Providing a Community Organizing Hub
350 Tacoma provides an alcohol/drug free space that is wheelchair accessible, family-friendly, and safe for people of all identities. 311 Puyallup Ave hosted approximately 225 events this year. Recurring programming included: monthly Indigenous-led Drum Circles; monthly 350 Tacoma Potlucks; and bi-monthly meetings for CampFire and Tangol Migrante. Skills trainings included De-escalation, Know your Rights, Stop The Bleed, Stop The Sweeps Support, All Power to the Neighbors Community Organizing, and bi-weekly CommUNITY Defense Class. Plentiful art supplies and tools are available which supported: the Water Warriors to host craft nights, local artists to build giant puppets for No Kings Day; the creation of banners for Protectors of the Salish Sea and Climate Alliance South Sound; and painting signs for numerous campaigns. Several organizations hosted film screenings including Fish Wars and Queers Bash Back. We provided space for yoga fundraisers to help pay for gender-affirming top surgeries. The Community Hub provides a place for groups to store art and equipment, receive mail, hold internal meetings, swap mutual aid items, and serves as a drop off location for unwanted computers which get properly recycled or refurbished and distributed to those in need by Chiapas Education Project.
We were able to provide use of the community hub to local orgs free of charge and events are always free for the public to attend, reducing barriers to participation. This was made possible by a generous donation from the Puyallup Tribe’s Charity Trust Board.
Clean Up Tacoma 2025 Series
With the help of our partners in the community, and the support of the Tacoma Sustainability Small Grants Program, 350 Tacoma hosted trash clean ups to improve our health AND that of the environment. Big THANK YOU to our co-hosts: Black Panther Party, The Panther Party, Coast Salish Water Warriors, Native Daily Network, South Tacoma Neighborhood Council, Climate Alliance South Sound, Chiapas Education Project, and the Climate Catastrophe Ground Zero Coalition. Our partners picked out the clean up locations in neighborhoods and community spaces around Tacoma that could use a little boost. Living in hygienic places offers a higher quality of life—the sidewalk is more welcoming when the surrounding plant life is more numerous than the litter! Photos and more info here!
Seven Years of Stewardship at qʷiqʷəlut (“little marsh”)
Since 2017, we have proudly been site stewards to qʷiqʷəlut (“little marsh”), a pocket of paradise that is part of the Tacoma Open Spaces Program, located deep in the industrial Port of Tacoma. With the support of City of Tacoma Environmental Services, 350 Tacoma has been working to restore this long-neglected but resilient site on the ancestral tideflats of the Puyallup Tribe. This year we hosted nine monthly work parties at the site to remove invasive weeds, restore native habitat, provide water, and pick up litter. Salt marshes are powerhouses when it comes to carbon sequestration, maintaining water quality by filtering runoff and excess nutrients, and providing vital habitat. Prior to colonization, the area known today as the Port of Tacoma was a thriving pristine estuary, with abundant marine life, wildlife, trees and plants.
We are currently hosting Work Parties on the second Saturday of most months, from 9am – 12pm. 1845 Port of Tacoma Rd. Check out our calendar of events here!
Advocating for the Removal of LNG as a Clean Air Strategy
350 Tacoma worked in collaboration with the Coast Salish Water Warriors, Climate Alliance South Sound, Native Daily Network, the Black Panther Party, The Conversation 253 and other organizations to advocate for changes to the NW Ports Clean Air Implementation Strategy. The NW Ports Clean Air Plan aims to reduce air and greenhouse gas emissions from shipping and port operations, and every five years a new implementation strategy is adopted by each of the Ports in Tacoma, Seattle, and the NW Seaport Alliance. The draft strategy included “explore increasing LNG in the global market” and Puget Sound Energy’s controversial Tacoma LNG refinery was referred to as being “underutilized.” Our advocacy was successful after a few months of intense campaigning including: verbal comments at the Port of Tacoma and Port of Seattle Commission meetings; an action link that resulted in over 300 comments from residents; org letters detailing the climate, safety, health, and sovereignty concerns; and a march to City Hall.
Reject PSE’s Dirty Money Campaign
We ask elected representatives to sign pledges not to accept donations from fossil fuel companies. It’s time we start doing the same as non-profits and community groups. Puget Sound Energy (PSE) is a for-profit fossil fuel company, despite cloaking themselves as an energy utility. Around 60% of PSE’s electric energy is sourced from fossil fuels. On top of that, they provide gas to 900K customers. Their actions are often harmful to our communities, while actively greenwashing their reputation by sponsoring local and regional events. It’s time we stop enabling this behavior, and start rejecting PSE’s social bribery. Learn more or check out our tools to help organizations and individuals reject PSE’s event sponsorship and dirty money at bit.ly/rejectPSEmoney.
George Jackson CommUNITY Defense Class
In partnership with the Black Panther Party and The Panther Party, 350 Tacoma hosted bi-weekly, free self defense classes. With no experience necessary, this drop-in class is fun, insightful, and potentially life-saving. We keep us safe. All Power To The People! Check out a calendar of upcoming events here.
