we can't fit in a library the other reality is we're we're in competition if you will I hate to use that word but we are often competition for space my operations director um starts in January trying to book spaces for the next year because um and it's really hard which is also why we just do a lot of things remotely.

So we do have some great research that we can share with you on the actual square footage needs um but I would say it is it is an urgent need because our money has gone from um providing the convening support and and reinvesting to literally just paying to have a roof over our head so that we can bring people together.

Lastly I would say our experience with our partners is we used to share our office.

We only use our office one day a week as staff and so we do have our office open for our partners to use those who do not have storefronts if you will and our insurance is set up in such a way that if they need smaller more intimate convening that they have access.

So big shout out to St.

Andrews Lutheran for their generosity they have several small spaces that are available to Eastide Pathways partners.

So just want to name that we do have that physical space if there's smaller spaces that are needed.

Thank you.

You had a question Delphina yeah I have a question.

Like which one are the one who are working in this program.

Yeah.

We have several that um there's uh if you want to contact me, I'd be happy to share that.

It depends on the city and um the cultural language group that you need, and then I can connect you up.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Uh, and I would say for us, um we have very similar partners.

Yeah, we work with some of the same organizations.

Um, I think one of the things we've been really working with our school districts on is making sure they're working really well with other organizations.

Um, and so that's been a big part of our focus is making sure that we aren't losing families in between agencies.

Um we also have our parent caregiver council, which is a place and space for parents to be empowered to um have access to elected officials, have access to CEOs, uh, and that's been a place that um isn't just a React space, but a place that you can always call home to be empowered in your leadership.

Um so I'd say any of our councils are really uh, and there's no cost to being a partner.

You don't, there's no paperwork, you just show up.

You can go on to our website and join any of those meetings if you like.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, thank you.

I will say Debbie has far more uh language access than we do given the composition of our partners, but yeah.

And there's a whole group.

So I talked about that then the circles.

So there's another convening space that's called Safe Haven that's been going on since 2019.

And if you look up our website, East Side for All, there's a Safe Haven tab, and that there's a group that meets monthly, and you can actually connect with the organization.

I received the invitation every month, but I'd be able to go.

Yeah, I really haven't been able to do that.

The next one's in person.

This month's is in person at the Together Center.

Uh Redmond.

I think I'll register with uh Mercedes.

Perfect.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I will be there.

That's awesome.

Thank you.

My staff go to that meeting.

It's really helpful.

I'm like, Debbie's got that.

That's a lot.

That's a lot.

I I love this that we're that we're presenting jointly because it really is.

I mean, the the education focus that East Side Pathways has had is it's just an enormous asset to the community.

And you can see, right, that there's there's the need for the convening around different populations and different topic areas too.

So it it I think it, you know, for a healthy infrastructure in a community, you really want to know no one entity can do all of these things.

Um, so I do want to say that to the point about the space, because it is so such a big issue, and it has been for many years, that that's part of why um Eastide for All, one of our core initiatives from the beginning was called Build for Belonging.

So we do equitable development work.

And right now we're poised if knock on wood, um, if the comp plans actually get implemented.

There are thousands of units of affordable housing that are going to be built on the east side in the next 20 years.

Now, some of those spaces are very appropriate for mixed use, including nonprofit and community space and within the developments.

And so, what this group that I've convened has been doing is going to the city councils, going to the planning commissioners, going to the um developers, building relationships with nonprofit housing developers and talking about the ways in which our community-based organizations can partner with those housing developers and the cities to ensure that those community spaces are there, not just to provide affordable nonprofit space, but also affordable retail.

And so we're working on that.

And there's a couple of slides here about uh the work that's evolved thanks in large part to your support.

So the collective impact work that we're doing, in addition to um focusing on funding and um you can go back one slide really quick.

Thank you so much.

I wish I had a button I could do it instead of you having to do it for me.

Um, so the collective impact work beyond funding and space needs um is also about this visibility and leadership.

It's about how do we transform systems, right?

And so um this summer we were after two years of bringing many of these organizations that I'm talking about with you today, plus others, we were able to provide a shift in a new model of doing community engagement for urban planning on the east side.

And so this is this is us presenting that collective effort, and there's a bunch of people online that you can't see.

Uh, we couldn't all be there in person that day.

But I believe there were 30 some staff from the city of Redmond across all departments.

And what they're doing is they're taking what we did with their planning team and they're putting it in all the departments because they all have a charge to do community engagement at some point or another.

So they're taking the the model that we develop together with our partners.

When I say we, I don't mean east side for all, I mean this collective.

And you'll see Miss Adam Deba there with my team member Guillermo.

And so they were on the panel to teach planners about this model and how it can work on a variety of topics with a variety of different municipalities.

So that was pretty exciting.

And then we go to the next slide.

