OVERVIEW
The EcoDistrict is a community-driven initiative dedicated to improving resiliency, equity, and vibrancy in Seattle neighborhoods.
The EcoDistrict believes that a healthy community is defined by impact, accountability, and liberation. We partner with the local community to test and deploy innovative solutions that address the city’s most pressing sustainability challenges. By looking to cities around the globe for inventive approaches, we center Seattle’s neighborhood development around long-term health for people and the planet.
Our Story
Founded in 2011 by Community Roots Housing, the EcoDistrict began to address dramatic growth and displacement in Seattle by ensuring community priorities were reflected in significant developments changing the neighborhood. For over a decade, Community Roots Housing has served as an incubator for the bold, ambitious work of the EcoDistrict, including programmatic successes such as the Capitol Hill Renter Initiative and the resulting Seattle Renter’s Commission, advocacy for the passage of Mandatory Housing Affordability, an affordable housing transit pass pilot, the creation of the Lowell School-Based Health Center and REVIVAL Market Street pop-ups.
In 2023, the EcoDistrict joined the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, bringing expertise in community engagement, research, advocacy, and public life planning for ULMS to build upon. Centered initially on work in Capitol Hill, the merger with ULMS allowed the EcoDistrict to expand its scope to serve as a test lab for innovative, community-led solutions to neighborhood priorities in the Greater Seattle area.
Just Communities
EcoDistricts.org is a national organization advancing a new model of urban development to empower just, sustainable, and resilient neighborhoods. In 2021, the Capitol Hill EcoDistrict became the first EcoDistrict to be certified in the Pacific Northwest. In 2022, EcoDistricts.org was acquired by the Partnership for Southern Equity (PSE). This Atlanta-based nonprofit promotes racial equity and shared prosperity in the American South. PSE’s commitment to setting a national “Just Growth” agenda has laid the groundwork for the collaboration of Capitol Hill EcoDistrict and ULMS.
PROGRAMS
Lowell Elementary Food Hub
Seattle Public School's First On-Campus Community Food Hub
Lowell Elementary School, situated in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, serves as the designated elementary school for numerous downtown homeless shelters and many low-income families. The school’s demographic faces significant challenges, with a disproportionately high population of homeless and low-income students experiencing hardships, including inconsistent access to food.
In 2023, with grant support from the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle’s EcoDistrict opened the first food pantry housed within a Seattle Public School. The Food Hub provides over 420 students and families with access to healthy, fresh, frozen, shelf-stable, culturally relevant, and easily accessible food at no cost to families.
- 50% of families are feeding a household of four or more people
- 92% of families are most in need of fresh fruit and vegetables
- 80% of students qualify for free and reduced lunch
- 29% of students are unhoused
This project was made possible with Support from the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods Food Equity Fund.
NEXT EVENT
PROGRAMS
REVIVAL Market Streets
Breathing New Life Into Streets That Connect Us
About REVIVAL
REVIVAL Market Street is a fresh approach to outdoor markets that aims to repair some of the harm caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the endemic inequities it revealed. It’s an opportunity to support small businesses, reclaim small sections of blighted city streets, and revive our community in a way that’s both productive and inclusive.
Our Approach
Our outdoor markets aim to showcase and support local Black, Brown, Indigenous, and LGBTQ+ businesses without traditional storefront locations. REVIVAL markets feature representation from local artists, artisans, makers, vendors, and community organizations throughout the Seattle area. REVIVAL places a special emphasis on alleviating burdens for small businesses by providing participation stipends, professional photography, promoted marketing, technical assistance, and event rentals to each vendor.
With each REVIVAL Market Street Pop-up, we rethink physical space for the market, including brainstorming ways to increase foot traffic and cause people to linger in the space so that with each market, a once desolate streetscape will help propel the EcoDistrict’s larger vision for urban living.
Sponsors
REVIVAL Market Streets is Made possible with generous support from:
Seattle office of economic development, Washington Statre Department of commerce, amazon, COmpass construction, INATAI foundation, mithun, KEXP & ARTE NOIR