Sound Transit

Vision

Southeast Seattle is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse communities around the Puget Sound. Spanish-, Chinese-, Vietnamese-, Cambodian-, Somali-, Amharic-, Oromo-, and Tigrinya-speaking residents of Southeast Seattle make up the fabric of the community. Link Light Rail was coming to these people's neighborhood, opening up exciting new public transit options, and SoundTransit wanted to do community outreach to support the new Southeast Seattle opening.

‍

Challenge

There was very little existing research on travel choices outreach to these diverse populations. To connect with and honor the needs of these residents as Link Light Rail opened up, it was essential to create a best practices road map for outreach. So SoundTransit turned to Launch to research and define best practices for community outreach regarding travel choices.

‍

Solution

A literature review was conducted which included outreach to immigrant and refugee populations around civil rights, housing, and health care. Additional interviews with SE Seattle community leaders took place to verify and expand upon findings. This work resulted in a clear best practices recommendation and roadmap on how to best communication travel choices to Southeast Seattle, in a way that honors and celebrates the diversity it treasures. It also generated an informed and engaged network of SE Seattle community leaders.