Grantee: We Are Comunidad
Timeframe: July 2026 – June 2027 | Amount: $174,966.52
Latino immigrant families in rural and unincorporated areas of King County, particularly Vashon Island and Enumclaw, face significant barriers to healthcare access. Many families are low-income, Spanish-speaking, and live in mixed-status households. Barriers include immigration-related fear, geographic isolation, limited transportation, language access, provider shortages, nontraditional work schedules, and lack of culturally responsive care. These challenges lead some families to delay or avoid care, rely on emergency services instead of preventive care, or avoid healthcare systems altogether.
We Are Comunidad will reduce fear-based barriers to healthcare access for Latino immigrant families in rural King County through community listening, youth-led advocacy, culturally grounded education, and partnerships with hospitals, healthcare workers, labor partners, and King County government. The project will focus on Vashon Island and Enumclaw, where Comunidad has long-standing relationships with Latino immigrant families, while also building shared advocacy with South King County immigrant communities. This rural-urban connection is intended to strengthen the collective power needed to influence healthcare systems that serve rural families but are often located outside their communities.
Grant funds will support outreach to hard-to-reach rural families, listening sessions, youth leadership training, advocacy coordination, educational materials, and engagement with healthcare and government partners. Comunidad will conduct listening sessions in trusted and accessible spaces, including workplaces, landscaping sites, horse barns, homes, community gatherings, and other informal settings. Outreach will take place during nontraditional hours and through one-on-one relationship-building to reach families who may not engage with formal healthcare or social service systems.
Youth leadership is central to the project. Comunidad will recruit and train 15–20 Latino youth leaders in listening, facilitation, issue identification, power mapping, and advocacy. Youth leaders will help recruit participants, gather and synthesize community input, identify priorities, and participate in advocacy with decision-makers. Many youth leaders serve as bridges between their families, communities, and institutions.
The project will directly engage approximately 100 Latino immigrant community members across rural and South King County, with indirect reach to several hundred additional community members through workplaces, community events, youth networks, and trusted relationships. Comunidad will use listening sessions and community validation activities to document barriers to care, confusion about patient rights, fear-driven avoidance, and community-generated solutions.
Comunidad will work with hospital systems, healthcare associations, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, frontline healthcare workers, and King County government to translate community concerns into changes in policy, practice, and communication. The project will focus on improving how hospitals communicate patient rights, safety, privacy protections, language access, and available services so immigrant families feel safer seeking care.
The project’s goals are to reduce fear-based delays in care, increase understanding of healthcare rights and protections, strengthen trust between immigrant families and healthcare systems, elevate rural immigrant community priorities, and build durable advocacy infrastructure led by youth and community members. Community feedback will be gathered, reviewed with youth and community leaders, and used to shape advocacy strategies, educational materials, and proposed systems changes over time.
ABOUT OUR GRANTEE
We Are Comunidad
“Powered by community wisdom and youth leadership. Building the conditions for families to thrive in good jobs, housing, health, environment, and culture.”
“The world as it is doesn’t work for most of us. Rural communities in particular face unique barriers—limited access to health and mental health care, fewer job opportunities, and climate challenges that hit us hardest.
In the face of these challenges, we chose to build. We start by listening. Together, communities decide what needs to change by tackling root causes. Whether it’s co-creating youth leadership, incubating businesses at Mercado, training landscapers in climate smart gardens, creating art and cultural installations, or innovating a mental health initiative, every effort is designed to build community power and lasting impact.
Together, equipping everyday people to shape a better future through Community and youth-led solutions that address root causes.
We lead with love, we fight for what matters, and we find strength in the common good we build together.”
