“Riverton Encampment Containment and Resolution(RECR)” Project – Washington State

Riverton Church Stabilization Project- Stabilizing unsheltered residents of the Riverton Church Encampment at Tukwila Organization: Save The Kids  Project Duration: 6 months Project Summary: RECR aims to organize trauma & healing workshops, provide conflict resolution and community building trainings, holding events including dances and live performances by local artists, field trips to & internships with an art gallery, enroll participants in Peer services & connect to housing navigators, provide organic security (maintaining a presence and engaging in conflict deescalation), provide peer case management, Support organic leadership development, Canvass and classifying organic skill sets & trades, Create a stipend program for employing encampment residents and workers, establish a system for avoiding losing track of/misplacing participants and instituting it.

Our project will focus on three key areas: Displacement reduction. Trauma mitigation. Reintegration. Community Workshops and Events: Hosting workshops on dealing with trauma, nonviolent communication, conflict de-escalation, addiction, surviving conflict, domestic violence, and sexual assault, healing through art, and music development. Organizing art internships involving local art galleries and artists. Community Monitoring: Conducting regular surveys of the encampment using novel technology and methods. Engaging residents to collect data. Project Objectives: Displacement Reduction: decrease encampment residency by 80% within 5 months. Attract and support job retraining and personal development among residents. Educate and Engage: Conduct 12 workshops over 4 months, reaching 250 participants. Host weekly community events (concerts, field trips, cultural immersion experiences). Sustainability: Develop a long-term engagement plan for after-placement stabilization. Foster community organization and stewardship. Budget Summary: subcontract outreach team More We Love: $7,762 per person processed into alternative housing and stabilized: Tools and equipment: $5,000 Community Engagement: Workshop materials: $3,000 Event logistics: $7,000 Monitoring and Reporting: Data collection tools: $12,000 Project report preparation: subcontractor Lucas Matthews Consulting $5,000 Expected Outcomes: Displacement Reduction: decrease current encampment population by 80%. Trauma mitigation: provision of opportunity for 100% of current encampment residents to participate in trauma and healing workshops and attach to trauma informed, culturally appropriate support networks. Reintegration: Active participation in workshops and events. Sense of ownership over community. Placement into housing for 100% of funded engagements and attach to stabilization case management. Sustainable Impact: Long-term maintenance plan implemented. Ongoing community involvement. Conclusion: RECR aligns with our organization’s mission to promote transformative justice and critical reintegration services. We are committed to creating lasting positive change in our community. With this contract, we can transform Riverton encampment spaces back into thriving church properties.

Contact Information

Maurece Graham-Bey, Coordinator
253-367-9598

Coordinating Committee Members

Leila Culberson, a Pacific Northwest native, finds joy in the sunshine and outdoor activities, particularly running. With a strong foundation of life experience and college education, Leila has cultivated a diverse set of skills and interests. Notably, she served as the operations manager for six chiropractic clinics, where she honed her organizational and leadership abilities. Currently, Leila is actively engaged in outreach work with the unhoused community, collaborating with teams to provide support in their paths toward trauma recovery and healing. Additionally, she dedicates her time and energy to various community volunteer jobs, furthering her commitment to housing and stabilizing those living unsheltered. Leila’s passion for community involvement, combined with her professional expertise, shapes her into a compassionate and driven individual.

Ruby Romero is a lifelong Seattleite and only child to her parents. Ruby spent her youth working in the family restaurant and seeing live music. Ruby is an active community member, working with the Punk Rock Flea Market and holds the operations manager position for Nii Modo, a recipient of the Seattle ReStored program located on 3rd & Union. In 2021, Ms Romero was hired as a Policy Analyst and liason for an innovative grassroots organization that aims to connect systems, prevent housing loss, and reduce unsheltered homelessness. In March, she joined the KCRHA as a member of the System Performance Committee and later elected to serve on the CoC Board/Advisory Committee as well. Ms. Romero sees hope in a response system that centers those with lived experience and hopes to provide perspective from hers- as she has survived domestic violence, has lived unsheltered, in motels, in RVs, and in cars. She also has first hand experience with the trauma of the eviction process, losing loved ones to substance abuse, individuals in a mental health crisis, housing instability, foster care, and, as a street musician-she is constantly engaging with those living on the street. Ruby believes in equity and remains a strong ally for the LGBTQIA2S+, BIPOC, and underserved communities and advocates against the current legislative war on queer youth, women’s bodies, and those experiencing homelessness.

Maurece Graham-Bey is multilingual and has an educational background in criminal Justice, English, finance, Christian counseling, and alcohol & drug treatment. He is a son, brother, uncle, nephew and friend to people who deserve better than what they receive from our dysfunctional system. Over the past twenty-five years since his encounter with homelessness and the criminal justice system as a youth he has become a leadership development mentor, non-violent communication and alternative to violence training facilitator, trauma & healing circle lead, Restorative living lead practitioner, Peer recovery coach, Housing navigator and advocate, and organizer for transformative justice. He currently resides in Seattle and sits on the boards of the Alternatives to Violence Project, Friends for a nonviolent world, The More We Love foundation, and Projects for a Civil Society. He is currently national director of environmental justice and critical reintegration services with Save The Kids.

Ms. Mercy Dizon of the Bulaceño and Kapampangan peoples from the Philippine Islands is a
second generation sex worker, her mother was a Madame at a brothel in Subic Bay until her
father paid her marriage fee. Groomed with narcotic restraints and trafficked for sex at the age
of 14 out of the states of Washington, Oregon, and Nevada. Surviving in the commercial sex
trade for ten years after that. She is a survivor of much violence: Colonization, Domestic
Violence, Assault, Kidnapping, Sexual Assault, Gang Based Violence, Human Trafficking, and
as an indigenous transgender woman living in America. Currently, she serves as Chief Matriarch
and founder of 501(c)3 SWATCH – Trans Palace. Diligently working to build representation and
healing for transgender survivors and sex workers. Proud Bachelors of Arts in Indigenous
Studies graduate from the Native Pathways Program of the Evergreen State College.
Consultant with the Department of Homeland Security, National Human Trafficking Technical
Assistance Center, and on the Shared Hope International JuST Council. Previously, with the
King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office as an Advocate for Vulnerable Populations (Human
Trafficking, Elder Abuse, and Hate Crimes), Programs Manager for New Avenues for Youth Q
Center, Programs Director of Innovations Human Trafficking Collaborative. She has built & lead
direct services from the ground up, fundraising 550K in one year, responding to MMIP at the
intersections of trafficking, and built identification and response protocols for tribal nations
across Turtle Island. Her commitment to public service only surpassed by the arches of her
smile, she has also served on the City of Seattle Human Rights Commission as Founder of the
Human Trafficking Taskforce, Kitsap County Human Rights Commission, and in an advisory role
to the Washington Supreme Courts Gender and Justice Commission.

Ferra Nope is a (com)passionate, outreach-oriented service worker in every community where she lands. She’s engaged in outreach work with victims/survivors of intimate partner violence, sexual assault, poverty, criminalization, incarceration, and gendered violence in schools, jails, prisons, hospitals, and streets from the midwest to the west coast. They graduated with a degree in sociology from Brigham Young University, where they learned to use critical analysis of data and engage political praxis to engage in some of their community’s most painful places. She works with local mutual aid groups to organize assistance where she sees the most need. Pulled to King County by the relative abundance of resources and legislation to support harm reduction and housing first strategies, Ferra has aligned her community engagement with these approaches and is actively exploring further involvement in autonomous, equitable methods to address community needs.