In 2021, the state of Washington in the United States released a 10-Year Plan to Dismantle Poverty, a roadmap aimed at different stakeholders to ensure present and future social and economic opportunity and well-being. The Plan was elaborated by Washington’s Poverty Reduction Work Group, which gathered members from diverse systems and sectors. Outcomes of the Plan included the Just Futures Project, which developed a community assembly model of collaborative governance to include disadvantaged communities in decision-making processes.
Washington State’s Blueprint for a Just and Equitable Future
Abstract
In 2021, to respond to rising levels of poverty and inequality, the state of Washington published a 10-Year Plan to Dismantle Poverty, Blueprint for a Just and Equitable Future, containing strategies and recommendations aimed at agencies, legislators, businesses, community-based organizations, and funders to increase economic stability, opportunity, and mobility within the state. The Plan was released as a roadmap for various stakeholders to engage in policy and program changes to address poverty both in the present and in the future, by looking at its root causes and the experience of poverty as well as at prevention measures.
The 10-Year Plan to Dismantle Poverty is a strategic plan released in 2021 by the Washington State to build a just and equitable future that meets communities’ foundational needs across the state of Washington, and to provide the resources and opportunities they need to thrive. It comprises 60 recommendations across eight strategies: undo structural racism; balance power; increase economic opportunity; ensure foundational well-being; prioritize urgent needs; build a holistic continuum of care; decriminalize poverty; prepare for the future of work. The Plan was accompanied by an action toolkit for organisations to contribute to the implementation of the recommendations.
The Plan was elaborated by a large and diverse work group, the Washington Poverty Reduction Work Group, convened in 2018 by the Governor to develop a strategic plan to dismantle poverty by gathering data, research, best practices, and the expertise of people experiencing poverty. This group was co-led by the Washington State’s departments of Commerce, Employment Security, and Social & Health Services, in partnership with diverse stakeholders such as tribal and urban Indians, state racial and ethnic commissions, employers, community-based organizations, legislators, advocates, and philanthropy. The group comprised a Steering Committee with knowledge on the diverse demographic and geographic experience of poverty, including members from urban, suburban, rural, and tribal areas, and who belong to diverse communities. It also gathered insights from the public and from organizations representing people most affected by poverty, who contributed to the elaboration of the Plan.
Reflecting one of the core strategies of the 10-Year Plan, to make equal space for the power and influence of people and communities disproportionately affected by poverty and inequality in decision-making, the Just Futures initiative, a coalition of community-based organisations, developed a community assembly model, a framework to involve communities that are excluded from decision-making processes and that are the furthest from economic well-being, including those most affected by pollution or poverty. Community assemblies “articulate community needs, assess solutions, and mobilize for action”. Their input is used to foster trust, collaboration, and shared leadership in both the development and the implementation stages of state policies. Community assemblies comprise learning and discussion sessions with members of disadvantaged communities that are led by community-based organisations. An initial series of community assembly pilots were held in fall of 2024 across the state of Washington, addressing questions such as the best ways to support community-level initiatives to adapt and cope with climate-related weather events, allowing participants to engage on strategies for community-scale interventions.
The elaboration of the 10-Year Plan to Dismantle Poverty included stakeholders from diverse backgrounds and led to the creation of initiatives that in turn actively involved community members, such as the Just Futures’ community assembly model. This initiative echoes other international initiatives of collaborative governance seeking to enhance community well-being, such as the Citizen’s Assembly established in the city of Paris, France. The first pilot assemblies were held in late 2024 throughout Washington and a framework and logic model to track community assembly efforts and policy outcomes is currently being developed by Just Futures.
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