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More than 90 leaders from 55 organizations across Southwest Washington and the Olympic Peninsula attended Inatai Foundation’s Shaping the Future event in Kamilche, Mason County. The event took place in early March and was a rare opportunity for community leaders in the region to connect with one another, share joy, and learn about how power building can be an effective pathway to equity and racial justice.
Shaping the Future: Peninsula & Southwest Washington was the second in a series of regional conferences to bring people together working across issues toward equity and racial justice in Washington. The first Shaping the Future of this series, for North Central Washington, was hosted in Wenatchee last fall.
Watch the video to hear reflections from community leaders about what it’s like to organize in rural communities, the valuable connections they made at the event, and why a different future is possible. As Mason County HOST Executive Director Kim Rinehardt says, “Power sharing is the important part of growing any community, urban or rural. Gatekeeping is something that is not going to work anymore and you have all the support in the world to power share out and invite all the goodness in.”
In addition to Kim, you will hear from the following leaders in the video:
- Natalia Duran Guevara, Jefferson County Immigrant Rights Advocates
- Steven Cole-Schwartz, Inatai Foundation
- Gregory Allan Datu Cendana, Can’t Stop! Won’t Stop! Consulting
- Keron Blair, New Georgia Project
- Jessica Molina, Grays Harbor RISE (Red de Inclusión, Solidaridad, y Empoderamiento)
- Klarissa Hightower, Southwest Washington Equity Coalition
- Kaos Lord, Rainbow Advocacy Inclusion Networking Services
- Patty Flores, Firelands Workers Action
- Nichole June Maher, Inatai Foundation
- Cameron Jones, Black Lives Matter Jefferson County
Thank you to our video team, Humxn Media, for their partnership on this project.
