BIKE WORKS SEATTLE

Our strategic plan's focus on advancing racial equity in our community is outlined through four main goals:
1) Bike Works Culture: Promote intersectional equity by cultivating a culture at Bike Works of transparency, curiosity, innovation, learning, community, and abundance;
2) Community Engagement: Actively engage neighbors and partner organizations to share our resources and build stronger communities;
3) Job Access: Offer progressive opportunities within the bicycle industry to increase job access for people who come from historically marginalized communities (BIPOC, women/trans*/non-binary, LGBTQ, people with disabilities);
4) Bike Works Space: Examine our space and facility needs through a racial equity lens so we can better serve the community.

To implement our Strategic Plan, we created three cross-departmental staff committees to collaboratively work on making this plan a reality. 100% of staff participate in one of the three committees: Culture, Structure, and Equity. The goals of our strategic plan have been divided amongst the three committees, which meet regularly and report back to the staff and board as they advance in their work. Examples of committee projects include reviewing and re-designing employee pay and benefits to ensure that everyone is making a living wage; regular all-ages riding opportunities to build relationships with community members; staff trainings to advance our abilities to cultivate a truly inclusive, equitable environment.

Bike Works is led by a diverse 15-member board and 20-member staff who represent the communities we serve (majority Black, Indigenous, and People of Color; South Seattle residents; cyclists; program alumni.) Our lived and professional experience, along with our awareness that we all have more to learn, inform our strategic plan implementation will happen intentionally and with our community's needs in mind.

One year into our strategic plan, we have made the following progress:

1) Internal Culture
-Replaced our Leadership Team with cross-departmental staff committees to lead strategic plan implementation;
Increased our lowest compensation to ensure that all staff earn a living wage.
-Increased the annual number of sick and self-care days from 10 to 30 so that staff, especially folks with disabilities, chronic illnesses, or at risk of burnout can take care of themselves.
-Closed the bike shop one day a week to give shop staff capacity for full participation in our organization.
-Implemented regular equity-focused all-staff meetings, caucusing, and trainings to build an equitable, inclusive community.
-Shifted the balance of our leadership, staff, and board from majority white to majority BIPOC, better reflecting the communities we serve.

2) Community Engagement
-Added more all-ages group cycling opportunities, free or sliding scale registration, and partnerships with other groups.
-We raised nearly $6,000 for other BIPOC-led, youth-serving organizations this year.
-Surveyed our community to better evaluate our progress towards becoming anti-racist and inclusive.
-Supported affinity groups such as ABC (a bicycling club for Asians, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders), Northstar Cycling (for BIPOC cyclists), Breakfast Racing (for women, transgender, and non-binary racers), and Refuge Outdoor Festival (centering BIPOC community in the outdoors) with bikes, gear, expertise, and funds.

3) Job Access
-Offered BIPOC-focused youth programs through partnerships with Franklin High School, Sweetlines, Rainier Beach High School, Holy Family Bilingual Catholic School, Young Women Empowered, and SPIN Girls, among others.
-Expanded our paid apprenticeships to include every department in our organization, offering a range of experience from bike mechanics to communications and fundraising.

4) Space
-Began working with Build, LLC to redesign our shop’s backyard into a community gathering space.
-Created a youth-directed lounge area for social and down time before, after, and during programs.
-Embedded some youth programs in schools and other community spaces, making our programming more accessible to youth and creating room for other programming in our classrooms.