Urban Impact

Urban poverty is not just a concept, but a profound, complex, and generational reality. Living within specific zip codes and identifying as a person of color can significantly shape access to education, economic opportunities, and even influence health outcomes. Founded in 1987, Urban Impact was born out of a need to address such interconnected challenges specifically within Seattle's Rainier Valley. Since our founding, we have expanded into the areas where poverty is migrating – from the Central District to Tukwila and beyond.

The individuals and communities we serve are faced with less employment opportunities and less access to capital to create jobs or generate wealth; poorer health outcomes because of race, socioeconomic status, education, age, and location; higher crime rates, concentration of lower performing title 1 schools,  households living below the federal poverty level, and more. Often, under the guise of trying to help, urban neighborhoods are gentrified by those “outside” who bring in their own ideas attempting to apply solutions without fully understanding the problems. Urban Impact is different.

Guided by the principles of Christian Community Development (CCD), our comprehensive, relational approach engages with individuals, families and communities, invests in community based solutions that foster reconciliation, and charts a path to personal ownership and responsibility over dependency, (as a direct antonym to all types of poverty) in ways that align with God's Kingdom values.  In response to the known disparities brought about by urban poverty, Urban Impact created specific divisions to provide holistic intervention strategies. As our divisions expand their offerings, we meet with the communities we serve, truly listening as residents to residents, hearing their needs and desires as our own. This allows us to create solutions that are not only grounded in well researched data, but also at a grassroots level, in community, with those we serve.

Through innovative approaches focused on Economic Development, Health and Wellness, Youth and Family Outreach and Neighborhood Transformation, we endeavor to dismantle the barriers that perpetuate the cycle of social, material, and spiritual poverty. Our vision is to bring about a world where everyone is engaged and thriving in communities that are safe, promote physical and emotional health, racial justice and firmly rooted in a spiritual foundation.