GROWING TRANSIT COMMUNITIES PARTNERSHIP

GRANTS

The Growing Transit Communities Partnership, funded by a $5 Million grant from the federal Partnership for Sustainable Communities, came together from 2011-2013 to develop tools and resources to promote thriving and equitable transit communities in the central Puget Sound region. Social equity and public health were central to the Growing Transit Communities (GTC) three-year work program. Several organizations involved in issues related to social equity (such as the Regional Equity Network, Puget Sound Sage, and the Washington Low-Income Housing Alliance) and public health (such as the Seattle-King County and Tacoma-Pierce County health departments) had seats on the governing Oversight Committee of the GTC Partnership.

The culmination of the three-year program—the Growing Transit Communities Strategy—was informed by a research into existing community conditions and research on best practices. This work included the report, “Equity, Opportunity, and Sustainability in the Central Puget Sound Region” (PSRC and the Kirwan Institute, 2012, LINK) and Public Health Seattle-King County’s work to analyze health conditions and create healthy development principles for the Northgate station area. The Strategy itself includes as one of its three overarching goals, “Increase access to opportunity for existing and future community members in transit communities.” The Strategy outlines 24 high level strategies and over 200 implementation actions covering many areas related to social equity and public health, including actions to engage effectively with community stakeholders, build capacity for community engagement, assess community needs, and invest in environmental and public health. The Strategy includes an implementation typology that uses key community characteristics, including access to opportunity and displacement risk, to identify appropriate strategies to encourage equitable growth and community development.

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Since the end of the federal grant program, PSRC and other partners across the region are working to implement the many recommendations of the GTC Strategy. Over 35 governmental and nongovernmental organizations have signed on to a Regional Compact, indicating ongoing support for the GTC Strategies goals and a commitment to work toward implementation. Over the next year (2014-2015), each organization will develop a tailored implementation checklist that documents their progress toward implementation. At the PSRC, a new standing committee, the Regional TOD Advisory Committee, convenes the Regional Compact signatories and creates a path to provide guidance to regional policy-making boards. PSRC is also working to incorporate the Strategy into technical assistance and guidance documents for local jurisdictions and regional plans and performance measures at the regional level.

REGIONAL EQUITY NETWORK

The Puget Sound Regional Equity Network, staffed through a GTC-grant supported position at Impact Capital, served as one of two Steering Committees to the GTC Partnership and provided an equity lens to all of the GTC program work and deliverables. The GTC grant supported 54 small capacity-building grants to community-based nonprofit organizations through the Equity Grant Program, and helped fund the Puget Sound Equity Summit that brought together over 400 community members and other interested parties in November 2013.

The Regional Equity Network brings together community organizations and advocates for social equity as well as cities, housing authorities, counties, public health agencies, affordable housing advocates, educational institutions and development interests. As a resource, the equity network has put together a set of principles for equitable development which include developing safe and healthy communities, promote broader mobility and connectivity, to achieve full accessibility.

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The Regional Equity Network no longer has a funded position at Impact Capital because this was a GTC grant supported position and this grant is now closed. The Equity Network now is run by a volunteer steering committee that has been meeting to determine their next steps as a coalition and explore possible organizational and funding structures. Tony To, Executive Director of HomeSight, serves as the Chair of this committee.

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COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

The Growing Transit Communities Equity Grant Program was based on the belief that effective community engagement and local leadership in planning and decision-making are essential to achieving equitable transit communities. Through this grant program, investments in small capacity-building grants to community-based organizations provided resources to organize and increase participation of underrepresented communities to shape the future of transit station areas and surrounding neighborhoods.

The Growing Transit Communities Strategy includes a toolkit of 24 key strategies to promote equitable transit communities in the central Puget Sound region, including strategies related to community engagement and capacity building. The full GTC Strategy document recommends detailed actions that different partners across the region may take to make progress toward these goals, including the following recommendations for local governments:

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  Community Engagement: Continue to develop and apply equitable community engagement strategies as part of local comprehensive and station area planning and other decision-making affecting transit communities.
  
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  Capacity Building: Support community-based organizations through actions such as: convening community organizations, providing information about plans and projects in station areas, and offering staff support, meeting facilities, or funding for community organizations.
  

For more information, see the Community Engagement Tool on the PSRC website.

NEXT STRATEGIC ENTRY POINT: See PSRC’s Public Involvement page and the social equity page.


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OPPORTUNITY MAPPING

PSRC partnered with the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in Ohio to develop maps building off the Institute’s work on “Communities of Opportunity” across the country. The partnership with Kirwan has enabled a very deep and thorough regional look at equity and opportunity within the Puget Sound region.

The maps were developed by the Growing Transit Communities partnership and were discussed and created through a series of five focused meetings with stakeholders. For a summary of the comments and feedback received at each meeting, click here.

“Opportunity” is a situation or condition that places individuals in a position to be more likely to succeed or excel. Opportunity maps illustrate where opportunity rich communities exist, assess who has access to those neighborhoods, and help to understand what needs to be remedied in opportunity poor neighborhoods. These thematic maps show U.S. Census Tracts (2010 geography) shaded by level of access to opportunity (“levels of opportunity”: very low, low, moderate, high, and very high) as defined by a series of 20 indicators that represent five major categories of opportunity: education, economic health, housing and neighborhood quality, transportation/mobility, and health and environment.

NEXT STRATEGIC ENTRY POINT: This is a completed tool available for public use.


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COMMUNITIES PUTTING PREVENTON TO WORK (CPPW)

Public Health Seattle-King Count (PHSKC) received a Communities Putting Prevention to Work grant in 2010 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the CDC to address the leading causes of death in King County: obesity and tobacco. The PSRC applied for and received funding from PHSKC and this grant to develop a bicycle and pedestrian toolkit for local jurisdictions and to integrate health into the LRTP prioritization proposal. The project strengthened the partnership between PSRC and PHSKC by demonstrating that public health was able to offer resources in addition to consultation and technical assistance. The product from the CPPW grant to PSRC is the Active Communities Guidebook.

NEXT STRATEGIC ENTRY POINT: This is a completed tool available for public use.

COMMUNITY TRANSFORMATION GRANT (CTG)

The Planning for Whole Communities Toolkit is a web-based planning resource, including topical resource guides, helpful links, and best practices that local jurisdictions can use to promote health, equity, and sustainability in plans, programs, and policies. The Toolkit program is part of a two-year, $3.6 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to Seattle Children’s Hospital, Public Health – Seattle & King County with partnerships with the Healthy King County Coalition.

This project is in development by PSRC through a Community Transformation Grant (CTG) awarded to Seattle Children’s Hospital in 2012 and ending in September 2014. The toolkit was developed by working with regional partners from the grant focus area which includes the cities of Auburn, Burien, Des Moines, Kent, North Highline, Renton, SeaTac and Tukwila, and the neighborhoods of Beacon Hill, Georgetown, South Park and Southeast Seattle; however these tools and resources are available to jurisdictions throughout the region. Work conducted under the grant builds from the Communities Putting Prevention to Work grant noted above.

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The Planning for Whole Communities Toolkit is a completed project but it includes a strategy for keeping the tool updated. Here is an ongoing opportunity to provide suggestions and feedback.

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