“The Founder Is the Community” – COO Celebrates 10 Years of Building Community Power
Communities of Opportunity (COO) celebrated our anniversary – and 10 years of community power – this fall. Community partners, COO’s Advisory Board/Governance Group (GG), regional funders, elected officials, COO staff past and present, and friends gathered on September 19 at TAF Bethaday in White Center for an evening of music, performances, food, gratitude, and connection.
Throughout the evening, partners and Governance Group members shared thoughts about COO’s past, present and future.
Roxana Pardo Garcia hosted the event, which was co-produced by her company, La Roxay Productions.
COO director Elsa Batres-Boni explained why we were there. “This space should feel like your home,” she said, “like where you belong.”
Roxana Pardo Garcia, who served as event host, welcoming the guests.
Dancers from the Amarak Khmer Dance Group performing at the beginning of the event.
Elsa Batres-Boni sets the stage for an evening of food, music, celebration, and connection.
COO’s three strategy leads José Camacho Martinez (Community Partnerships), Whitney Johnson (Learning Community) and Shannon Small (Systems and Policy Change) recognized some of COO’s community partners and partnerships, and former staff and leadership – the people and organizations across the County who are building community power.
Katie Russell and Pastor Lina Thompson from the Burien Collaborative were among the many partners who helped celebrate.
A Supportive Community for All and Snoqualmie Valley Human Services Coalition colleagues Lena Bernal, Ari Soriano, Taylor Kelley, Malia Pownall, Brenda Freeman, and Jody Miesel
Christine Tang, Amy Huang, Leslie Stone, and Bonnie Wang
Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, Elsa Batres-Boni, Sili Savusa
A collage from our photo booth. Clockwise, from top left: Risho Sapano; Taylor Kelley, Jody Miesel, and Robin Haguewood; Jamalia Jones and Jessica Tollenaar-Cafferty; County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda (center) with staff Christopher Lampkin and Marilyn Miquel; Natorius Ezell and Najmah Messiah; and Matias Valenzuela, Sili Savusa, and Elsa Batres-Boni.
An array of the fun celebratory photobooth photos, taken by Kerry Wade. See more in our anniversary album.
In the tribute segment of the evening, COO invited three speakers representing COO past, present, and future to come forward. Each speaker from the community was joined by COO Governance Group members and other COO leaders.
COO, The Beginning – “The Founder Is the Community”
COO co-founder Sili Savusa and Matias Valenzuela, our COO Sponsor from Public Health, show their excitement for 10 years as they enter the gathering.
Sili Savusa talks about the origins of COO and the strength of our model.
The first speaker, Sili Savusa, has been in leadership within COO since the initiative’s beginning. Sili is former executive director of White Center Community Development Association (WCCDA), and is now executive director of PICA-WA; she’s also a long-standing COO Advisory Board/Governance Group member. Sili says she gets called a founder of COO, but to her, “The founder is the community.”
“Has COO been perfect? Hell no. But it is a model I would lift up to other funders, other government agencies, other systems,” Sili said. “You need to make sure community is in the driver’s seat of things you want to change.”
The biggest thing is to believe, Sili said, is that “when communities are coming to you with the solutions based on their lived experience, you’re watching the research happening right before your eyes.”
Standing up with Sili were fellow long-standing Advisory Board/Governance Group members and COO sponsors Michael Brown (Seattle Foundation, Civic Commons) and Matias Valenzuela (Public Health – Seattle & King County).
COO Present – Where We Are
Representing current funded community partners, Najmah Messiah of Build 2 Lead talked about some of their COO-supported work. Highlights include:
Build 2 Lead’s third annual Melanin and Medicine conference in February 2025.
The eight different community-based listening sessions they hosted this year about the healthcare system, to help develop policy recommendations that they will share in early 2025.
Blishda Lacet and Sally Gillis stood up with Najmah. Blishda is a public health leader within King County, and former strategy lead and interim Director for COO; Sally until recently was a Seattle Foundation staff lead for COO.
Najmah Messiah talks about some of the work that COO’s investment supports, with former COO staff and initiative strategy lead Blishda Lacet (at right) and Sally Gillis (not pictured).
Blishda Lacet joins Najmah Messiah for the COO Present part of the reflections.
COO Future – “We’re Going to Be Alright”
Aaron Garcia of White Center CDA, who joined the Governance Group this year, remembered starting at the CDA seven years ago as a “snot-nosed little kid from White Center” with big ideas. After years of community collaboration, he said, “because of COO’s investment seven years ago, we just broke ground on 76 units of housing.” The White Center HUB will open next year as a place of learning, sharing, and quality homes for working families.