And again, this is what I'm talking about, the tangible, concrete things that we need to have happen.

So we got tired of, you know, knocking on the library's door and trying to get there.

What is it?

A month you have to that you can't sign up for a library space more than a month out.

I mean, it's just ridiculous.

So all the things that Khalika said, and yes, we have had strides in putting plugging nonprofits, small nonprofits into spaces that they need.

But ultimately, we need to develop our own spaces.

So there is an initiative happening that's going to be announced in the early part of the coming year when the groundbreaking takes place.

But the Redmond Overlake Village is going to have a development built by Bellwether Housing, which is the largest nonprofit affordable housing developer in Puget Sound.

This will be the first East King County one that they're doing.

You may recognize the name if you've been following other news in Bellevue because they're also going to develop the Wilburton site, which I believe will have the boys and girls club there.

So a large organization having access to a space, which is great.

They need it.

They're large and they serve a lot of kids.

But we're talking about the smaller organizations that don't have that kind of visibility or fundraising and partnerships.

But we've brought everybody together and we said together we're stronger, right?

So we're going to have a 10,000 square foot facility in this building that will open in early 2028.

And the next couple of slides just tell you a little bit about that if you're interested.

But the point is that that now all the organizations that have been in our collective that have don't have space or access to their own space will be able to have their own office space there and event space for community gatherings.

So the next slide talks a little bit about this is a rendering of the commercial kitchen that would be there because we know that that's been a top priority in so many of our BIPOC and immigrant communities on the east side is access to incubator spaces for food businesses.

And then the next slide is the rendering of the event space.

And so we're very, very excited about that.

We're going to continue to knock on the doors and ensure that our city facilities are open and inclusive, that other people are rolling up their sleeves, that corporations that have empty office buildings are doing what they they can to open up their doors and make that easy for nonprofits to access.

But in the end, I think it's also going to take us having our own facilities.

And this will be something that we own.

So in January, we'll be signing our purchase and sale agreement for this facility that will open in 2028.

So we're really excited about that.

And we believe that this model can be replicated.

And more organizations that need this, if they are willing to work together, and that takes that takes a lot.

But if they are there's a lot that can come to them as a group and individually in the end.

Thank you for sharing as we've been doing monitoring visits with our agencies that has been very consistent around needing space or outgrowing their space, feeling like they're being displaced and being pushed out is some of the language that we've been hearing.

So it's just encouraging to hear about the work that you're all doing.

My next question for you all, you kind of already started talking about it is how do you ensure that equity, community voice, and culturally responsive practices remain central within your work.

This is one of the things I'm actually most proud of of my career at Eastide Pathways.

I can't believe it's coming up on 10 years.

Um catch me on a sabbatical, hopefully soon.

Please.

But one of the things that I'm really proud of about Eastide Pathways infrastructure is our model is centrifugal circles.

It's not a hierarchical model, it's a hetriarchical model.

Um, you know, often we're saying communities at the center, communities leading the way where our structure actually is built that way.

So we have a three-layered system, and at the center is community or the focused population.

Um, and really they are empowered systemically to help us set priorities.

We had a meeting with our leadership council this morning and our board.

Um, and I want to share that I think that's one of the things I'm most proud of Eastide Pathways model because our board takes all of the fiduciary responsibility of the organization, but they don't have any of the decision-making power over the what.

And I think it is a beautiful systems example of empowering people and also mitigating the risk that comes with being from community.

And it also means that our model isn't relying on you having a CEO title to have influence.

It means you don't have to have money.

You don't have to have an education.

I don't want to minimize our leadership council members.

They are powerful, uh influential leaders in this community in their own right.

But the fact that our model has built so that community sets the priorities, community helps us understand what the issues are, and they have full autonomy over what is happening in our rooms, period.

I don't make those decisions, my staff don't make those decisions, the community does.

The COVID can was a great example of that.

We had all this programming.

So community uh first and foremost makes all the decisions on behalf of the what in our partnership.

Um the next layer of our partnership framework is the how.

So this is leaders who are experts in their areas of influence, whether you are a police officer or a lifeguard or a doctor or a parent or a teacher.

You are the experts in how the system currently works.

It is your job to then help us understand what the current state is and then figure help us figure out how to change it.

And then lastly, that traditional layer where decisions get made, your board, your staff, your CEO, your ED.

Our answer, our um our charge isn't what or how.

Our charge is asking the question, what do you need to get that done?

That is always our answer.

And so I'm really proud of our model to say that um it is completely inverted, and we have um almost 15 years of evidence of what that looks like.

Um, I think the other thing that's really uh important, as I mentioned earlier, is our partnership agreements have um the authority and the scope of authority influence already pre-outlined, right?

So there's no question about what the scope of my impact is going to be one or I'm rooms.

We're not asking you to hope and pray that things might look different.

