Previous Race Equity Grants
2025
Carl Maxey Center
Expanding services of Spokane’s first Racial Justice Help Center & Legal Clinic by offering free and confidential information, resources, referrals, and screenings for potential legal representation or litigation.
Central Washington Disability Resources
Supporting individuals with disabilities who might not have knowledge of the legal system by hiring an attorney to provide free legal help and support in completing forms and understanding their rights.
Communities Rise
Providing legal support to nonprofits and small businesses with racial justice missions and programming to empower them to be risk-intelligent and understand their legal rights.
Diocese of Olympia
Empowering BIPOC refugee and immigrant communities—particularly Afghans and other Middle Eastern populations—through culturally-responsive, language-accessible civil legal aid services and leadership development.
Hand in Hand Immigration Services
Providing accessible, bilingual immigration support services to individuals navigating the complex path to U.S. citizenship, with a focus on vulnerable and underserved populations in Central Washington.
Health and Justice Recovery Alliance
Providing culturally-sound civil legal aid to low-income systems-impacted individuals and families in Eastern Washington experiencing crisis, including intimate and non-intimate partner violence and sex.
Kalispel Tribe of Indians
Enhancing civil legal services and addressing gaps in access to justice for Kalispel Tribal Community through contracted legal service providers.
Kitsap Immigrant Assistance Center
Providing full legal representation in a variety of immigration legal matters for immigrant clients in the West Salish region.
Korean Women's Alliance
Expanding legal services for immigrant and refugee survivors of domestic violence residing at Korean Women’s Association’s multilingual shelter.
Land Clinic, fiscally sponsored by Ecologistics
Addressing systemic barriers that prevent the Lower Snake River Palouse and surrounding Indigenous communities in Washington from reclaiming land, securing sovereignty, and accessing legal protections.
Lavender Rights Project
Advancing community-led legislative campaigns that protect and expand the rights of Black communities statewide, including Trans and gender-diverse people through policy advocacy, impact litigation, and grassroots organizing.
Living with Conviction
Promoting equity for unrepresented individuals seeking restitution relief in Pierce and Yakima County Superior Courts where substantive and procedural barriers obstruct such relief, and perpetuate systemic racial oppression.
MiA - Mujeres in Action
Training a full-time Legal Advocate to become a Department of Justice (DOJ)-accredited representative and paralegal with the ability provide legal support, including specialized immigration legal services and support for Latine and immigrant survivors of Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault.
Pacific County Immigrant Support
Assisting immigrants in Pacific County through education and representation to gain legal status, achieve DACA registration or renewal, secure citizenship, and defend immigrants facing ICE arrest/detention/deportation efforts.
Refugee Women's Alliance
Providing immigration and naturalization services to immigrants and refugees to stabilize their status so they can legally remain in the United States.
Seattle Clemency Project
Matching immigrants who are facing deportation due to old criminal convictions with free lawyers to file petitions for the post-conviction relief needed to prevent deportation.
Solid Ground
Advocating to end the racially disproportionate harm caused by the Department of Social and Health Services Office of Fraud and Accountability (OFA) investigative process.
Unidos Nueva Alianza Foundation
Supporting immigrant and refugee communities in Central Washington to receive legal aid, including support with DACA renewals, permanent residency, asylum status, applications for U and T visas, and completion of the naturalization process..
WomenSpirit Coalition
Expanding outreach and available services to Tribal victims and survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, and dating violence, and providing training statewide for civil tribal legal advocates and internal staff.
Yoyot Sp'q'n'i
Providing culturally grounded civil legal aid and know your rights workshops in partnership with Sage Indigenous Law Center to ensure that the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) is properly upheld in local courts.
2024
CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) Washington
Expanding services to support the BAMEMSA (Black, Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim & South Asian) community in cases of discrimination, including housing, employment, disproportionate school discipline, and freedom of speech and belief.
Central Washington Justice for Our Neighbors
Increasing community-centered advocacy for immigrants in Eastern and Central Washington by hiring a Community Advocate.
Colectiva Legal
del Pueblo
Providing pro se assistance, direct representation, and educational sessions to undocumented immigrants navigating the U.S. immigration system.
Cowlitz-Wahkiakum
Legal Aid
Expanding bilingual Spanish/English services and Tribal outreach programs in Lewis and Pacific Counties.