Partnering with Chiapas Education Project
We are honored to continue our partnership with Chiapas Education Project (CEP) in their mission to expand access to technology while easing the burden on Mother Earth by keeping electronics out of the landfill. 350 Tacoma is a drop off site for your old/unwanted laptops, tablets, desktops and computer accessories, which will get properly recycled or refurbished by CEP and given to somebody unable to afford a new computer. CEP began offering Office Hours at 350 Tacoma for community walk-in computer repair, maintenance, and support to extend the life of current devices. We proudly provide fiscal sponsorship so that donations to this amazing organization are tax deductible.
350 WA Civic Action Team (CAT)
As one of the 350 organizations in Washington state, we recruited Tacoma residents to participate in the CAT Team–receiving twice weekly emails during the state legislative session designed to make participation in civic action easy. The 350 WA CAT worked on 96 bills and budget provisos. Of those, 34 passed and 12 that would have caused harm were stopped. Lawmakers set aside several bills, notably the CURB Act, the EV Battery Recycling bill, and Fair Access to Community Solar, which we’ll be advocating for again next year. Sign up to be on the CAT mailing list here!
Legislative Support Letters & Local Public Comments
350 Tacoma advocated for better state and local policies by adding our organization to sign-on letters, drafting written comments, and speaking at City Council meetings. We co-hosted a community info session and provided talking points for the final public comment period of the Tideflats Subarea Plan–adopted this December, eight years after the process began. Our organization endorsed and provided comments for campaigns to strengthen tenants rights, push back against inhumane camping bans, and to successfully urge Tacoma to end their pilot ShotSpotter surveillance program in the Hosmer neighborhood.
Disaster Resiliency Hub Project
Tacoma and the Pacific Northwest are vulnerable to a range of natural disasters including earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, flooding, tsunamis, and landslides. The frequency and severity of these events, as well as prolonged heatwaves, winter storms, and harmful air quality related to wildfires, are projected to continue increasing. It’s important that we educate ourselves about the risks, become more prepared to respond, and plan ahead to make our communities more resilient.
350 Tacoma and Native Daily Network were selected to complete a project with the Office of Emergency Management, City of Tacoma, and City of Seattle, to gather community input about Disaster Resilience Hubs and emergency preparedness which will help inform regional and national planning. We also hosted community events including emergency prep and disaster skills trainings, a collaborative art project, and open house where the public could connect with a range of local service providers and win useful survival supplies.
Día de los Muertos Celebration
This year we hosted our first Día de los Muertos Celebration at 350 Tacoma in collaboration with Chiapas Education Project. Deep gratitude to Elder Rita Coatl of Ketzalcoatl Danza Azteca for guiding us in preparations and the building of our altar. We’re thankful for everyone that shared songs, brought photos of loved ones, participated in ceremony, provided food or medicine, embodied the spirit of Catrín o Catrina, donated funds, helped clean or decorate, and all in attendance.
Immigrant Solidarity
With the increasing threats against our relatives labled “immigrants” it’s important to do what we can to stand in solidarity, educate our neighbors, and advocate for better policies–centered around our shared humanity. This year we helped support Indigenous-led prayer walks in Tacoma and Seattle, provided space for art builds, and began weekly freeway overpass bannering.
Supported Olympia Vigil for Tahlequah
350 Tacoma was able to offer support to the Protectors of the Salish Sea for a vigil held on the Governor’s Inauguration Day for Tahlequah, our orca relative who had recently lost another calf. Tahlequah gained global attention in 2018 when she carried her deceased calf for seventeen days. The vigil provided an opportunity to collectively grieve while calling for better salmon protection and the removal of the lower Snake River Dams. We provided space to paint banners, helped spread the word, and brought beautiful artwork salmon to the event.
Coalitions & Collaboration
Most of our work is done in collaboration because we are stronger together. We are proud to partner with many local orgs and grassroots community groups to fight for climate and social justice. 350 Tacoma is a member of the Stand Up To Oil Coalition (SUTO), the SeaTac Clean Ports Coalition, the 350 Network Council, 350 WA, and Climate Catastrophe Ground Zero Tacoma Coalition (ccg0).
Gratitude
We raise our hands to the Puyallup Tribe and Coast Salish Peoples who have stewarded these lands and waters since time immemorial, and continue to do so today.
We love our community and appreciate all the contributions of time, effort and skills that make 350 Tacoma possible: everyone who hosted or showed up to events, helped cook delicious meals or wash dishes, shared calls to action, provided research, made art, did the boring administrative stuff, and shared your gifts with the world. Thank you to all of the amazing people who stepped up to be our new Board this year.
We are deeply grateful to the organizations whose funding helped make our work possible this year: The Puyallup Tribe’s Charity Trust Board, Mary E Nolting Family Foundation, Stand Up To Oil Coalition, and the 350 Network Council. And we are deeply grateful to everyone who sends us small recurring monthly donations, made one-time donations, and supported this year’s fundraiser.