We're saying we have pre-compliance pre-agreement that in this classroom we have the authority and influence to make change.

Um, and I think that's a really critical piece.

I don't like setting people up to fail.

And I don't like setting people up to um bear their trauma and their vulnerability in public without promise of change.

And that's a difficult uh line to walk, but I think it's something that we've walked really well because we have the relationships and um I think the legacy, right?

The fact that we've been around long enough, one of the most powerful moments I ever saw with my predecessor uh was her meeting with the CEO and them saying, Oh, this has never happened before, and I'm new to my role.

And she opened her laptop and pulled out the last six years of strategic plans and said, let's just review these.

And if you haven't done any of the things on these lists, then maybe we don't need to do another strategic plan.

Maybe we need to do some strategic action, right?

And so I think it's that um the fact that we've been around long enough to know hyper locally where um I almost use where the dead bodies are buried.

I don't know another phrase for that.

That's like common corporate term.

I apologize.

I don't actually know where anybody's are.

But you know, the the colleagues of like being around long enough to know um where the sticky spots are or where you can actually have some flow and some and some headway.

Um I think the other thing that is really beautiful about collective impact agencies like ours that are working from the outside, if you will, of systems is that, and I'll say this as a pre previous large youth provider, service program provider, to be a change agent and at the same time expect to continue to get your paycheck from that organization is a really risky place to be.

Um, and it was a strategic decision in my leadership, and I was very fortunate that Eastide Pathways existed when I wanted to be a change agent and I wanted to work upstream and I wanted to do systems change, a policy change.

There was an organization that would pay me to be a good troublemaker versus um a manager, right?

Managing is about managing the status quo.

And when you have agencies like ours that are influencing and holding accountability and stewarding change from the outside, um, it's a safer, more sustainable place as an employee and as a change agent.

And I think that's a unique piece about collective impact organizations as well, um, is asking people to change within the systems, and then I'll say as mother of three, worry about whether or not I'll be able to have a job next week because I pushed a little too hard on the system that day is not a tenable thing.

So I think that's another piece around like the day-to-day experiences of someone who chooses to be a change agent.

I think both of our agencies provide safe harbor uh and compensation and support so that people can be change leaders and change agents in their own respect.

Um I'm gonna decline to answer the other questions because I think they're built into the model, and I know all of us do that work unless there is a specific question around cultural responsiveness or linguistic responsiveness.

I think um when your model is built the way that it is that that is just inherently a part of it.

Like our staff is 100% people of color, half of them are immigrants, half of them are queer identifying.

I mean, we just we are of the community that we're seeking change for.

Um, and then I think the other thing is our our organization.

Um none of us are coming in on a horse with a cape, right?

We're of the communities that we're seeking change for and with.

And I think that inherently means we're operating through our own cultural consciousness.

Um, and of course, using the adaptive leadership model means change happens through multiple perspectives.

So I'll just leave it at that.

So you want to or no?

I think I've shared.

I I think it might be helpful to share a concrete example of how equity shows up in our work.

And it's it's really difficult when you have a cross-racial coalition, um, and and it's all people of color, but they have different experiences, they experience different levels of disparities depending on you know what's going on, all of those things are at play all the time.

And yet you've decided together that you're going to stand with each other.

And uh to that um development, I'll I'll give you a very specific example that we were in a position early on in partnering with Bellwether Housing, where it become became clear that the City of Redmond and the Redmond Police Department wanted a substation in that building, the Prisma Affordable Housing Complex with our community space on the ground floor.

And um at some point, we were not consulted about that.

We, the collective that's going to run the nonprofit space.

And um, when we found out about it, we collectively put a pause on the partnership, which um put a pause on the whole project because it can't move forward without us.

And we had some really good conversations with City of Redmond with Bellwether Housing with Redmond Police Chief with Redmond Police leadership.

And ultimately, there was a minority of our organizations that were concerned about that.

And they had very um intense and persuasive arguments for why we should not have a police substation at that particular building.

In the neighborhood, sure.

City of Redmond's growing, they need it, they need to have access to policing services throughout the city.

But in that particular building where we were going to do what we were gonna do there, um a few of us said no, and we were in the minority.

That's equity because everybody said that's a big deal to you because of all those things that you just said, and not just you as an individual, but your entire community feels that way too.

We all are with you.

And we would not move forward on that, even though so much was at stake, even though you know, seven of the organizations could have moved forward and said, basically, forget you all.

We have a good space coming.

We need office space and community space, so we're gonna move forward.

Of course, they would have done it more diplomatically, but this happens all the time in communities.

It happens here all the time too.

That's equity, is when you listen to the voices that may be the fewest, but they are farthest from justice.

They have the most to lose or the most to gain.

And you have to balance all of that.

And in the end, you have to say, yes, we hear you.

We're gonna go with that, even though that's the minority view.

