Real Change rounds the corner this month to celebrate 23 years of love and community. Our first issue was released on Aug. 20, 1994, with cover art by Dr. Wes Browning and a feature story on the clearance of The Jungle.
This was back when the one-night unsheltered count, then conducted by Operation Nightwatch, had yet to reach 1,000 people outside.
Over the past two decades, the number of unsheltered homeless people has risen approximately five-fold, and the count of all homeless people countywide has quintupled.
As the realities for homeless and very low-income people have become increasingly dire, Real Change has stood for more than two decades as a beacon of community, opportunity and hope for those on the streets.
The Sept. 19 Real Change Annual Breakfast is where our community becomes visible and stands up to support our commitment to economic, social and racial justice.
It is where 500 of our closest friends gather to celebrate our work and where our vendors get to see who has their backs. Real Change is one of the few organizations that recognize the fact that homelessness is the ultimate expression of social abandonment at the federal and state levels.
This past year has been a virtual avalanche of bad news. Our state legislators, despite the clear urgency for new resources to address homelessness, came up largely empty this year in Olympia.
The election of President Donald Trump heralds a new era of racist backlash politics that punishes the poor and targets people of color in particular.
Ben Carson is dismantling the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. From Meals on Wheels to Medicaid, nothing is safe. The knives are out for all programs that serve the poor. The Department of Justice is bringing back the war on drugs and doubling down on mass incarceration. And legal aid organizations, like Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, are under federal attack for their support of immigrants.
In 2017, the attacks on the poor have expanded into an attack on democracy itself.
In 2017, the attacks on the poor have expanded into an attack on democracy itself.
That’s why we’re thrilled to share that our keynote speaker this year is Citizen University Founder and CEO Eric Liu. His latest book, “You’re More Powerful Than You Think: A Citizen’s Guide to Making Change Happen,” will be available at the event and is free to attendees who contribute $250 or more.
As the major parties are fracturing and bottom-up movements like Occupy, Black Lives Matter and 15Now have gained national importance, new styles of organizing like the Seattle People’s Party are flowering and pushing back on corporate power.
Liu’s message of hope and grassroots power has never been more needed. We hope you can attend.
For 23 years, Real Change has been a community-wide expression of our best selves. Real Change has always been about love.
Love is when any of us takes the small risk of reaching out to someone in need. Someone who may make a demand upon our conscience that makes us uncomfortable. Someone who may not love us back.
Love is unselfish. And in unselfish acts, there is hope.
Love, it has been said, is a verb. Compassion, the Dalai Lama has said, consists of responsibility paired with action.
When we feel our responsibility and act out of love, no matter how feebly at first, we take a step toward the world that we must create together.
Real Change is a vehicle for compassion, and the relationships this newspaper fosters are truly transformational.
Real Change is a vehicle for compassion, and the relationships this newspaper fosters are truly transformational.
You can support our work by attending as an individual or by stepping up as a table captain to invite your friends and colleagues. There is no charge for attending, but a donation of $150 or more is suggested. The important thing is that you support our work as you can, and experience the community of support that makes Real Change possible.
The People’s Rising: Real Change 23rd Annual Breakfast is at the Washington State Convention Center on Tuesday, Sept. 19. The breakfast begins at 8 a.m. sharp and runs one hour. Seating begins at 7:30 a.m.
Visit our breakfast registration page to let us know you're coming, or email [email protected] for more information.
Tim Harris is the founding Director Real Change and has been active as a poor people’s organizer for more than two decades. Prior to moving to Seattle in 1994, Harris founded the Spare Change homeless newspaper in Boston in 1992 while working as Executive Director of Boston Jobs with Peace.
Wait, there's more. Check out articles in the full August 9 issue.