Sunyata Association

The Association of Beloved Communities is a high performance resource helping organizations & community activists build beloved community with equitably shared wealth & benefits for the well being of all.  ABC is partnering with Seattle's El Centro de la Raza community center to create a documentary showcasing El Centro's triumph over the forces of displacement and segregation as a model to empower marginalized communities nationwide.   

THE PLACE

El Centro de la Raza is a $45M community development that took 45 years to establish, from the day an abandoned school building was occupied by activists for three months to today's profitable infrastructure with a solid sustainable physical footprint in a community threatened by gentrification. El Centro sits in Seattle’s Beacon Hill neighborhood and serves as a multi-faceted model of economic sustainability and social impact with cultural integrity and a focus on developing capacity among low-income people of color. It is a well-designed progressive step toward building Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s inspired "Beloved Community."

THE STORY

El Centro holds an inspiring and empowering story of a salmon successfully swimming upstream against all odds. While communities of color nationwide were being economically destroyed by segregationist policies and private sector practices, a small nonviolent movement won a victory in the battle over access to opportunity, real property ownership and respect. This key success empowered a small group to organize around a parcel of property to establish a shared vision of what an inclusive sustainable economic ecosystem could do to benefit the lives of all people within a community. A never-wavering commitment over nearly a half-century produced a model of victory against a backdrop of communities devastated by market-driven forces of displacement and gentrification in the same time period.

THE PROPOSAL

The Association of Beloved Communities (ABC) seeks to capture the story of El Centro in a mini documentary video format. The video shoot will result in a 25-minute documentary, produced in 5- to 7-minute video segments. Expected time of production is four to six months, depending on weather, schedules of principal characters and other influencing or inhibiting factors. The final product will showcase El Centro de la Raza and the City of Seattle as a model for inclusive and sustainable community development with cultural integrity.

THE BUDGET - $35K

$20K - production
$5K - consulting
$3.5K - marketing
$1.5K - administrative
$5K  - website development & project administrative support


Learn more at: Association of Beloved Communities