Why?

Because equity.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Um, before we move into our last question, do you all have any questions or comments?

All right.

Okay.

Our last question for you all today is where do you see opportunities for a deeper partnership with the city of Bellevue to strengthen the human services ecosystem?

Um, Eastide Pathways has been a partner of the Strive Together National Network since our inception.

Um, and it's interesting to me that every year when I participate in their gatherings, they have an award called the Bill Henningsgirt Award.

And it is a recognition of phenomenal collective impact leadership that's given out at the national level.

Our organization has not received that award.

And we are not mentioned when it's given.

And I would share that with you all to say how are we.

Thank you.

But I'm I'm sharing this vulnerably to say um when we do our uh annual assessment, our civic infrastructure assessment on our theory of action, all of their language and measuring like how effective are we as an organization.

When I look at our place-based partnership, East Side Pathway serving East King County started and founded in partnership with the City of Bellevue and leaders in City of Bellevue.

And I compare us to other collective impact organizations across the country.

The biggest difference is their cities are at the table as partners, not just investors, but collaborators, co-conspirators.

And those are organizations that have 40 million dollar operating budgets that are building buildings, that are building classrooms that are building early learning facilities that are providing programs and services that really enrich the basic needs of organizations so that they can stay focused on doing great work.

It's not the framework that's different.

It's not our approach that different, it's the involvement of their cities.

Um, and the ability for our cities.

When I, and I know I'm preacher to the choir, but I'm gonna say it anyways, since we're on record here, you know, every year when I go to our state capital and I meet with our representatives, I do so in partnership with Graduate Tacoma and the Center for Childhood Education Results.

They're the other regional collective impact organizations in our area.

We go on behalf of the region because regionally we represent half of the students in the state of Washington.

536,000 plus reminds students.

We represent half of the kids in the state of Washington when you put these three backbone organizations together.

That is a powerful ask.

We go together, we meet with our elected, and what they say to us is we give the state the money and we ask them to figure it out, right?

And then we know what happens from there.

It goes to the county level, and then the county says you don't have enough of those kids, and those kids don't have it bad enough.

And I know all of our partners in East King County would echo the exact same thing.

We don't have enough of those kids, pick a demographic, black kids, queer kids, immigrant kids, intersectionality kids, and they don't have it bad enough because the uh student to student uh the student to counselor ratio is higher than it is in other school districts.

You have higher high school graduation rates at the student population, you have less of a housing issue, you have a less than house issue.

So every time we go to get funding, whether that's from the federal government to the state level, to the county level, East King County kids and East King County providers are consistently struggling because we don't have enough of those kids and they don't have it bad enough.

And so my sense is that the only way this is going to change is if our cities work with us to do that advocacy work.

How would it change the narrative?

If when I went to the state's capital, I wasn't just saying we're coming as backbone organizations, but we're coming on behalf of our cities and we're coming on behalf of our counties, because you cannot continue to dismiss East King County kids because you don't think they have it bad enough.

And I'll stop there so I don't start crying because I'm a public crier, but I think we all live here and we know the reality.

And my predecessor was saying the same thing, and I'm sick of repeating it.

And so my challenge to you all is how are you working with us, not just funding with us, but collaborating.

And that for those of you who met with me has been my greatest complaint is the reduction of collaboration, right?

We appreciate the continued funding, but the fact that you're not collaborating with us to deliver program.

The simple example is no longer having access to City of Bellevue facilities to divide our programming, also not having access to printing services, technical costs that are really really minuscule for the city in comparison to the burden of cost on us.

For example, our annual community report used to be a part of the contract and funding with Bellevue.

It costs about $5,000 for us to print that.

Now we have to pay for that cost.

We're very fortunate that a local bank covered the costs this year, but that allows us to empower community with the data that they need to advocate for their kid.

Parents knowing they're not the only parent who's struggling with our AEP plans, they're not the only parent who's struggling with their high school graduation.

These data pieces are the ways in which we empower community, and we're now doing those things without the support of our cities.

So I'd say not just funding us, but co-conspiring and helping advocate for our kids from a funding lens and a policy package, our policy advocacy lens.

Um, and then I think the other thing is to be really thoughtful partners with organizations like ours to get into some of the cultural nuances of the deep, deep, deep wounds that are caused by the divide and conquer that um funding impacts have.

The amount of cross-organizational interpersonal relationship repair that I do and my staff do because people don't want to work with her anymore, work with that person anymore, work with that organization before, and usually somewhere in that origin story had something to do with a shift in funding because we're fighting for each other, we're fighting for dollars so we can continue to serve our community.

And I think that's some of the things that you spoke to, a part of what our organizations do is build a container where people can work through some of that pain and hurt and say we need to look past that because our kids are suffering when we don't work well together.

And this is also where I would say, how are you working with us with regards to investment?

