Success Stories

The Sound Alliance has won victories in the areas of sustainable jobs and the environment,  housing, health care and immigrant and civil rights.  With the leadership of several dozen faith, labor and community institutions, we have:

• Launched a foreclosure prevention campaign that has trained more than 100 people to be more effective advocates for themselves and has pressed Bank of America executives to open their first customer service center in Washington state to deliver in-person loan servicing support for distressed borrowers trying to save their homes.

• Crafted legislation and led the campaign to secure passage of “the most comprehensive and groundbreaking green jobs legislation of our time” (Green for All) - designating $14.5 million for community-based energy efficiency retrofit projects that  that create “green” jobs for lower-income and disadvantaged communities.
• Partnered with the Spokane Alliance to create a nonprofit enterprise – SustainableWorks – that secured $4.9 million in state and federal funding and is in the process of retrofitting thousands of homes in high-need neighborhoods across the state.

• Obtained agreements with the Seattle, Tacoma, Bethel, and Clover Park school districts to work with the Alliance on a project designed to improve career and educational opportunities for the nearly 70 percent of high school students who will not go on to get a four-year college degree.  Alliance leaders negotiated an agreement between Bethel Public Schools and Washington Sheet Metal Joint Apprenticeship Training Council to provide direct entry into apprenticeships for Bethel high school students.
• Negotiated with officials from the City of Renton and the City of Federal Way to train Alliance leaders in emergency preparedness standards and equip local churches with backup power sources so that they can serve as emergency shelters.
• Engaged in campaigns to secure a King County ordinance that reduces racial and ethnic profiling by county employees, and restore full funding in the state budget for medical interpretation services.