In 2019, near-port Duwamish Valley community members collaborated with Port of Seattle staff to write and establish Resolution 3767, the Duwamish Valley Community Benefits Commitment (CBC). To implement the policy, the Port established the Duwamish Valley Community Equity Program. The program’s three-year work plan identified an immediate need for the Port to invest in anti-displacement measures that enable community members to thrive economically in place and slow the rapid gentrification of a historically neglected neighborhood.
Specifically, the community advised the Port to explore investing in a local “Port jobs and information resource center” that would directly connect local workers and small businesses to Port-related careers, contracting opportunities, capacity building trainings, and other economic development resources. With guidance from the Port’s diverse community advisory group, the Duwamish Valley Port Community Action Team (PCAT), the Port is now leasing a space in the heart of the area, the “Duwamish River Community Hub”, to support this vision. The PCAT serves as a leader in decision making about the Hub and its members represent the complex, multicultural, and socio-economic diversity of the community.
In accordance with Resolution 3767, the Port utilizes the Hub to deploy Port resources to support disproportionately impacted Duwamish Valley neighbors. It is the headquarters for program staff and the PCAT and activities at the Hub link residents with Port-related careers and business opportunities in the maritime, aviation, construction trades, tourism, and sustainability sectors. To date, the Hub has hosted over 200 events serving community members of various age groups, ethnicities, income-levels, and language abilities. The range of events have included: technical support for high school youth applying for the Port internship positions, cruise and maritime career fairs, construction trades recruitment fairs, trainings on green jobs and habitat stewardship, multi-lingual trainings in preparation for Port contracting processes, and many more.