Puget Sound Sage
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Puget Sound Sage builds thriving, resilient communities rooted in good jobs, affordable housing, accessible transit and a healthy environment.
Puget Sound Sage combines research, innovative public policy and organizing to ensure all people have an affordable place to live, a good job, a clean, healthy environment, and access to public transportation. Our work has impacted thousands of workers by ensuring: workers have power and a voice in the workplace; working people have living wages, health care and dignity; people live in healthy communities where there are good jobs, affordable housing, clean air and accessible transit; and an effective government that provides for the common good of workers and communities. We achieve our mission through our four core programs:
Climate Justice
Sage centers communities disproportionately impacted by climate change at the center of climate resiliency strategies. In order to build climate resilience throughout our communities, our climate justice program focuses on addressing existing vulnerabilities while also fundamentally shifting the approach that local, regional and state governments take to addressing climate change to an equity-first approach. Program accomplishments include:
- Partnering with immigrant truck drivers and South Seattle residents to reduce diesel pollution in the Duwamish Valley.
- Releasing a community-based participatory research report Our People, Our Power, Our Planet, detailing community concerns about climate adaptation, decreasing carbon pollution and ensuring equitable representation from their base in policy development.
- Co-chairing the City of Seattle Equity & Environment Initiative, resulting in the Equity & Environment Agenda and creation of an Environmental Justice Steering Committee. Equitable Development
We advocate for affordable housing as a central component of community-based development that is based on community needs, assets and inspiration. While displacement is fundamentally about housing, it is also about how communities cohere together. Traditional planning efforts fail to acknowledge the role of anchoring communities of color, immigrants, and refugees around culturally relevant businesses, community centers, faith institutions and service providers. Our equitable development program advances policies that support compact, high-density development and affordable housing along transit corridors to prevent displacement, which is core to healthy, climate-resilient communities. Program accomplishments include:
- Securing millions in public funding for affordable housing.
- Co-leading our Transit for All campaign, with Transportation Choices Coalition and One America, to secure new transit investments, improved bus service, and the successful implementation of ORCA Lift, the nationally recognized new low income fare.
- Convening South Communities Organizing for Racial & Regional Equity (SouthCORE), a multi-racial coalition of twenty community and member-based organizations that serve as an organized voice for community-led growth and development in South King County. Good Jobs and Workers' Rights
Sage is on the forefront of a renewed movement for economic justice in our region. We reduce inequality by advancing policy, such as minimum wage, paid sick leave, access to full time jobs, enforcement of good job standards, and placement of people with barriers to employment in public worker construction jobs. Program accomplishments include:
- Passing $15 Minimum Wage and Paid Sick & Safe Days ordinances in Seattle.
- Advancing labor standards for 6,000 airport related jobs in SeaTac.
- Convening the Interfaith Economic Justice Coalition, comprised of interfaith leaders from the region as a means of uplifting worker issues for the public, organizing support in faith communities, and helping build power in worker organizing.
- In collaboration with our partners, winning the City of Seattle Priority Hire Ordinance for local workers to enter into green construction careers. Leadership Development
We advocate for planning and policy that makes racial and social equity a top goal for decision makers at all levels of government. We believe that communities of color can prosper in place by harnessing market forces and public investment, with their own vision for growth at the center of local planning. However, lack of decision-making power and capacity to engage in long-term planning greatly hinders our capacity to influence policy in the region. Our leadership development program is dedicated to providing emerging leaders from low-income communities and communities of color the training and opportunities they need to have a seat at decision making tables, laying long-term groundwork for achieving solutions based on community needs. Program accomplishments include:
- Launching our Community Leadership Institute (CLI), a fellowship program that supports, trains and places emerging leaders from low-income communities and communities of color to sit on local boards and commissions.
- Succeeding in placing seven cohort members on local boards and commissions less than four months following the graduation of our 2015-2016 CLI cohort. Of the seven placements, four women of color have won appointments to boards and commissions, such as the Seattle Women’s Commission, Move Seattle Levy Oversight Committee, and the Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board, and one man of color won appointment on the City of Seattle Planning Commission.
09/28/2026
🚉 Join us at the Graham Block Party on October 3 for food, music, activities, community partners, and a chance to connect around the future Graham Street light rail station and neighborhood!
Graham Block Party
Saturday Oct 3
11am to 3pm, free
MLK Jr Way & Eddy St
09/25/2026
From Inye Wokoma at Wa Na Wari, “Work never felt like work with KL. Organizing never felt like ‘the struggle.’ It felt like family, like life. It felt like living inside a bubble of liberatory love that we knew was possible for the whole world. The world outside is hard enough. KL’s quick smile reminded us that we could be soft and easy with one another, even as we girded up for the work ahead. She brought that essence to everything she did.”
Remembering KL Shannon Our dear friend and tireless, beloved comrade KL Shannon graduated to ancestorhood on Wednesday, September 9, 2026 after a long bout with cancer. We are heartbroken.
09/22/2026
A beautiful tribute to KL by Naomi Ishisaka Social Justice Journalism at The Seattle Times.
"Saldaña said Shannon was driven by deep love of community and her fundamental belief in the power of people, that we don’t have to keep on hurting each other, and we don’t have to have a system that keeps hurting us. That we created these systems as human beings, we can and we must make them better.”
‘A great, immeasurable loss’: Seattle social justice organizer dies at 59 Organizer, activist and community leader KL Shannon left a long legacy of fighting for social and racial justice in the Seattle area, writes Naomi Ishisaka.
