For parents of color in the Seattle area, the local nonprofit Families of Color Seattle (FOCS, pronounced “folks”) has been a vital resource for navigating early parenthood, connecting parents, and providing a BIPOC-centered community. But, more and more these days, FOCS is known not only for its parenting groups and Facebook page but for its mission to dismantle systemic racism. It’s a goal that steers all FOCS programs.
“We want to be known as this organization that’s doing advocacy work on behalf of the families that we serve—and with the families that we serve,” says FOCS Senior Community and Advocacy Manager Abbie Altamirano.
The organization’s main pillars of advocacy are educational equity, health equity, and reproductive justice, but “anti-racism is at the heart of what kind of advocacy work we want to do,” Altamirano adds.
An encampment in need of friends of color
Most recently, FOCS responded to the dire needs of approximately 200 asylum seekers living in squalid conditions at an encampment in Kent. The group recognized the inequities and injustices in the plight of immigrant families at the encampment—including families from Angola, Congo, and Venezuela with more than 25 children between them. Their kids ranged in age from 4 months to 15 years. As fall approached, the Seattle Times reported that county and state funding for temporary housing for new immigrant families arriving in King County was stretched thin.
“It’s such a complex and heart-wrenching situation for all those families and especially for the children,” says FOCS Executive Director Christine Tang. “No one sets out on a journey like this, braving the elements and criminal dangers, away from family, if their lives and well-being didn’t depend on it.”
As part of its support effort, FOCS and its member families gathered and delivered hundreds of dollars worth of donated essentials to the encampment families earlier this year. FOCS staff also spoke with parents in the encampment to assess their greatest needs and joined them at a recent Kent City Council meeting to urge local leaders to secure housing for families.
Brainstorming longer-term support
Following their initial action, FOCS leaders organized a brainstorming session with its members—parent group facilitators, teachers, and others—to develop a broader program to support camp families, including inviting partners from Union Cultural Center to teach capoeira, a Brazilian martial art combining dance, acrobatics, music, and philosophy in game form, to kids at the encampment. FOCS staff also collaborated with community organizations and individuals to help enroll 25 children at six schools.
Then, without warning, the encampment was emptied by authorities in late September and most families and pregnant people were moved to longer-term housing. FOCS leaders say they aim to stay informed and continue supporting the families.
Their struggles hit home
The plight of the immigrants hits home for the FOCS staff, many of whom are immigrants or children of immigrants. FOCS program director Jesse Guecha was born in Colombia to a mother struggling to find work while raising two young children. Guecha was left at an orphanage and later adopted through a Seattle-based agency.
“As somebody who ended up here in the U.S., away from my culture, away from my language, away from my family—even though I was given a roof over my head and food—I wasn’t given the cultural and language supports that I needed,” says Guecha. “So it really touches me to see these kids here. Some have their family with them but don’t have their extended family, their village, language, and culture.”
Advocacy and empowerment for local families
FOCS staff members bring the same passion for justice and equity to the organization’s ongoing programs. At the same time, staff never assume they know what is best for FOCS families.
FOCS leaders do, however, recognize the power that parents have in advocacy. Parent groups follow an anti-racism curriculum, and participants learn to address systemic racism in the community and schools. Specific parent groups (for example, Black and Indigenous parent groups) invite members to home in on issues relevant to their unique cultures. And, as the 2025 session of the Washington legislative session comes into view, FOCS is getting ready to push state lawmakers for secure family housing and alternatives to youth incarceration.
For that work, and for all its programs, FOCS relies on conversations among families, staff, and parent group facilitators.
“We started as a grassroots organization, and interpersonal connections are still one of the important things about FOCS,” says Tang.
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