Because when Eastide Pathways distributes funds, um, I'll use a concrete example to say our pizza with the purpose model, that product was funded initially back in 2017 through the City of Bellevue's funds.

We piloted it at Interlake High School High School, thanks to Dr.

Aramaki and other BSD leadership is now expanded to three high schools within Bellevue School District.

And what's beautiful about it is with a small investment, we're able to ensure that all of the Black students in those three high schools receive comprehensive care to help them be on a path to high school graduation.

So what we did is we were able to use data to term that the key service points are career investigation.

So seeing someone who looks like me, helping me believe that I can be something more than fill in the blank, mentorship, uh financial planning, post-secondary enrollment planning, um, listening circles to me and my parents so that there's a feedback loop, right?

And then that ongoing support.

And so what we're doing is we're working with Africans on the East Side, East Side Youth Coalition, Big Brothers, Big Sisters, uh, the Bellevue School District, the YMCA of our Bell VY, um, Vita's roots of include roots of us, um, all of those organizations are being coordinated and providing multi-touch points to those students.

So to be able to take um 80,000 and coordinate seven different organizations and make sure that this one student has eight organizations wrapping services around them is a game changer.

And that's very different than just saying we're gonna give this one organization money.

When you invest in collective impact, you invest in collective impact, right?

You're investing in multiple touch points and services that aren't just being made accessible to kids, but being coordinated for those kids.

We spend an inordinate amount of time in our office saying, what day are you gonna be there?

And why couldn't you get into the building?

And did you have access to the Wi-Fi and were the kids there?

And did the parents know that?

And was it translated?

Was it trans created?

So it's all the coordination.

Um, not only the the technical things around timing and calendaring, and also one of the other wins that I would celebrate thanks to the funding of uh the Bellevue Human Services back in 2017, I did a research project that was funded by Truman Former Restorative Practices funded by Best Starts for Kids.

There was 35 providers that participated in this research project.

And I think Tony, you were a part of this and Mother Debbie, I think you were in the room.

And what we found was majority of those providers couldn't do their jobs because they didn't have MOUs with the school district.

And it's seems really simple, but the reality was an MOU activated a whole host of things that made it easier for someone to come and provide services to that student.

Just last year we had three organizations, Eastside for All, Africa, excuse me, Africans on the East Side, Eastide Youth Coalition, and other organization get their MOUs so that they could be in the schools providing those programs and services.

Your funding allowed us to do that advocacy work, and now it's allowing us to coordinate all those services for those students.

And it took um two full-time staff members to stay on top of these things to make sure they were actually happening and to take it from one high school to three high schools for one population.

The other thing is because now we also have best starts for kids funds, we've included um MCNA in that, and we're doing knowledge transfer to see how do we take this model from serving black focus on black students to how do we also expand it to supporting Muslim students?

And we're also working with both the CIAs and um the NISO programs to think about how do we expand that to the Spanish speaking community as well.

So it's not only scaling, sustaining and coordinating, but also always thinking about how are we expanding and sharing these wins with other focused populations.

So I just want to name that your dollars go really, really far.

And I see Olga, you have your hand raised.

Ever the facilitator, I'll stop talking.

Um thank you.

I guess I'm trying to, as I'm listening to trying to balance between having a lot of small organizations do a lot of great work versus potentially pulling it under a larger organization that may have a need for a few fewer administrative or I guess overhead than if you have so many small ones.

Like what are what are your thoughts in regards to that?

Because having niche organizations that support different community members is great.

But what about sometimes having that under one umbrella?

I think one of you touched on that, maybe having that back office centralized, but what about like completely centralizing?

Do you ever go and tell some of your nonprofits that you work with to say, like, do you know there's another organization already does this?

Maybe you shouldn't.

Um, let me try.

Hopefully, I can hit all the things that I heard you say.

And if I don't, please let me know.

Um, we'll have some shared accountability on your question.

Um the current reality, and I think I'll credit Adam Deba.

This is like one of her key talking points, is there's a lot of risk and trouble when we try to be everything to everyone.

Uh, I think one of the beauties, again, about collective impact is this intentionality and consciousness and accountability to say, I am designing within the limitations of my organization and my leadership.

And I don't think anyone on this face of this earth could say that they can be everything to everyone.

And I think there's a lot of trouble in that, right?

And I want to credit Adam because I think Adam Deba does a phenomenal job of championing that issue.

And so for us, recognizing when we center a family and we center that student and we really clearly hear what they need.

There's never been a solution where we're like, oh, they got you, they can handle that.

Absolutely not.

That has never been the case.

That has never been the case.

The case is that it takes Michelle Williams Clark, whose program has a hundred percent success rate and getting kids out of high school into college of their choosing and graduating and entering career of choice.