09/15/2026
Last week was a hard one. Our dear friend and colleague, KL Shannon, passed away from cancer last week. KL was Seattle’s fiercest activist – a radical beacon, feminist, and organizer – who walked, talked and breathed her life’s work.
Born and raised in Seattle’s Central District, KL was dedicated to disrupting the school-to-prison pipeline and fighting tirelessly for economic, social, and racial justice. We remember KL – tabling at every community event, marching in every rally, and speaking in the chambers of City Hall. KL spoke truth to power. She led by example. She organized courageously and inspired those around her to speak up too. KL is the heart and soul of activism across Seattle.
At Sage, we were humbled to have KL join our staff in 2023. Over the past three years, KL has brought an unwavering vision for justice, deep organizing roots, and a whole lot of humor to the Sage team. KL helped lead non-cooperation trainings last year to prepare our organization and communities better for the days, weeks, and months ahead. This past winter, KL was instrumental in organizing neighborhood ICE-Free Zone trainings with the Sage team, recruiting over 200 people across 20 neighborhoods in mere days of ICE’s surge in Minneapolis.
There’s no one else like KL. A movement leader, a mentor, and an organizer for life.
We call to everyone to carry her work forward. Let us lead as KL would, with truth, love, laughter, plenty of courage, and a deep love for community. Rest in power, KL. You will be missed.💗
09/07/2026
Abusing workers. Breaking up unions. Building massive data centers. Helping Palantir spy on us. Letting ICE and CBP use Amazon Web Services. The list goes on. It's clear to us that Amazon is a cog in the machine of fascism.
Help us send them a message today: https://go.powerswitchaction.org/a/tell-amazon-investors-hands-off-our-democracy
09/04/2026
From King County DCHS' blog Cultivating Connections, on highlighting the importance of programs like the King County Equitable Development Initiative (KCEDI) for communities particularly in South King County, where neighborhoods face the highest rates of eviction and households spend more than half their income on housing.
"For Abdi, the African Diaspora Cultural Anchor Village represents more than new housing. It represents the possibility that families like his can remain in the communities they call home—and live in places where their cultures, families, and experiences are reflected and welcomed."
Read more 🔗 https://dchsblog.com/2026/09/01/staying-rooted-how-community-driven-development-is-shaping-king-county/
The World Cup has come and gone, but the traffic impacts in the CID left us with important lessons. ⚽
During match days, traffic reroutes into the neighborhood brought congestion, noise, safety concerns, and challenges for residents and small businesses. Now imagine those same kinds of disruptions not for a few days, but for years. 🚙🚗🚕 That’s what the CID could face if a new light rail station is built on 4th Ave S or 5th Ave S, both of which would require major road closures and significant traffic reroutes during construction.
The North/South Station is designed to reduce those impacts and keep our neighborhood better connected. 🚈 In this new episode of Spilling the Tea, learn why the North/South Station is the community’s preferred option and how it can help keep the CID thriving for the !
(Maps and projections used in the video are taken from Sound Transit’s own reports.)
🚃 Insightful article by transit advocate Anna Zivarts at PubliCola - "Because elected officials, transit agency leadership and contractors rarely, if ever, ride transit, they do not feel the urgency that those of us who rely on transit do in creating transit systems that are truly excellent. This lack of transit familiarity has real costs, not just in what we imagine is possible but also in our expectations for transit service and construction."
https://publicola.com/2026/06/26/how-do-we-get-transit-champions-on-transit-boards/
06/26/2026
Displacement is happening in South King County now, and we have a plan to engage our neighbors in a plan to stop it.
Will you come to our kickoff and sign up for some doorknocking shifts?
BIPOC-led organizations across King County have been organizing for years to get the King County Equitable Development Initiative funded to make it possible for our communities and organizations to buy land in our neighborhoods and ensure our communities stay rooted with affordable housing, cultural spaces, community spaces and farmland. Now we’re taking it to the next level.
Join Skyway Coalition, White Center Community Development Association, Duwamish Valley Affordable Housing Coalition, and the whole King County Equitable Development Initiative Coalition (led by Puget Sound Sage and the Multicultural Community Coalition) in getting out into our neighborhoods and talking to our people about housing, affordability and how we can build power to stay rooted. We're not going anywhere!
This is an exciting effort to talk with neighbors, learn about their experiences and bring them into the fight to stop displacement and keep our communities rooted! Out of this effort, we hope to understand our neighborhoods better, build narrative, and bring more people into our organizations and movements. We're not doing this in just one neighborhood - we're doing it across Skyway, White Center, and South Park!
And... We need you! Will you come to our kickoff and sign up for some doorknocking shifts?
Copy the URL to signup for doorknocking:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0445A5AA22A2FEC43-64561048-stay #/
06/25/2026
📣 WE'RE HIRING! Executive Director 📣
Are you a visionary leader deeply committed to making change at the community level? We are searching for our next Executive Director to guide Puget Sound Sage and Sage Leaders into their next chapter! 💫
As the strategic engine behind our team, you'll be leading big picture strategy, spearheading fundraising, collaborating directly with our board, and bringing everyone together to turn big ideas into reality.
What we're looking for:
🌇 Demonstrated experience leading an organization, including oversight of staff, budgets, and strategy
💵 Proven track record raising funds
🌎 Deep commitment to community power, deep democracy, and racial justice
🌟 Collaborative, relational leadership style
✅ Strong alignment with organizational values
Learn more about the role: https://pugetsoundsage.org/about-us/jobs/
Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis with screening beginning after September 4th.
Click here to claim your Sponsored Listing.
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414 Maynard Avenue S
Seattle, WA
98104
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