Belonging, Civic Muscle, and Voting

North Sound ACH has multiple frameworks that guide our work, and sometimes folks feel like they are separate and duplicative, but really they are intertwined. They are connected, build upon each other, and amplify what is possible. We are guided by:

• Honoring tribal sovereignty, not only recognizing that we are all on Native Land, but also appreciation and gratitude for how tribes steward the land, air, water, wildlife because we are all connected in this ecosystem; 
• Equity, with this description from PolicyLink as our starting point;
• Targeted Universalism, because we are situated differently, in order for all community members to reach the same goal we need specific strategies to be available and used;
• Belonging, an evolutionary next step from discussions of equity, leading us to imagine co-design, shared decision making, co-ownership of planning, implementation and results; and 
• Vital Conditions for Well-being, (with belonging and civic muscle at its center) that moves from the standard definitions of ‘social determinants of health’ to what we are moving toward in key areas that cross clinical and community care and services.

This led our region to adopt principles around what we call ‘leading with love’ – seeing the humanity in each person and recognizing that they (we) all deserve to be loved as full human beings and have our needs met.
So, this is on my mind because of the current election season, and the work it takes to get eligible voters to turn out. For us, all of the above principles come into play. Voting is essential to belonging, and as communities we can either create barriers to voting, or we can enhance paths that encourage community members to vote. The choice is ours. Please, use whatever ability you have to encourage community members to vote, and point them to resources like IWillVote.org or Vote.gov. In Washington you can register to vote all the way through election day.

One shining example of enhancing paths to voting comes from partners in Skagit County. More than a year ago we were contacted by their County Auditor as they discussed offering election materials in English and Spanish for the 2024 election cycle. (FYI – There are federal laws that require election materials to be produced in languages other than English when certain conditions are met, and Skagit is not yet required to offer these materials in Spanish.) Skagit County was not required to do this, but still chose to do so, offering a brilliant model of how belonging and civic muscle can be operationalized in counties. Please check out the County’s  press release here.  We’re so proud to be a partner in their efforts and hope other counties follow their path.

No one sector or entity can do this alone. The Collaborative Action Network continues to grow (now more than 170 organizations!) and these frameworks ground us as we envision what we want to become as we move forward. 

None of us can achieve this alone, so thank you for joining us in this work!

Be well –