Aaron Garcia talks about the future of COO while Kelsey Mesher, Shannon Small, and Jessica Tollenaar-Cafferty stand up with him.
Jessica Tollenaar Cafferty (left) and Jamalia Jones (right), Best Starts co-leaders, were among those joining Aaron during his remarks.
Jamalia Jones, Best Start co-leader, joins Aaron for his remarks.
Aaron said he doesn’t have a crystal ball and “I don’t know whatever the next 10, 20, 50 years is going to be, but if it looks like this (gesturing around the room) we’re going to be alright.”
“I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved, and inspired by what we can accomplish in the future,” he said.
Standing up with Aaron were Kelsey Mesher and Shannon Small of the Seattle Foundation, and Best Starts for Kids co-leads Jamalia Jones and Jessica Tollenaar-Cafferty, representing as sponsors for COO. Our collective goal is to build a future where every child, family and community can access the resources they need to thrive.
Update, December 30: “We are so grateful for the beautiful work taking place each day through Communities of Opportunity and our partners,” Jamalia and Jessica said, “and looking forward to celebrating more good work ahead.” Read what else they had to say about the anniversary in their Best Starts for Kids blog post.
Elsa presenting a commemorative tree to honor Michael Brown. GG members Ubax Gardheere and Cilia Jurdy look on.
Honoring the Role of Others
Elsa called the Governance Group members to the front of the room to share a special tribute to Michael Brown of the Seattle Foundation, our sponsor. Elsa said a tree would be planted in his honor at the White Center HUB.
Elsa also thanked longtime GG members and Seattle Foundation leaders Sally Gillis and Kris Hermanns for their service as they prepared to leave the Foundation and step down from the Governance Group. Kris is below left; Sally is in the below right photo, in the center.
Elsa and 2024 GG members Ubax Gardheere, Cilia Jurdy, Bilan Aden, Yordanos Teferi, Sandhya Nakasi, Dae Shogren, Aaron Garcia, Sally Gillis, Gloria Ramirez, Michael Seiwerath, Matias Valenzuela, Jackie Vaughn
Before the evening closed with more dancing, Roxana invited folks to do shout-outs for who they appreciate. One by one, a steady stream of people stood up around the room to share appreciation.
They praised our community partners, our GG members past and present, our staff, past COO leaders, our capacity building consultants, and more. Partners shared their excitement for their community development projects underway, such as affordable housing and an international public market. Others, as Roxana had suggested, thanked our ancestors – the people who brought us into this space.
Below, first row, left-right: Dan Bernard and José Camacho Martinez do a shout-out to the Community Partnerships partners in attendance; Sandy Centeno recognizes the Burien Collaborative; Whitney Johnson thanks COO colleagues who contribute to partner success, including Roxana Chen on the evaluation team and former team members Kalayaan Domingo and Cristina Gonzalez.
Above, left-right: Kalayaan Domingo, who previously led the Learning Community strategy, thanks Sarah Tran, longtime capacity building consultant to the Learning Community; Bilan Aden of African Community Housing and Development thanks COO for funding that enabled them to build affordable housing through Seattle’s Equitable Development Initiative, and also recognizes Yordanos Teferi, her GG colleague, for collaborating; Blishda Lacet thanks Marguerite Ro (far right), who she said was instrumental in moving COO forward.
Elsa closed with this thought: “We may not all have power yet, but we are in spaces of influence. And I will take that space. And I invite you to come with me.”
The evening concluded as musicians from Seattle Fandango Project got people on their feet and included them in a cultural participatory dance.
What You Can Do:
Watch the new anniversary video for a 2-minute overview.
Visit our photo gallery to see hundreds more images from the festivities.
Read the remarks from Best Starts for Kids co-leads Jamalia Jones and Jessica Tollenaar-Cafferty.
Explore COO’s impact in our first 10 years, in our evaluation reports; summary partner impact 1-pagers that were produced for the first phase of COO; the peer-reviewed document that gave an overview of COO’s origin story by Kirsten Wysen; and the Collective Impact presentation and report from our former director Andrea Akita.
As Aaron noted, the COO-BSK Advisory Board/Governance Group is actively recruiting new members. If you’re interested, please see our Governance Group page for details or contact COO.
Join our mailing list to get regular updates about Learning Community opportunities, Workforce Development opportunities, and COO and partner news.
Contact Elsa Batres-Boni if you work in government or philanthropy and are interested in exploring COO’s model of community-government-philanthropy partnership.
Photo Credits (other than the photobooth): Kelly Vang Photography
Video Credit: Original Studios
Thank you to Kerry Wade for running the photobooth.