It takes her calling them phenomenal and incredible and meeting with their families and meeting them wherever they need in bright spits and critical days.

It takes an Adam Diba to come in and say, and I want to make sure you feel confident in your beautiful self as a black identifying African identifying immigrant or first in or the descendant of those who are enslaved.

It takes Karen and Adam being there to support those students and hold that circle with them and hold cloth and food with them and song and movement.

It takes a Steve Lozano with Vitez to say, here's my online library of all these careers and see that it wasn't just I was a straight A student and now I'm a doctor.

That's not my story.

So it's all of these providers who are meeting these each unique bespoke needs.

I think where it goes sour and doesn't work well is when it's not coordinated.

When the students are like, wait, what are all the services and what do I need to do?

And where do I do that thing?

That's where collective impact comes in in this instance to say, we've talked to your doctor, we've talked to your dentist, we've talked to your coach, we've talked to your mentor, and we're making sure they're coordinating.

You don't put that burden on the family to have to coordinate all of those.

We have a backbone agency that's making sure those organizations are playing well together.

I've yet to see one organization that can be everything to everyone.

And I also think it's where we get into this competitiveness where we try to like go be a bigger, better than we actually are and don't do a great job.

Um the last thing I think I didn't hit on was the do I ever go tell people to not go do the thing?

Absolutely all the time.

That's already happening.

Can we get you in the same room together?

Um, and not because I'm discouraging someone from doing a thing, but rather making sure that they don't waste their time.

So with our Note the Seas program, we uh when we have the funding, we pay them to teach other people how to do their communication through trans creation model.

When um we've have funded NISO to help them do knowledge trans, or we've funded MCNA to do knowledge transfer, or we pay organizations to help teach other organizations their wins.

And often it has nothing to do with the approach, but more how did you hand the politics?

How did you handle the paperwork?

How did you handle the systems thinking behind it so that you could do your job better?

So we absolutely are helping people make sure that they're being mindful of their resources and learning from each other as partners and organizations.

And I think the cool thing I would because size of organization has been named, um, I really want to celebrate that most of the East King County leaders, whether that's the Eastide Executive Director Forum that happens at Liz Wanson host or meetings at Debbie hosts or I host.

I think executive directors in East King County work really well together.

Um, it's been beautiful to get on calls with fellow EDs and CEOs and say, we don't want to lose the talent we have here.

I can't afford to keep them, but you know, uh would they be helpful to work for you?

It's been really cool to see how even things like retirement retaining really great staff when people are experiencing cuts is some of the ways that local executive directors are working well to maintain talent and maintain again that that consistent um experience for our students and families.

So hopefully that answered uh or kind of touched some of the things, Olga that I was hearing you ruminate on.

Um Debbie has thoughts on that question as well.

Yeah, thank you.

Really, really great response to Kelika, but I wonder if Debbie has a response on that.

Well, Olga, I I think I heard a few different things in your question.

I think on the one hand, there's the collective impact that we're talking about that that where you have, you know, our organizations that then are uh touching multiple organizations.

But I think you were also asking about um in that question that that Kalika addressed about well, what about when there might be the opportunity to merge to um to not duplicate?

Um, or to have a um an organization that for lack of a better term is like an umbrella, because I mentioned that that there was some interest in people exploring, well, can we just all have a shared pooled resource of these, you know, various expertise that are needed by all of our nonprofits?

So all those conversations are going on all the time.

And I um led the East Side Human Services Forum for almost 10 years, starting in 2005.

And believe me, we were talking about this way back then, 20 years ago.

So it keeps coming up.

But one of the things that we have found is that yes, sometimes there are opportunities for organizations to not just collaborate, but for one of them to take a lead.

And we've done this in our network too.

Um, Indian American Community Services is another great example of this.

They are somewhat larger, they're still small compared to some of the large organizations, but they're larger in our little network.

And they've been able to get larger grants that they then distribute those funds amongst smaller organizations.

And they take on that role of doing all of the accounting, all the things that Eastside Pathways does too for some of their organizations.

I mean, yes, and efforts that they that they have too.

So that happens.

But one of the things that's not helpful, and we've seen this happen before.

And I I have several community, Adam Deeba is one of them.

There's others who have said, oh, this city staff person asked me if I knew about such and such organization, and don't we just do the same thing?

Um please don't do that.

Um and like Kalika said, it takes multiple, we don't say that to white community-led organizations.

We don't say, well, why are there 18 organizations that are led by white people and don't you just all no?

We it's because we need all of the things.

We need the large hope links, thank you, Hope Link.

We need the large YMCAs, thank you, YMCA.

But we also need these smaller organizations that do very specific things with groups that otherwise have no place to go.

And doing so requires them to do that in the very culturally focused way for them.

That means that they do everything A to Z.

They don't do things in silos.

