BUILDING POWER IN EVERY CORNER OF WASHINGTON
Power is the strength to turn vision into reality. At Inatai, we believe the most important kind of power is community power: The ability for people to achieve a collective purpose and realize a shared vision for a more equitable, racially just future. Introducing Power Builders, a series featuring leaders from all over Washington state whose organizations and communities are planting the seeds for long-term, transformative change.
Opening the door for new connections
Meet Power Builders Ginger Ewing, Karen Morrison, and Santana Rabang. Based in Spokane, Clark, and Whatcom counties, their work is facilitating different avenues for their communities to learn more about each other’s experiences and through that understanding build coalitions for community power.
Ginger Ewing
Terrain
Spokane is ripe for coalition building, says Ginger Ewing of Terrain, and she looks forward to a future when artists really step into their power. Terrain believes that a more just and vibrant Spokane is possible through creativity, economic opportunity, and the collective action of everyone who creates. In addition to operating an art gallery and running programs, Ginger says the Terrain’s role is to break down silos and bring everyone together.
Karen Morrison
Odyssey World International Education Services
Karen Morrison likes to describe her community in the greater Vancouver area as a multicultural mosaic, “where every piece has its perfect place to make a complete picture.” Karen is the founder of Odyssey World International Services, which dreams about a community that is safe, inclusive, and compassionate while working to empower marginalized individuals to forge equitable opportunities.
Santana Rabang
Children of the Setting Sun Productions
Children of the Setting Sun Productions in Whatcom County builds community power by “opening that door and welcoming people in,” says Sanatana Rabang. The storytelling organization is Native-led and operates with Indigenous values, but it’s also, as Santana describes it, “about us as people of the world.”
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ALL STORIES
Ginger Ewing
Terrain
Ginger Ewing is breaking down silos and bringing the Spokane community together for coalition building.
Karen Morrison
Odyssey World International Education Services
Karen Morrison has a dream for her community that is safe, inclusive, and compassionate.
Santana Rabang
Children of the Setting Sun Productions
Satana Rabang is opening doors to understanding through storytelling with Indigenous values.
SAM LEE
Asians for Collective Liberation
Sam Lee shares how the work of their organizations is building a political home for Asians in Spokane.
PATRICK WOO-CHING
Voices of Pacific Island Nations
Patrick Woo-Ching says his community’s future power bearers are the young people he works with in Bremerton.
NORMA HERNANDEZ
The Health Center
Norma Hernandez believes when young people have access to care that supports their well-being, they and their families are in a better position to thrive in the Walla Walla Valley.
KIM RINEHARDT
Mason County HOST Program
Visit with Kim Rinehardt as she shows us around Shelton and what equity and racial justice work looks like for her organization.
JENNYFER MESA
Latinos en Spokane
Sometimes home can be somewhere thousands of miles away or the community you must create yourself. Jennyfer Mesa shares with us what community power-building looks like in Eastern Washington.
PAUL TABAYOYON
APIC-Yakima
In our collective work for racial equity and justice, we cannot forget who fought before us. Paul Tabayoyon connects Filipino history in the Yakima Valley to the work his organization is doing there today.