The Institute for Community Leadership

The Protect and Promote Democracy Summer Journey is in full swing at the Institute for Community Leadership!

An inter-generational, inter-racial cohort of students working with ICL staff to produce videos and books, and meeting with community organizations.

Students are working to develop a Leadership Poetry Workbook to encourage leadership through writing and self-transformation in endeavoring to protecting and promoting democracy.

Yesterday our nation witnessed the first of two presidential debates for the 2024 Elections. We must ask now, where do we go from here?

It is our responsibility now more than ever to evaluate the candidates beyond their performance and ask ourselves what steps will we take to give this nation a fighting chance at preserving and protecting our democracy. Dr. King notes we are faced with a decision to choose how the results of this upcoming election will determine the state of our nation in 2024 and beyond. Starting now, let's mobilize our communities to get educated, informed, and ready for the polls in November. Ensure democracy thrives: bring two people to the polls with you!

As the debates continue, we must recognize we are not caught between the decision of two candidates, we are faced with the decision of being on the side of democracy or moving further away from our humanity. Which side are you on?

"You Know Who to Vote For" On October 27, 1964, one week before the November 3rd Presidential election, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. calls upon his listeners to vote:"You know who to vote…

The Institute for Community Leadership completes another weekly series of leadership seminars on Civil and Human Rights led by Dr. Clayborne Carson, Dr. Mira Foster and staff from the World House Project.

Nominate high school youths to participate in ICL's upcoming series which will begin late August 2024 and runs through early June 2025.

Participating students are eligible for a certificate of completion from ICL.

View our brochure below for more info!

“We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” -Chief Justice Earl Warren, Brown v Board of Education

The Institute for Community Leadership and the Barbara Lee and Elihu Harris Lecture Series co-presented Dr. Cindy Acker’s powerful play, “Words that Made the Difference: Brown v Board of Education” on the 70th anniversary of the unanimous Supreme Court decision.

Pictured are ICL students and staff hosting guests to the play.

Mira Foster
Karen Bohlke
Mabel Minney
Janet Muldrow
Fynn Manohchompoo

“The power of reasoning is (present in every child). The task of education is to provide occasions whereby this power may be continually nourished. All learning, all arts, all good qualities are latent in each person, like seeds. Because we cannot see the seed, we have no right to say that it is not there.” -Vinoba Bhave

WA Recreation and Conservation Office Statewide Grant Manager, Beth Auerbach, accompanies ICL Outdoor Learning Ambassadors as they lead 3rd grade students from Mr. Ben Rowley’s Crestwood Elementary School class to together experience and encounter nature through their five senses. Through in*******al, intergenerational outdoor education, students and adults transform themselves. Leaving the digital life indoors, students ask questions, examine moss, locate ant hills, identify tree species, hear bird sounds, all the while understanding themselves better in the process.

Kent School District
Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI)
Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office
Beth Auerbach
Muckleshoot Indian Tribe
Tulalip News
Quinault Indian Nation - Environmental Defense
Crestwood Elementary
Best Starts for Kids
City of Covington, WA - Government
City of Kent Government

“In a real sense all life is inter-related. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be." Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Students from the Institute for Community Leadership partner with King County Elections to register new voters following a special USCIS Naturalization Ceremony featuring U.S. Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland and her powerful keynote address promoting the value intercultural civic participation.

Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland
King County Elections
Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI)
Best Starts for Kids
Seattle Foundation
Kent School District
Tacoma Public Schools
Naheed Gina Aaftaab
KC Jung

THANK YOU King County Council Chair Dave Upthegrove!! The Institute for Community Leadership gratefully express our gratitude to Council Chair Upthegrove and the Council District 5 team for their generous contribution of much-needed van to transport young people and families through the King County Retired Metro Passenger Van Program. The contribution aids the next generation in understanding the importance of their own role in helping to shape their own lives, the nation and the world. We appreciate you!!

Pictured here -- Shaunice Wilson, Policy Advisor & Community Liaison for Councilmember Upthegrove and District 5, visits with Institute for Community Leadership staff and students to discuss our collective efforts to construct community, create peace, and strengthen democracy.

