Center for the Study of Community and Society, University of Washington Tacoma

The mission of the University of Washington Tacoma is in large part to serve those who have been long denied higher education. That includes working class students, students of color and, more than any other group, black youth. From early years until its discontinuance in 2018, under the leadership of its Director Dr. Michael Honey, the UWT's Haley Professor of Humanities, the Center ought to study and build a better understanding of the dimensions of the racial and economic crises in our community and nationally; to organize and collaborate with community organizations; and to coordinate events and research to address these challenges. We are also focused broadly on the issues of human rights and conflict resolution, curbing police brutality, and stemming domestic violence, in partnerships with local community organizations such as the Tacoma Urban League and the African American Financial Capability Initiative Project.

From 2013 to 2016, the Center utilized a grant from the Fetzer Institute in Michigan, an organization to promote love and forgiveness, through the UWT Research Center in a project to promote a nonviolence initiative to restore friendship, collaboration, and grace within the human community. We partnered with Meaningful Movies to educate people about a broad range of issues and used the Fetzer grant to create the film, Love and Solidarity: James Lawson and Nonviolence in Search for Workers' Rights. The 38-minute film is copyrighted by the University of Washington and distributed nationally by Bullfrog Film, still available for campus, union and community screenings.

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