Olympia community organizer Renata Rollins announced her candidacy today for Olympia City Council Position 6. Her campaign asks, “Where Can We Go?” and will focus on embracing what’s possible during times of transition.
“In Olympia we face rising population, rising home prices, rising rents, rising homelessness and rising sea levels,” Rollins said. “But we also have a rising movement for justice, access, and accountability. A movement to align the needs of the people, the land and the water. A movement to reconcile our diverse and intersecting histories as we move toward a shared future.”
As a council member, Rollins says she would emphasize collaborative approaches to Olympia’s challenges and opportunities—especially by engaging stakeholders from marginalized communities who haven’t been called in to the process.
Since coming to Olympia in 2001, Rollins, 34, has spearheaded and organized for a number of prominent local and state organizations and initiatives. She was one of the first Olympia Downtown Ambassadors, where she built strong connections with downtown business owners, residents, workers, visitors, and the street community.
“Being an Ambassador had everything to do with hearing and learning from people with diverse experiences and needs, and honoring them as valid and real, even if they differed from my own,” Rollins said, who was the program team lead from 2013-14. “It made me aware that what’s at stake is survival—whether we’re talking about someone running a storefront or someone sleeping in front of one.”
After organizing to save the Artesian Commons Park from a looming shutdown in 2014, she served on the City of Olympia’s Artesian Leadership Committee in 2015, and is a board member and past president of Partners in Prevention Education, a nonprofit organization serving young survivors of violence who are homeless, queer/trans, or otherwise marginalized. Most recently, she co-founded Just Housing, a civil rights action group centered on the rights and safety of people living homeless in Olympia.
“People for Renata Rollins”
For more information, contact: renataforcouncil@gmail.com and facebook.com/RenataForCouncil
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