Social Justice, Human Services and Sustainability

For the first time we have a critical mass of elected officials who recognize the urgent need for new revenue sources to resolve the ongoing deficit in the King County budget. Now, we must use this growing momentum to insist that a long term funding solution for community health and human services be identified and implemented to restore funding to an acceptable base level. This will be a significant public policy change that will allow for stable funding for urgently needed services across the county.

SHSC members play a vital role in coordinating action to educate the community and elected officials on City of Seattle policies that help people meet their basic human needs. In 2010, we have a new biennial budget cycle for 2011-12 AND a new City of Seattle mayor who seeks to connect with the Seattle residents like no other mayor has in current memory. This presents the opportunity for SHSC members to engage with the Mayor and Council in new ways that allow all of us to achieve the social justice goals we share.

With the widespread awareness that "we are all in this together" spreading across our communities we have the opportunity to open the dialogue of meeting basic human needs beyond simply a budget focus to a social justice focus which includes budget policies. We are in a key moment in time where there is the potential of bringing together business communities, environmental / sustainable communities, faith based communities, labor, neighborhoods and others to go beyond meeting basic human needs and to lay a foundation for more just communities and a better way of caring for each other.

For more information and to RSVP for this free talk, see http://sustainableseattle.org/Programs/emergingppi/STARs/classes/2010092...

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