Creative Justice
Uplifting BIPOC young people through a youth-directed program that focuses on advocacy and base building while working with incarcerated organizers to influence laws and other policies that inhibit liberation.
Eastside Legal Assistance Program - Dementia Legal Planning Program
Increasing non-English client support for advanced legal planning and client intake to better serve older populations planning for dementia and end of life.
Dementia Legal Planning Program
Increasing non-English client support for advanced legal planning and client intake to better serve older populations planning for dementia and end of life.
Global Rights
Advocacy
Strengthening human rights advocacy on behalf of undocumented migrants affected by civil detention.
Institute
for Black Justice
Supporting low-income, BIPOC community members in Pierce County with community legal consultation sessions and direct legal aid services.
Latinos
en Spokane
Providing civil immigration legal support to low-income Latino individuals and families in Spokane County who are disproportionately affected by systemic inequalities in the legal system.
Manzanita
House
Increasing access to justice for immigrants in Eastern Washington by hiring a bilingual Intake Specialist to streamline service and increase accessibility, capacity, and families served.
Mi Centro –
BASTA Coalition
Integrating civil legal aid training for farm workers in partnership with Northwest Justice Project’s Farmworker Unit (FWU) to provide direct referrals for legal assistance in harassment and discrimination cases.
Mi
Chiantla
Providing information, education, and immigration legal aid services for Latinx immigrants in the process of legalization and deportation in Grays Harbor, Lewis, Mason, and Thurston Counties.
The Mockingbird
Society
Incorporating the voice of young people who have experienced foster care in critical informational materials around their legal rights in partnership with the WA State Office of Civil Legal Aid’s Children’s Representation Program.
NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) – Vancouver
Expanding outreach and capacity to meet the demand for meaningful civil legal aid for the Black Community in Clark County through advocacy, education, and legal resource referrals to protect the most vulnerable peoples’ civil legal rights.
Our Sisters’
House
Expanding legal services and legal advocacy for Black and African American victims of intimate partner violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking in Pierce County.
Skagit
Legal Aid
Increasing access to identification documents for Indigenous immigrants in the Skagit Valley by building relationships, training officials, and advocating for legal needs.
Tenants Union of Washington State
Providing critical tenant education and civil legal aid services in multiple languages to renters in Spokane through the Tenants’ Rights Hotline, individualized tenant counseling, and tenant education workshops.
United Farm Workers (UFW) Foundation
Empowering farm workers in Eastern Washington seeking prosecutorial discretion through community-based and client-centered legal services for Deferred Action based on Labor Agency investigation.
Walla Walla Immigrant Rights Coalition
Supporting immigrants with their legal aid needs in Walla Walla County through Know Your Rights Workshops, DACA renewal clinics, citizenship clinics, asylum and refugee workshops, legal immigration consultations and drop in consultations.
The Way
to Justice
Building up a legal workforce equipped to interrupt racial oppression in the system by hiring 10-12 BIPOC undergraduate and law students to practice with a holistic, person-centered, anti-racist lens.
2023
Carl Maxey
Center
Expanding the services of Spokane’s first Racial Justice Help Center & Legal Clinic to proactively, directly, and courageously address the acts of racial discrimination and racial injustice regularly perpetrated against members of the community.
Entre
Hermanos
Strengthening legal aid collaborations to provide culturally and linguistically sensitive wraparound services for Latinx and LGBTQ2S+ clients who face complex marginalization due to their immigration and documentation status, sexuality, poverty, or gender.
QLaw Foundation
of Washington
Strengthening legal aid collaborations to provide culturally and linguistically sensitive wraparound services for Latinx and LGBTQ2S+ clients who face complex marginalization due to their immigration and documentation status, sexuality, poverty, or gender.
Freedom
Project
Investigating and producing reports for litigation and policy advocacy to stop the expropriation of property from system-impacted individuals without the means or knowledge to access justice.
Lavender Rights
Project
Increasing access to the civil legal protections most frequently sought by Black and Indigenous clients: record vacation, expungements, restoration of rights, name changes, and general legal aid.
Living with Conviction, with fiscal sponsor CENTER
Equipping and empowering incarcerated and formerly incarcerated students of color to exercise their rights to request reductions of their court debt through a partnership with reentry and education navigators affiliated with the Washington State Board of Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC).