Councilmember Dave Upthegrove
Shaunice Wilson

“I believe that our children can become the healing agents for our national and world transformation and that protecting children is the moral litmus test of our humanity and the overarching moral challenge in our nation and world.” -Marian Wright Edleman

ICL high school Outdoor Learning Ambassadors join 4th grade students from Ms. Suzie Walsh’s Crestwood Elementary School class in an immersive nature experience, learning to test the water quality of salmon-bearing Little Soos Creek and its importance for the salmon life-cycle. Through inter-racial, inter-generational water and salmon stewardship, students of all ages transform themselves. Through this personal transformation, each student journeys home with a tree sapling to plant, participating in the process of protecting and preserving nature, culture, and humanity.

Kent School District
Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI)
Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office
Muckleshoot Indian Tribe
Tulalip News
Quinault Indian Nation - Environmental Defense
Crestwood Elementary
Best Starts for Kids
City of Covington, WA - Government
City of Kent Government

“It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

ICL KSD high school Outdoor Learning Ambassadors teach 3rd grade students from Ms. Heather Anderson’s Crestwood Elementary School class to together experience and encounter nature through their five senses, accompanied by Mrs. Julie Robertson and Mrs. Lynne Deskins. Through in*******al, intergenerational outdoor education, students and adults transform themselves. Leaving the digital life indoors, students explore plant, animal and water life, understanding themselves better in the process.

Kent School District
Lynne Deskins
Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI)
Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office
Muckleshoot Indian Tribe
Tulalip News
Quinault Indian Nation - Environmental Defense
Crestwood Elementary
Best Starts for Kids
City of Covington, WA - Government
City of Kent Government

The Institute for Community Leadership is a contributor to environmental protection and advocacy work on the Little Soos Creek through its partnership with WRIA9 (The Green/Duwamish and Central Puget Sound Watershed).

ICL appears in WRIA9's seasonal newsletter for this important work on environmental justice: https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/WAKING/bulletins/391a317

Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office

“Without salmon we will not have people; without a healthy Puget Sound we will not have healthy communities; without a vibrant natural resource base we will not have a vibrant economic base. We need to understand these connections and think about the legacy we will be leaving to future generations.” -Billy Frank Jr.

ICL KSD high school Outdoor Learning Ambassadors teach 4th grade students from Ms. Miranda Inman’s Crestwood Elementary School class to together test the water quality of salmon-bearing Little Soos Creek and its importance for the salmon life-cycle. Through inter-racial, inter-generational water and salmon stewardship, students of all ages transform themselves. From creek bed to forest paths, students leave electronics behind and jump hand and feet first into water, wetlands, and forest humus.

Kent School District
Miranda Inman
Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI)
Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office
Muckleshoot Indian Tribe
Tulalip News
Quinault Indian Nation - Environmental Defense
Crestwood Elementary
Best Starts for Kids
City of Covington, WA - Government
City of Kent Government

Today, March 22, is World Water Day, with this year's theme being "Water for Peace".

The UN notes that "Water can create peace or spark conflict. When water is scarce or polluted, or when people have unequal, or no access, tensions can rise between communities and countries.

More than 3 billion people worldwide depend on water that crosses national borders. Yet, only 24 countries have cooperation agreements for all their shared water.

As climate change impacts increase, and populations grow, there is an urgent need, within and between countries, to unite around protecting and conserving our most precious resource.

Public health and prosperity, food and energy systems, economic productivity and environmental integrity all rely on a well-functioning and equitably managed water cycle."

Read more here: https://www.unesco.org/en/days/world-water

"Everybody can be great..." Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Institute for Community Leadership welcomes a visit in February by the City of Kent Human Services Coordinator Lori Guilfoyle and a visit in March by the City of Covington Human Services Supervisor Julie Johnston, along with Covington Human Services Commission members Darius Tari and Brian Chandler. ICL staff shares current curriculum and events with the visitors.

City of Kent Government
City of Covington, WA - Government

Institute for Community Leadership students and staff engage in weekly dialogue on Human Rights and Civil Rights with iconic Martin Luther King scholar and Stanford University professor emeritus Dr. Clayborne Carson. Students learn the history, development, and impact of human and civil rights luminaries from Dr. Carson who is also the Founder and Director of the World House Project.

“My life is the cause for democracy, and I am linked to everybody else in that cause. I just cannot think of me.” Glenys Kinnock, as quoted by Rev. Dr. Gregory Christopher in his retirement address.

The Institute for Community Leadership offers our gratitude to Rev. Dr. Gregory Christopher and First Lady Evelyn Christopher for your long-term leadership in the work for justice, for community unity, and for a stronger democracy. ICL was honored to participate as a co-sponsor of the Appreciation and Retirement Gala in honor of Dr. and Mrs. Christopher.

