Help protect the progress we’ve made together. Learn more below!

We Welcome You to Join us
for a FAN Liaison Training

We are so grateful to those of you who serve as liaisons between your faith community and FAN! And for those of you who may not be liaisons but who provide leadership for your faith community’s engagement in social and environmental justice!

We want to take time this summer to check in with you, share some resources, and hear how we can support you in the coming year.

We invite liaisons, legislative district coordinators, and other faith community leaders active in–or hoping to be active in–advocacy to join a zoom meeting/training on Monday, July 29, 5:30-7:00pm. Depending upon interest, we may hold a repeat meeting in late August or early September.

Together we will:

  • present and discuss strategies and tips for building involvement in policy advocacy and systemic change within your faith community,
  • review FAN resources for organizing within, and advocating with, your faith community, and
  • share stories, successes and frustrations, and encourage each other.

Join our 100% Voting Faith Communities Campaign and Strategy Meeting

Are you looking for ways to encourage voting and civic engagement in your faith community this election year? Are you also looking for community-led support? If your answers are yes, FAN invites you to join a Network of 100% Voting Faith Communities! Many faith traditions highlight the importance of voting in preserving community well-being and the common good in democracy. The Network of 100% Voting Faith Communities is a community space to share ideas, tools, and peer support. Whether you are a leader authorized to take action on behalf of your faith community or an individual willing to organize your faith community to participate, you are invited! Please read more information on this document and fill out the form to join the network. You can also access our newly launched Voting & Civic Engagement page.

We will offer monthly zoom meetings through the summer to stay engaged as a network. We welcome any individuals and communities interested and committed to getting out the vote in their faith community and/or wider community. The following online meetings have been scheduled:

Tues. July 23rd 12-1 pm
Tues. August 20th 12-1 pm

The focus of the meetings will be on supporting organizing, voter registration, and mobilization in your community.

We are committed to voicing the values from our many faith traditions in the electoral process and we hope you will be part of this movement!


Vote NO on I-2117, I-2109, and I-2124!

These three initiatives on the November ballot threaten investments in education, childcare, sustainable environments, healthy communities, long-term care and more.

Our recommendation to Vote NO on all three initiatives is grounded in our values, which include: Belonging, Justice & Equity, Interconnectedness, Collaboration, and Pluralism. These emerge from the heart of our diverse spiritual traditions, texts, and practices that call us to love and care for our neighbors and the earth.

For these initiatives, we especially draw on our commitment to seek Justice and Equity, enabling all people and communities to have the resources and opportunities to live a full and meaningful life. We also are called to Interconnectedness, cherishing and respecting the interdependent web of all existence, and supporting actions and policies that promote resilience, sustainability and environmental justice. These initiatives are anti-thetical to our values and threaten to reverse decades of our work to make Washington more equitable and balance our upside-down tax code.

Here are the facts on why we’re voting no:

Initiative 2109 would repeal Washington’s capital gains excise tax on individuals’ stock market annual profits over $250,000. Revenue goes to the Education Legacy Trust Account. If passed it would:

  • Take away nearly $900 million every year from childcare, early learning, K-12 education, special education, technical and community colleges, and school construction.
  • Repeal a modest 7% capital gains tax on only the wealthiest Washingtonians for profits over $250,000 on stocks and bonds. Prior to this tax, millionaires paid nothing in state taxes toward the common good when reaping huge profits from such assets.
  • Put more pressure on the rest of us to make up for the difference through property and sales taxes.
  • Worsen childcare shortages and issues for working families and small businesses (who already lose over $2 billion each year due to employees’ issues with childcare) by cutting billions from affordable childcare.

Initiative 2117 would repeal the 2021 Climate Commitment Act and prohibit all state agencies, counties, and cities from implementing any type of carbon tax credit trading. If passed it would:

  • Devastate billions in funding that protects our water, farmlands and forests, air quality, fish, clean transportation and school health improvements for us and our children.
  • Cancel investments in energy efficiency and projects to mitigate the impact of climate change and pollution on highly impacted, low-income households and communities.
  • Shift the burden of paying for the impacts of pollution from big industries responsible for carbon emissions onto communities, workers, and families.
  • Take away a significant tool for slowing life-threatening climate change and ending pollution

Initiative 2124 would allow all employees and self-employed individuals to opt out of paying the tax and receiving benefits under WA Cares, the state’s public long-term health care program. If passed it would:

  • Worsen the care crisis that’s causing huge financial stress for women, who provide the vast majority of unpaid caregiving duties for loved ones without long-term care coverage. Women are 73% more likely to permanently leave jobs and five times more likely to work only part-time due to caregiving demands.
  • Send more people into debt when faced with expensive long-term care bills and private insurance premiums they can’t afford. Especially, middle- and low-income families who are least able to afford private long term care insurance or to pay thousands out of pocket for care.
  • Will throw us back into the expensive private insurance market which routinely jacks up premiums by 50%, 100%, even 300% without warning, and delays and denies claims, harming people with pre-existing conditions like cancer and diabetes because they cannot get private insurance, even if they can afford the expensive premiums.