So if you put them under an umbrella where that organization runs things, like you have to decide are you going to do food services or are you gonna do mental health?

They're gonna say, no, we're out because that's not how we do things.

We covered all the things in one three hour conversation with our community members, right?

So that that would be a little bit more that I would say about that one.

I think it's a great question, and it does speak to some of the systemic issues and some of the things that we like talking about so much and that we engage the community on.

And I think to Kalika's point that we would like to have the cities involved more into those discussions.

You know, for the that question, opportunities for deep for partnership.

We we I would say Eastside for All and our partners, we kind of force parts of Bellevue to collaborate with us.

Um, and we've seen that happen more on the urban urban planning side, right?

For housing, particularly.

Um, and we could have that same kind of partnership and engagement around human services, around small businesses, um, economic development, so many things in the city.

So I think the policy advocacy that you mentioned, there's a there's a last slide up here, if you wouldn't mind that part, that just kind of gives you a little summary about some of the things that we find really helpful and that we need from the the institutions and the governments and the systems as well as funders.

And that will, if if we're all coming together, we have the nonprofits doing their part, and everybody else is also meeting us halfway, then I think we can um we can make some real strides here together.

So the co-creation, right?

That's that's about leading together, not doing things on behalf of organ of organizations or communities, um, shared leadership models, amplifying that, not always thinking that larger is better.

Um, some of our organizations have no desire.

Um, I'm one of them.

I'm fighting against being larger than my four full-time employees right now.

I really don't want more than that.

Um, unrestricted general operating, we've talked about that before, and also for cap capacity building, not just direct services.

Um we have to think longer term, and I really respect and appreciate what Mayor Robinson was saying.

Um, and there are a lot of crisis situations.

The thing is, we're gonna be on the other side of this crisis one way or the other.

And together as a community, we are gonna respond to this crisis.

But what if we're not also planning for the long term, if we're not also building infrastructure for longer-term sustainability, keeping our nonprofits here, helping them be as strong as they can be, and we're not doing that preventative and wraparound work that's required, then we're just gonna be on the other side of a crisis less prepared for the next crisis that comes along.

So unfortunately, I'm sorry to say this, but we do have to do it all all at once, and we can, it's not gonna be easy, but I really believe that that is what we're being called to because if we in the moment of crisis only respond to the most um you know urgent needs of the moment and we lose sight of the vision, we're gonna find ourselves in a really a place of real deficit and exhaustion and depletion, and probably some of us won't be around.

And I don't mean that to be macabre.

I mean like won't be here in the community to serve our community.

If I could just circle back as well to um thanks for that question, Commissioner Perlman.

I'm glad you're able to join.

Um, I think an added point in addition to the great insight from these experts that I would add is we are very, very, very far away in the Bellevue community from having all of our community members be able to access the services that they need.

So the thought of duplication equaling excess services is just not data supported.

Um, in our most recent needs update, um, I was just uh inquiring with our human services manager, Ruth Balka's, she can remember the numbers and I can't.

And only 49% of our residents could get help when they needed it in our most recent needs update.

And in every single service area, if you dig into the data, you see people say, Well, I wanted that and I couldn't get it, or the wait list was too long, or they couldn't provide me with care in my language, or I couldn't get there because of transportation gaps.

So I appreciate the lens towards like how are we investing in ways that, you know, um advance uh stability and thriving for our community, but we are a very, very long ways away before providing a duplicitous services to the level that they wouldn't be needed.

Thank you for that data point.

If I may, I think one of the things that's coming up for me as you share that, Tony is uh one of the the themes that we're hearing, um, two different themes I'd say around funding.

If I were to advocate on behalf of the partners that we're working with that are um the community-based or nonprofit, we have for profits and they're fine from all I know.

Um, but the larger foundations that tend to fund in our region have made it very clear that they will not be filling the gap that was created by our federal government, period.

End of conversation.

No discussion, not our problem.

Talk to the president.

Um, and then the trickle down is your larger, and we are very blessed that in our region we have a lot of people that have the financial liquidity and the heart for philanthropy.

But what they're saying is now that burden has fallen on our shoulders and we're not financially positioned to handle that.

And so um again, this brings me back to why I think collective impact right now is so important is because the the system wasn't set up, the nonprofit industry complex and how it was set up, uh, particularly in our region, um, is not built for this.

I started earlier by saying that our kids, we don't have enough of those kids and they don't have a bad enough.

So we were already struggling to get funding to the organizations that do this critical work, which is why we get to the point you're talking about.

My question is when was that data captured and does it capture the current reality of exactly?

So that's where uh you're nodding no for those of us who didn't see that physical, that nonverbal cue is so the thing that we're hearing and seeing with our partners, and this is to your point around, I'll speak for myself, my own, you know, I'm good at keeping my game face on, but I don't think any of us are thriving.