Malando Redeemer
Mayor Victoria Woodards
Speaker Laurie Jinkins
Tacoma Ministerial Alliance
Bishop Lawrence White

"Much of the satisfying work of life begins as an experiment; no experiment is ever quite a failure." -Alice Walker

In the outdoor learning process Institute for Community Leadership high school students receive water quality tests training on the ICL section of the Little Soos Creek in preparation to teach elementary school students.

Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI)
Kent School District
Tacoma Public Schools
Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office
Best Starts for Kids
Seattle Foundation

In a leadership seminar with City of Tacoma Public Works Director ICL students learn to see every obstacle as another element to leadership. They recognize that learning by courage and the need to drive our own vehicle are steps toward becoming a leader. They are aware that it takes work for the possibility of changing others’ perceptions of us, and perhaps most prominent – leaders should leave bread crumbs (examples) as they go through life so that those who follow in their footsteps might have the opportunity to make their own bread.

Institute students join City of Tacoma Director of Public Works, Ramiro Chavez, in an engaging seminar on leadership.

Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI)
Tacoma Public Schools
Kent School District
Best Starts for Kids
Seattle Foundation
Joseph Franco

"When we vote, we decide the direction we, individually, want our nation to take. When we get others to vote - our friends, families, students, colleagues - we utilize our cultural and political power, bringing human values to the forefront of our vision." -Jayda Gray

Institute for Community Leadership student Jayda Gray giving keynote speech at the 2024 King County Martin Luther King Day celebration at Benaroya Hall.

View livestream here: https://vimeo.com/899269213
View program here: https://www.canva.com/design/DAFXTnMiiOI/iD_uHS6MP3fyBevzTWSUjQ/view?utm_content=DAFXTnMiiOI&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=publishsharelink

Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI)
King County, Washington - Government
Dow Constantine, King County Executive
Councilmember Dave Upthegrove
John Arthur Wilson
Best Starts for Kids
Kent School District
Tacoma Public Schools
Panera
King County Elections
Naheed Gina Aaftaab
Seattle Foundation
Marcia Tate Arunga
Stacey McQuade-Eger

"Racism is a tenacious evil, but it is not immutable." -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Institute for Community Leadership students and staff attend King County's 2024 Martin Luther King Day celebration at Benaroya Hall with ICL student Jayda Gray giving the keynote speech.

Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI)
King County, Washington - Government
Dow Constantine, King County Executive
Councilmember Dave Upthegrove
John Arthur Wilson
Best Starts for Kids
Kent School District
Tacoma Public Schools
Panera
King County Elections
Naheed Gina Aaftaab
Seattle Foundation
Marcia Tate Arunga
Stacey McQuade-Eger

“In-Depth Dr. King Academy” – Institute for Community Leadership students and staff studying and practicing the principals of nonviolence. An inter-generational, in*******al in-depth study of Dr. King’s principals and how to apply them to our own lives.

Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI)
Best Starts for Kids
Kent School District
Tacoma Public Schools
Panera

"The call for intelligence is a call for open-mindedness, sound judgment, and love for truth. It is a call for [people] to rise above the stagnation of close-mindedness and the paralysis of gullibility." - Dr. Martin Luther King

At ICL's annual Dr. King Life and Legacy academy, students learn to develop a blue print for life, leadership as action, and confronting fears.

Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI)
Best Starts for Kids
Tacoma Public Schools
Kent School District
Panera
Seattle Foundation
King County Elections

"We must use time creatively, in knowledge that the time is always right to do right." -Martin Luther King, Jr.

ICL volunteers gather to package tokens of gratitude. Volunteering helps to inspire others ! We look forward to many more volunteer events in the coming months.

Best Starts for Kids
Tacoma Public Schools
Kent School District
Panera

"Many of us have not had an opportunity to learn the facts about the unique relationship between the United States and sovereign Tribal Nations. Sovereignty is the foundation upon which this relationship is built. Sovereignty is an internationally recognized concept. A basic tenant of sovereignty is the power of a people to govern themselves." -ICL Days of Gratitude Academy book

Each year, Institute for Community Leadership students, adults, and elders gather to study tribal sovereignty and gratitude following the Thanksgiving holiday. This year, Titus Capoeman, Quinault Indian Nation artist and ICL graduate, spoke with students on the role of tribal sovereignty in protecting American democracy.

Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI)
Best Starts for Kids
Titus Capoeman
Quinault Indian Nation
Kent School District
Tacoma Public Schools
Seattle Foundation
Panera Bread