Northwest Cooperative Development Center

A nonprofit organization

14% complete

$10,000 Goal

About

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Our Children Need a Safe Place to Play

Our Campaign:

The Northwest Cooperative Development Center seeks support for a community park for one of our resident-owned mobile home cooperative communities: Evergreen Mobile Homeowners Cooperative in Shelton, WA. EMHC is transforming its surplus land into a park where children can play safely, and members of the community can gather together to enjoy the outdoors.

Who We Are:

The Northwest Cooperative Development Center fosters community economic development by helping to organize cooperative businesses and resident-owned communities. We believe that people, working together, can create communities and businesses based in cooperation not competition. Our work benefits a diverse range of traditionally under-served groups, including low-income workers, immigrants, and seniors, and helps build resilient economies.

Today the need for people to come together to rebuild their communities is more important than ever. Cooperative businesses bring vitality to our communities, provide needed services and ensure that the income produced stays local rather than being funneled to a distant corporation. Resident-owned mobile home parks fill a critical need for low-income housing. They enable people with little access to financial resources to become homeowners, and empower them to work collaboratively to govern their communities and make them safe, healthy, and sustainable places to live.

Evergreen Mobile Homeowners Cooperative: Our Story

Evergreen Mobile Homeowners Cooperative is a community of 43 mobile homes in Shelton, WA. We are low-income and mostly Latinx immigrants who are working hard to create good lives for ourselves and our families. We work in landscaping, construction, and the local shellfish industry. Most of us are regular church-goers; our children attend local schools.

Until 2021 the community belonged to a property owner who took advantage of the low-income housing shortage in our region to charge high rents for dilapidated housing. Our families lived with leaking, collapsing roofs, rotted floors and siding, and broken heaters. The roads flooded in the rainy season; each day our children waded through the water to get to the school bus stop.

"We had no place else to go. My wife and I work 6 days a week cleaning yards and houses. The money we made was not enough to rent a better place. It wasn't healthy for us to live here. When the rains came, we worried that the children would get sick" (Recino, father of 4, who has lived in the community for 18 years).

With the support of the Northwest Cooperative Development Center, we organized, created a cooperative and received a loan to purchase the property. The process brought a resurgence of energy and hope to our community. We formed a volunteer Home Repair Committee which works with our neighbors to repair failing roofs. A group of women came together and led a drive to turn a surplus strip of land into a community park.

"There are so many children living here. They need a place to play outdoors and meet other children. And we need a place to meet each other and work together to make our community a better place to live" (Maribel, mother of 6, who has lived in the community for 8 years).

The field--before

Our Progress

Step by step, we are transforming a neglected neighborhood into a healthy place to live. Our Home Repair Committee meets monthly to welcome new members and learn about their needs. 21 of the community's 43 homes have received new roofs.

Our Women's Group created a design for the community park that includes a picnic shelter, playing field for teens and adults, and a playground for children ages 5-12. Our children participated in the design process, and drew pictures of the longed-for playground, including swings, a slide and a climbing toy. With our Board's approval, we shared our project with local organizations and asked for support.

Volunteers from a nearby church brought tractors to clear and level the field.

Landscape supply companies donated soil and grass seed. Our neighbors came out for long work days to clear rocks and debris, spread new soil, and install an irrigation system.

We built the community shelter with donated lumber, and another church brought meals to keep us going.

An artist hosted a workshop for children in our new shelter while we worked. A local environmental group donated fruit and nut trees. We're grateful to the volunteers who helped us!

We're heartened by donations from Capitol City Marathon Fund, Squaxin Island Tribe, Norman Archibald Foundation, ROC Foundation, and local businesses.

Our Need

We have raised $17,000 for our park. We need to raise $10,000 more to complete purchasing playground equipment for the 75+ children ages 5-12 in Evergreen Mobile Homeowners Cooperative. We hope for your support to make their dream a reality!