Um, particularly us BIPOC leaders who are doing uh response work every single day.

The amount of people that are dying, uh, that are experiencing extreme trauma, and yet we still up and get up and do our jobs every single day with less resources.

Eastside Pathways started this year with 7.25 staff members.

We are down to five, and we're probably gonna come in next year with even less, right?

But yet the demands for our services have increased.

Um and not only from our partners, but from donors, because they want their shifting from trust-based philanthropy to we want concrete street level data that's connected and analyzed to satellite data.

Uh so the demands uh of on our community leaders aren't just about their heart work and their time and their ability to run on fumes, but also the technical services as well that are required just to run an organization.

Um, and in fact, I've been coaching some of our clients to leave the nonprofit and go for profit because you don't have to worry about managing a board, you don't have to worry about an audit.

Like some of that's some of the coaching conversations I've been having with them is it's not financially tenable for you to continue to operate as a nonprofit.

Why?

Right.

And so I just I appreciate needing that data point.

And I think um I don't, I don't think we've realized just how bad, because I think many women of color and leaders of color and CBOs can be based organizations are continuing to move as if we haven't hit this financial um and we have we have hit that.

It it hit early, and and we I think East King County, last thing I'll just say it's been ironic to me as I've been going into Seattle more to be a part of King County and not just East King County, is I tell people, I know because they're like, oh, you're from Bellevue, you don't have problems.

And I'm like, our school district was taken over by the state.

So if you think having money or proximity to money is the solution, you'd be wrong.

And while I'm very uh I have I think all of us have lots of feelings about that reality, I think it is a powerful data point that we needed to show that we have to invest in systems because this is not just a program solution, this is a system solution.

The reason that the funding looks the way that it does for a district is not a programs issue, it's a systems issue.

And so I think we have to uh to Mary Robinson's point, invest in those critical basic services, but through a systems lens, because if we keep just in throwing money down programs as they currently exist, uh, the numbers are gonna get worse.

Our recent projections on enrollment numbers without any interventions show that we're gonna have even less funding in our schools.

I know that the district is reporting an increase, a phenomenal increase, but the current projections still show that our districts in East King County large, particularly Bellevue School District will continue to have funding issues unless we use a systems approach to addressing uh the infrastructure that supports our students and family.

So um I just wanted to add that to around like how we're going to fix these issues.

I don't think it's just a programs and services issue.

It's gonna be an infrastructure and policy issue as well.

All right.

Well, thank you so much.

I want to honor y'all's time and um thank you again, uh Khalika and Debbie for coming and informing us.

And I hope that you're both taking care of yourselves.

Um any closing thoughts before we transition.

All right, I will hand it back to you, Chair.

Okay.

Thank you to the panelists for taking the time to educate us and share your work.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

As a reminder, our next meeting is on January 4th.

I will hand it over to Ruth for an overview of officer elections.

Thank you, Chair Singh.

I will make this brief, but I do want to be sure that we're ready for the election of officers that will happen at our next meeting, which is the first meeting of 2026 coming up on uh Monday, January 4th.

Um you have a handout that has some of the guidelines for the election, and then it actually has a bit of a script for how it works.

Let me just give you a couple of the highlights.

Um a member can nominate themselves or someone else can nominate you.

It's permissible for a nominee to speak or to be asked questions.

A member can decline a nomination.

So if you nominate someone to be the vice chair and they they can decline that if they don't want to.

Um and the election of the chair will be immediate in that meeting.

So we're going to elect the chair first, and then whoever's elected chair will immediately be the chair and will conduct the rest of the meeting.

The other thing I want to tell you in preparation is that for every nominee, their names will be brought up in the order they were nominated.

So if I nominate major and inman first, then we're gonna vote on her first.

And the votes will be who is in favor of major inman being chair, say I who is if you are opposed to major inman being chair, say nay.

And you have to vote.

If you don't vote, it's counted as a yay.

So you're gonna either vote for major inman or against major inman.

And then if major inman gets the majority of votes, then we're done.

And she's the chair.

If she didn't get the majority, then we'll go to the next nominee.

Delphina was also nominated.

How many people would like until we get a majority?

So prepare yourself for the next meeting and we will do this first thing when we arrive.

Any questions before we wrap that up?

No, it's very clear.

Thank you.

I think we all I needed it for sure.

Great.

Thank you, Chair Singh.

Oh, and then I do have one more reminder.

Um realizing um next week, December 8th, Monday, there is the parliamentary training.

I'll send you all a reminder, but uh just wanted to put that on your radar now.

So what time it is?

Um, I believe it's at six.

Um, I'll have to double check the.

Oh, is it?

Okay.

I will send you the reminder and you know.

Thank you.

So this concludes our meeting, and we are adjourning at 7 45.

I hope we all enjoy the winter break.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Have a good evening.

Happy New Year.