MiA –
Mujeres in Action
Building capacity to offer culturally responsive legal advocacy for immigrant Latinx survivors of domestic violence and/or sexual assault in the Spokane region.
Pacific County Immigrant Support
Assisting immigrants in Pacific County through education and representation to gain legal status, achieve DACA registration or renewal, secure citizenship, and defend immigrants facing ICE arrest/detention/deportation efforts.
Tulalip
Foundation
Providing client-centered direct legal representation and advocacy for the educational needs of Tulalip Tribal youth ages 0-21 in the foster care system.
Unidos Nueva Alianza Foundation
Supporting rural community members in Central Washington with DACA renewals, asylum applications, and other immigration-related legal aid.
Wenatchee for
Immigrant Justice
Assisting immigrants with immigration fees and hospital charity care applications to alleviate medical debt to empower them to flourish in their communities.
2022
Access to Justice Board (Washington State Bar Association)
Promoting relationships between legal aid and community partners through the Community Advisory Panel, grounding their work with the lived expertise of those who have been harmed by racism within the legal system.
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) – Vancouver
Expanding outreach and capacity to meet the demand for meaningful civil legal aid for the Black Community through advocacy, education, and legal resource referrals to protect the most vulnerable peoples’ civil legal rights.
Nuestra
Casa
Offering civic engagement training and providing DOJ-accredited legal services to Latino families in the Yakima Valley through the community-based citizenship program, CARE (Citizenship Access, Resources and Education).
Our Sisters’
House
Providing culturally specific legal advocacy to African American and Black survivors of domestic violence in Pierce County.
Seattle Clemency
Project
Extending long-term, individualized support, including civil legal aid, employment assistance, counseling, and education to men and women reentering the community after serving excessively long prison sentences.
Tenants Union of Washington State
Empowering tenants through the Tenant Education Program that includes statewide Tenants Rights Hotline, individualized tenant counseling, a comprehensive website, tenant education workshops, and housing justice services in multiple languages.
Washington Low Income Housing Alliance
Building power for people who have experienced housing injustice to change state policy through storytelling, organizing, and civic action through the Resident Action Project.
Fall 2021
Communities
Rise
Expanding the Community Connectors Program, a relationship-based outreach program in South King, Spokane, Yakima, and Pierce counties that compensates trusted community leaders to share culturally fluent information about COVID-related legal resources.
Disability Rights
Washington
Implementing strategies to shift DRW’s systemic civil justice advocacy to address inequities experienced by disabled BIPOC, especially at risk of criminalization, incarceration, or institutionalization.
Global Rights
Advocacy
Expanding legal outreach and international human rights advocacy on behalf of asylum-seekers and other detainees at Northwest Processing Center.
Gonzaga University’s Removal Defense Project
Providing free representation for vulnerable immigrants in Eastern Washington who must travel to the Seattle immigration court for removal hearings and training the next generation of nonracist immigration lawyers.
Korean Women’s
Association
Assisting low-income and immigrant survivors of domestic violence in Tacoma with legal advice and representation.
Pacific County Immigrant Support
Providing legal education and representation for Pacific County immigrants to secure legal status as residents.
Kitsap Immigrant Assistance Center
Providing legal education and representation for Pacific County immigrants to secure legal status as residents.
Tacomaprobono Community Lawyers
Providing free legal services to BIPOC and low-income clients seeking to relieve the burden of legal financial obligations (LFOs), with the goal of reducing barriers to housing and relicensing.
Tulalip
Foundation
Providing client-centered direct legal representation to Tulalip tribal member foster youth that addresses, supports, and protects the youth’s individual needs and goals.
Unemployment
Law Project
Creating a Carl Maxey Race Equity Fellowship in Spokane to coordinate legal aid with BIPOC community organizations including a BIPOC Community Civil Legal Aid Summit.
Spring 2021
La Casa
Hogar
Increasing access to naturalization services among rural, immigrant, Latinx lawful permanent residents of the Yakima Valley, by training and equipping community fellows for Department of Justice accreditation.
Living
with Conviction
Empowering formerly incarcerated people of color and with low incomes to know and claim their rights to relief from the onerous court-imposed debt of legal financial obligations.
Seattle Clemency
Project
Providing long-term, individualized support to men and women reentering the community after serving excessively long prison sentences, including: civil legal aid, employment assistance, counseling, training, education, and basic needs.