Join us in voting NO on these three harmful initiatives this fall. You can read more on our initiatives page which we will be updating throughout the summer and fall.

Are you interested in taking action on these initiatives before November? One way to get involved is to write a Letter to the Editor by sharing your story on why you are voting NO on one or all these initiatives in your local newspaper. Please let us know if you are interested in writing a letter, letter writers are especially needed in Eastern Washington.

Volunteers are also needed for field organizing for No on 2117. Kick Off event on Tuesday July 16 from 5:30-7:00 p.m. to learn how to get involved and build grassroots momentum to defeat I-2117!


Help Find FAN’s next
Executive Director!

FAN is excited to announce that we have launched the hiring process for our next Executive Director! We are seeking a collaborative, values-aligned, and strategic nonprofit leader who has the skills to guide the future of the organization. This role requires both a deep respect for diverse beliefs and cultures, and a passion for building an equitable, multiracial, and multifaith community of advocates across Washington State. Please see the complete job description for further information. Candidates should send their resume, cover letter, and three references to apply@fanwa.org. Priority deadline is today, July 12. We encourage our network to share this job opportunity with others in the community. Please help us to find FAN’s next ED!


Take Action

Urge your lawmakers to address the root causes of homelessness!

FAN’s partner, the Washington Low-Income Housing Alliance, asks us to sign on to a message urging our state legislators to directly address one of the major root causes of homelessness – rising rents – and also increase investments in homeless services and affordable housing.

Use this form to demand that your lawmakers take action!

This is in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Johnson v. Grants Pass that local governments can arrest, fine, and otherwise punish people for the experience of being unsheltered and trying to survive homelessness. This is a disappointing decision that will do nothing to solve homelessness. In fact, it will make it worse by giving cities free rein to prioritize criminalization while neglecting and diverting funds from proven solutions like housing. And fines and arrests often extend people’s experience of homelessness by making it harder for them to access housing and services in the future.

Join the No on I-2124 Launch, Monday, July 15, Noon-1:00 PM Harborview Park, 779 Alder St, Seattle.

Join the official launch of I-2124 campaign to maintain the state’s groundbreaking long-term care program and show our breadth and depth of support. Speakers from Caring Across Generations, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, League of Women Voters, UFCW and Washington State Nurses Association. Press is expected. Remember to Vote NO on I-2124: Don’t Take Away Our Care Benefits! Learn more here.


Summer at Holden

Summer in the North Cascades wilderness calls! Holden Village is offering some exciting programming this summer, and we are delighted that FAN Policy Engagement Director Kristin Ang will be part of the teaching faculty for the week of August 5-8. There will be lots of opportunities to participate in meaningful programs and discussions, as well as enjoy the outdoors and all that Holden has to offer.


Opportunities

Election Action: Postcards 4 Democracy in West Seattle Bring your postcards, pens, postage, and addresses (come anyway if you don’t have these). Find out more at https://www.postcards4democracy.org/. Regularly throughout the summer at C&P Coffee, 5612 California Ave SW, Seattle, WA 98136. Questions? Write postcards4democracyws@gmail.com

Level the Playing Field Between Traditional Medicare and private Medicare Advantage Learn more and sign onto a letter to Pres. Biden at https://www.psara.org/closet

Electrify Your Business or Faith Community with Solar Panels
Earth Ministry, July 18 @ 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM, Free

Mental Health Care Community Listening Sessions on 911 and 988
Washington State’s Department of Health (DOH) has contracted with Health Management Associates, Inc. (HMA) to further DOH’s efforts to expand access to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Specifically, HMA’s work will guide the processes used to divert appropriate mental health crisis and substance use crisis calls from 911 to the 988 Lifeline.

HMA will conduct online community listening sessions on:

July 17, 2024, at 12-1pm
July 18, 2024, at 5-6pm
July 23, 2024, at 1-2pm


Upcoming Events

Friday, July 19, 6:30-9:00pm, Duwamish Gala Fundraiser, in-person, Museum of History & Industry MOHAI. An evening of art, culture, and community support. Explore a stunning collection of Native art, experiences and getaways up for auction, showcasing the beauty and talent of Indigenous artists. Enjoy a salmon or venison dinner, drinks, and live entertainment. Your attendance helps us raise funds for important cultural initiatives for members and the community alike.

Saturday, June 27, Noon-2:00pm, APRI-Tacoma Climate Justice Community Assembly, in-person, Caballeros Club, Tacoma. Learn more about climate change and add your voice to be part of the solution.