As we are in the midst of the holiday season, the spirit of giving is in the air. At Schemata Workshop, we work with a wide variety of clients, including nonprofit organizations who have commitments to social change. While we support these year-round, it is in the season of giving that we encourage our audience to do the same. Below are a few organizations we partner with that you can support this holiday.
Open Doors for Multicultural Families (ODMF) provides culturally and linguistically relevant information, services, and programming to culturally and linguistically diverse families of persons with developmental and intellectual disabilities. These families are often immigrants, refugees, and/or people of color in South Seattle and Southern King County. ODMF’s staff are not only experts in disability services, special education, and other mainstream social services, but also collectively speak over 20 languages, which helps to alleviate the language barrier between the families served and the services they need.
In addition to providing resources, ODMF also hosts educational workshops for parents, self-advocates and youth experiencing developmental disabilities. These programs aim to educate family members on developmental disabilities and also empower those with disabilities to become leaders in their community.
You can support ODMF this holiday season by volunteering or donating funds toward their daily operations.
Sawhorse Revolution is a Seattle-based non-profit serving high-school students primarily from Central and South Seattle. Their mission is to foster confident, community-oriented youth through the power of carpentry and craft. They achieve this with their summer and after school programs that offer students hands-on opportunities to learn about architecture and community development through services projects.
To support Sawhorse Revolution, you can donate funds to provide students with tools and materials for their projects here.
Africatown Community Land Trust (ACLT) advocates for Black community ownership of land in the Central District and supports the cultural and economic thriving of people who are part of the African diaspora in the Greater Seattle region. Their board is comprised of real estate professionals, business executives, entrepreneurs, and other professionals and long-time community members from the Central District.
This year, they launched the “From Imagination to Creation” fundraising campaign to support the William Gross Center for Cultural Innovation and Enterprise. Their goal is to raise $300,000 for the Makerspace and Visual Effects Film Studio at the WGC, which provides youth education in manufacturing and design.
Donating to this effort allows ACLT to hire full time instructors, provide technology for operation of the facility, and help launch the Manufacture and Visual Effect program. If you are interested in giving, click here.
Queer The Land (QTL) is a collaborative project grounded in the self-determination of queer, transgender, and Two-Spirit Black/ indigenous/ people of color (QT2BIPOC), and the vision of collectively owning land and labor. QTL’s goal is to not only to provide housing but also a safe space for the QT2BIPOC community. Their mission is to create a movement by building a space that can generate income and become a political hub for QTBIPOC and community organizing. They are fundraising to create a QT2BIPOC-owned and operated cooperative in one of Seattle’s historical communities of color that will include transitional housing, a co-working space, venue space, communal space, and a community garden.
To support this effort, you can donate here.