TeamChild
Building power among incarcerated youth (up to age 25) by working directly with them to plan, develop, and begin constructing a law library that meets their needs to understand the law and change their circumstances.
The Way
to Justice
Expanding the availability of civil legal aid services for the BIPOC community in Spokane County while continuing to call the broader legal and justice system to examine and dismantle its racism.
Wenatchee for
Immigrant Justice
Supporting immigrants in Wenatchee and the surrounding area needing financial assistance with the costs of applying for DACA, US citizenship and replacement of permanent residency cards.
Fall 2020
Disability Rights
Washington
Working to shift power so Black, Indigenous, and people of color with disabilities can provide real input to King County and the State about healthcare needs and revising crisis standards of care.
Freedom
Project
Increasing community-centered legal support by and for Black, Indigenous, and people of color impacted by the legal system through organizing, mentoring, and leadership development.
Seattle Clemency
Project
Providing people recently released from prison through the state clemency process with legal services and the other assistance they need to successfully reintegrate into society.
South King County Discipline Coalition
Ending disproportionate discipline of students of color and interrupting the school-to-prison pipeline through anti-racist organizing, leadership development, and advocacy that centers directly impacted parents and youth.
West African
Community Council
Assisting members of the refugee and immigrant community with limited English proficiency in gaining legal status and permission to work in the United States.
Yakima County Volunteer Attorney Services
Expanding outreach about pro bono legal services to members of the Spanish-speaking community in Yakima County, where Latinx people are half of the population.
Spring 2020
Colectiva Legal
del Pueblo
Building community power for migrant justice through pro bono and low bono legal services, advocacy, and education to combat the immigration detention and deportation systems.
Cowlitz-Wahkiakum
Legal Aid
Increasing access to justice for underserved communities in Southwest Washington, through an Equity & Justice Community Coordinator position to conduct community trainings and outreach.
Dispute Resolution Center of Yakima & Kittitas
Expanding services for Spanish-speaking families working through divorce or parenting plans by training bilingual mediators in Yakima County, where Latinx people are half of the population.
Fair Work
Center
Establishing a peer training promotores program to prepare farmworkers to facilitate health and safety and know-your-rights trainings for their coworkers throughout the Yakima Valley.
Legal Counsel for Youth and Children
Conducting focus groups to understand how the civil legal aid system can improve accessibility and cultural competency to better serve youth and young adults of color in King County.
Living
with Conviction
Empowering formerly incarcerated individuals to end onerous legal financial obligations (LFOs), which disproportionately impact communities of color and perpetuate cycles of poverty.
Spring 2019
Center
for Justice
Addressing racial inequality in Spokane through policy advocacy, community legal clinics, and post-conviction and re-entry services.
Cowlitz Wahkiakum
Legal Aid
Advancing race equity in Southwest Washington with community trainings, outreach, and organizational capacity building.
Disability Rights
Washington
Integrating movement lawyering into a statewide action plan to better serve people with disabilities in communities of color.
Dispute Resolution Center of Yakima & Kittitas
Opening new inroads at the courts for Spanish-speaking families previously excluded from linguistic and cultural access.
Entre
Hermanos
Expanding statewide services to Latinx LGBTQ immigrants through direct representation of asylum seekers, legal clinics, and trainings for volunteer attorneys.
QLaw Foundation
Expanding statewide services to Latinx LGBTQ immigrants through direct representation of asylum seekers, legal clinics, and trainings for volunteer attorneys.
Seattle Clemency
Project
Advocating for clemency for refugees around the state who are at risk of being deported and separated from family due to prior convictions for which they have already served time.
Tenants Union of Washington State
Building the power of low income renters of color to advocate for just cause eviction, rent control, and housing justice.
Washington Parole
Coalition
Organizing community members impacted by mass incarceration, survivors of violence, and civil legal aid providers to bring comprehensive parole reform to Washington.
West African
Community Council
Achieving legal status and permission to work for Limited English Proficient members of Seattle’s growing West African community.
What’s Next
Washington
Removing systemic barriers to re-entry by building skills, support, and resources for people directly impacted by the criminal justice system.
Freedom
Project
Removing systemic barriers to re-entry by building skills, support, and resources for people directly impacted by the criminal justice system.