• Community invited to join team guiding racial equity work

    Published May 4 2021

    Illustration of colorful silhouettes for Bellevue Centers Communities of Color Initiative

    City mobilizing community-led coordinating team to advance newly adopted Bellevue Centers Communities of Color Initiative 

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    The City of Bellevue is inviting diverse community members to apply for an active role in promoting racial equity in the city and collaboratively creating solutions that empower communities of color through a recently adopted initiative. 

    In January, the City Council approved the Bellevue Centers Communities of Color Initiative, a community-led program to advance racial equity, recognize and eliminate systemic barriers to civic participation, and build trust and awareness across the city’s diverse population. A key part of the initiative is the Communities of Color Coordinating (CCC) team. This community-led team will direct the approaches and process to identify goals, priorities and work outlined in the Bellevue Centers Communities of Color Initiative.

    Bellevue is now accepting applications from community members to be a part of the CCC team, which will be comprised of 11 community members who live or work in Bellevue representing Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian and Pacific Islander communities. Printable applications that must be mailed in are also available in English, Español, 中文, 한국어, Pусский and Tiếng Việt. In partnership with the city, the CCC team will lead and guide a three-tiered approach to advancing equity in the city over a period of three years by: 

    1. developing trust and awareness through dialogue; 
    2. building racial literacy and skills through education and training; and 
    3. co-creating recommendations for actions that will advance racial equity in our community.

    More information about the CCC team and the Bellevue Centers Communities of Color Initiative will be available at three informational sessions hosted virtually via Zoom:

    Session 1: Tuesday, May 11, 4-5 p.m.
    Session 2: Thursday, May 13, 6-7 p.m.
    Session 3: Saturday, May 15, 12:30-1:30 p.m.

    Registration is required for the information sessions. A flyer for the sessions is available in English, español, 中文, 한국어, Pусский and Tiếng Việt. A dedicated web page contains more information about the initiative and will contain periodic program updates.

    The CCC team application will be open through Sunday, May 16. For more information or questions, please email diversity@bellevuewa.gov.