South Park, Seattle · A Neighborhood Experiment
Funded by neighbors.
Grown by community members.
Harvested together.
Four projects, rooted in South Park, stewarded by trained
and equipped neighbors — pulling community close at a time
when fear and fascism would separate us from each other.
We have more resources than we have the capacity to recognize.
We are all proximate to love, and a will to be together,
at no cost but connection.
"Like Orca Whales in the Salish Sea — serving community through servant leadership, holding multiple roles, and when a shift is needed… recognizing the strength in intergenerational leadership. Nurturing growth and ownership in young community members."
The organizing spirit behind Sowing in Place
Inspired by Restorative Peacemaking principles by Huayruro
and the organizing vision of the Combahee River Collective
Four Roots, One Soil
Project 01 · Education
Rooted in the 1964 SNCC Freedom Schools of Mississippi — where young Black Mississippians were taught not just literacy but their own history, their own power, and their right to act.
This project carries that torch forward: joyful, culturally rooted learning for young people in South Park. Curriculum inspired by the Children's Defense Fund and created by Anab Nur.
Project 02 · Memory
Every elder holds a library. This project is archiving the living memory of Black workers who built and flew and sailed in and around the Pacific Northwest — histories that institutional archives have long neglected.
Before those libraries close, we are listening. We are recording. We are preserving.
Project 03 · Nourishment
$3,000 invested into South Park restaurants every single week. 150 hot, prepared meals served to neighbors who need them.
This is not charity — it is a circulation of resources that stays local, supports small Black and brown-owned businesses, and feeds the community that holds us all.
Project 04 · Healing
Circles facilitated by Tyra Griffith — trained in restorative peacemaking principles — for neighbors, young people, and organizers who need a space to repair relationship and reimagine accountability.
Tyra is also expanding the documentation and preservation of restorative practice work emerging among Collective Justice organizers across the region.
The Orcas of the Salish Sea do not specialize in one task.
They hunt together, teach together, grieve together.
When leadership is needed, it shifts. When a young one
is ready to lead, the pod makes room.
The organizers sowing these projects intend to operate the same way —
holding multiple roles in life and community, serving through relationship
rather than hierarchy, and nurturing the next generation of leaders
until they are ready to take the front.
This is not a nonprofit. This is not a program.
This is a neighborhood experiment, funded by neighbors,
in direct service of the people who live here.
What We Already Have
Three Ways In
Invest Money
Every dollar circulates in South Park. Hot meals come from local restaurants.
Circle Keepers are community members. Freedom Schools teachers live here.
What would happen if 100 neighbors gave $25/month consistently?
That's $2,500/month. That's a Freedom School. That's 150 hot meals.
Invest Time
Come to a circle. Bring a dish. Share an oral history. Volunteer
for Freedom Schools. Introduce a young person to an elder.
Consistency is the rarest gift. You don't need money or credentials.
You need a will to be together, and the discipline to show up.
Invest Your Network
You know someone who owns a restaurant, a shop, a firm.
They want to be part of something real.
We wrote the email for you. Copy it, personalize it, send it.
The template is below — use it freely.
For Your Network
You are proximate to resources. Someone you know runs a business —
a restaurant, a firm, a shop. They want to do something real in their community.
They just need someone to ask. Be that person.
Copy the email below. Replace the brackets. Send it today.
You can also read a real example of this kind of ask at
Sow with Sierra on Substack →
Hi [Name],
My name is [Your Name], and I'm a neighbor in South Park, Seattle. I'm reaching out because I've been part of a community experiment called Sowing in Place — four projects being stewarded by trained and equipped community members right here in the neighborhood, funded entirely by neighbors and local investors.
The four projects are:
→ Freedom Schools — summer and afternoon enrichment for young people, rooted in the 1964 Civil Rights movement's freedom school model
→ Oral History — documenting the lives and labor of Black aviation, construction, and maritime workers in the Pacific Northwest
→ Weekly Hot Meals (Sow South Park) — $3,000/week invested into local South Park restaurants, with 150 meals served to neighbors weekly
→ Restorative Circles — community-led healing and conflict transformation circles, plus preservation of the history of restorative practice in our region
I'm writing to ask if [Business Name] would consider contributing [$50 / $100 / whatever amount feels right] monthly to keep this work going. Your investment stays entirely local — it goes directly to local restaurants, community educators, and circle keepers who live here.
This isn't a nonprofit pitch. There are no overhead fees, no grant reports. This is neighbors funding neighbors, at a time when fear and disconnection are trying to pull us apart.
If you're curious to learn more, I'd love to talk over coffee. If you're ready to invest, I can send you the details.
Thank you for what you've already built in this community. I hope we can sow something together.
With gratitude,
[Your Name]
[Your Phone / Email]
sowinginplace.org
✓ Copied! Now personalize it and send.
Imagine what you can do
right now,
consistently,
in your sphere of influence.
You don't need permission. You don't need a nonprofit status
or a grant cycle or a board of directors. You need a seed,
a patch of ground, and the discipline to water it.
This is the experiment. Join us.