Seattle Community Court – Source of Support for Neighborhood Projects

We should keep in mind a relatively new source of community help for our neighborhood projects.  Since 2005, the Seattle Community Court has been giving certain low-level crime offenders the opportunity to do community service and hook up with social services instead of doing jail time.  The Court partners with community organizations as community service sites, employing a wide range of volunteers, including AmeriCorps members.  Read more about the reasons it was started and how it is benefitting both the offenders and the city here.

We can ask the Court for help on various projects such as trash pick-up, graffiti removal, or just about anything.  The workers wear orange vests, and depending on the job, an AmeriCorps staff member may supervise.  But another model is to just have them work side by side with us.  Only offenders who are deemed to be no public threat, and whose crimes are of a certain non-serious nature, are eligible for this program.

You may have seen the Lake City mural that was completed recently.  It was a project that used these individuals. 

So let’s remember this great resource when we plan events in our neighborhood!