By Tamar Jackson, Senior Director of Community Engagement

In 2022, the Pierce County Community Engagement Task Force is casting a wider net to meet the needs of our community in an effort to support and connect them with meaningful employment. Despite the challenges brought with COVID-19, we are reaching more communities in Pierce County and ensuring their voices are heard. We are continuing our efforts to support community engagement, diversity, equity, access, and inclusion (DEAI) within organizations, and the distribution of resources to communities in need.

With the Task Force’s partnership with Goodwill and other community organizations, our Collaboration for a Cause events are continuing throughout 2022. At our latest event in Puyallup on April 2 (covered by King5 News here), over 200 attendees came to receive clothing, gas cards, connections to organizations assisting with employment, education, healthcare, and more. This event showed how much we can get done together when we put community first. We would like to thank the many volunteers and organizations that came out to serve.

Moving forward into the second half of 2022, we will continue to expand our reach outside of the Tacoma area and will hold three more Collaboration for a Cause events throughout Pierce County in Fife, Lakewood, and Frederickson. Our next Collaboration for a Cause event will be held at the Fife Community Center on June 24.

In May, the Task Force will present at the National Association of Workforce Development Professionals (NAWDP)’s annual conference. Titled Building a Diverse Workforce through a Lens of Equity, our presentation will focus on how promoting DEAI-B (Diversity, Equity, Access, Inclusion, and Belonging) in workforce development can serve the community, increase access, and foster growth.

We are also planning the Lens of Equity Summit, a full-day event in 2023 that will provide tangible tools and information to organizations so they can move forward and build healthy DEAI frameworks. Featuring keynote speakers, workshops, and resources, the summit will show how organizations, businesses, and individuals in Pierce County can be action-oriented in implementing DEAI work.

Our successes as a Task Force would not have been possible without your help. We want to thank our members, community partners, volunteers, and supporters for their unwavering efforts week after week in support of our community. Thank you for helping us grow and continue to bring economic mobility to individuals and families in Pierce County.