By Janel McFeat Washington Statewide Reentry Council Executive Director When I arrived at Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribal Chairman Jeromy Sullivan’s Celebration of Life on July 22, the area was bustling with tribal members, tribal leaders, state and county officials, service providers, and the greater Kitsap community, including many of the…

By bus, train, car or plane, some 300,000 people packed the Paris Air Show in June to catch up on the latest in aviation after a four-year break from in-person gatherings. The massive Hall 3, built as the main media center for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, hosted the…

The Washington Statewide Reentry Council hosted Concerts for Hope and Listening Circles at four prison facilities across the state this spring in partnership with the Department of Corrections. The Statewide Reentry Council is part of the Department of Commerce. It was created in 2016 to improve public safety and outcomes…

For the first time in more than 50 years, people seeking affordable housing in Seattle can look up. Bellwether Housing and Plymouth Housing partnered to build the first new affordable high-rise apartment building in Seattle in decades, which is nearly complete. Plymouth’s Blake House will have 112 studio apartments for…

As a new mother, Tiffany Pearsall was commuting an hour and a half to and from Gresham, Oregon, for child care, which gave her plenty of time on the road to rethink her priorities. She’d been a preschool teacher for a half-dozen years and knew she wanted more for herself…

Christmas brought a new beginning for 17 families at the Tulalip Indian Reservation’s newly extended Village of Hope, when they moved into new tiny homes connected by walking paths near the southwest corner of the 22,000-acre reservation near Tulalip Bay. The Washington State Department of Commerce provided nearly $2.5 million…

The spirit of civil rights activists are ever-present in Spokane’s East Central neighborhood, where the Carl Maxey Center and the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center co-hosted this month’s Black Business Expo. During the Expo, Black-owned businesses and community partners gathered in the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center’s gymnasium…

Federal Way complex will be near transit, affordable Transportation has influenced where humans have lived and worked throughout time. Where populations have sprung up, so too have roads, rails and other methods in and out. From Roman streets to super trains, communities and the paths to them are forever linked. The rule applies in Washington, too, with the…

Many strong leaders are setting a powerful example for younger generations — On August 9, people around the world are celebrating the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, and so is Commerce! The United Nations (UN) established this holiday to mark the founding of its Working Group on Indigenous Populations in 1982. This year’s theme focuses on the role of Indigenous…