Get to Know Us: Q&A with Michelle Benetua
We have a small but mighty team here at Seattle Parks Foundation, with dedicated and knowledgeable staff ready to help our fiscal partners achieve their goals.
Our Director of Strategic Partnerships and Programs, Michelle Benetua (she/her) works with groups championing public space projects throughout Seattle, focusing on leadership development, planning, and strategy so that our public spaces are designed by, for, and with the people most impacted by environmental injustices. She has spent her career facilitating cross-cultural and community-based leadership to enhance civic engagement, promote food justice, and improve access to safe places to play.
Thank you, Michelle, for sharing more about yourself with us!
Before you joined SPF, you were with Solid Ground working in urban agriculture and food justice. How does that work connect with the work you do with our partners today?
I started with SPF as the Duwamish Valley Program Manager, so having 8-years of experience working with the South Park community gave me appreciation for the multiple hats and responsibilities people hold while still pushing forward on their hopes and dreams for their communities and their open spaces. Access to healthy food and access to welcoming places to play are intertwined and part of the same struggle. Today, my work with partners extends throughout Seattle and a bit into King County but still focuses on ways to amplify their efforts through partnerships, funding & strategy.
You’ve worked with SPF for over eight years now! How has your job evolved or changed over time?
I started in more of an organizing role with community leads, rolling up my sleeves and working side by side them on implementing projects. Now, I work with SPF leadership and staff to evolve our organization as a whole to support community members with their projects. When I started, beyond the NMF grants, we maybe had two public grants. Now, we support our partners with close to 90 from sources that require ever increasingly complex reporting and tracking. This shows how relevant the work of our fiscal partners is to improving health equity, community connections, capacity building, and the livability of region and how we’ve been able to adjust internally.
Are there any partners you’ve been working with since you first started? What has it been like seeing their projects evolve?
YES! With a group like DIRT Corps for example – It amazing to see a group grow and mature, even with changes in their leadership and become a sought-out partner and leader of GSI. Also, a group like Lake City Collective, which started out as a fiscal sponsee and built the community and organizational capacity to become a 501c3. I feel positively connected to different parts of the county through the projects and people I’ve worked with.
What would you say the “secret sauce” is for creating a project that connects to community?
I’ve seen many different organizing and community leadership styles but the most impactful projects seem to be those that draw people in through fun, connection, purpose, place and sharing leadership. I’d also add that a long time horizon is helpful too – new ideas are sometimes scary and threaten the status quo. However, it is the community members I work with that have kept me here for so long- they bring fun, collective energy, and the camaraderie in challenging inequities.
You’re on the advisory committee for King County’s Healthy Communities and Parks Fund, and you also serve as co-chair of the King County Open Space Equity Cabinet. Can you share how your involvement in these spaces influences your work with SPF, and vice versa?
My work with community groups on all sorts of planning projects around the region has given me perspective that helps me understand the content of what we cover in the OSEC or the barriers folks might face with the HCPF. I do this committee work in addition to my work at SPF because working towards racial equity in a policy setting will hopefully benefit communities who are at most risk due to lack of well maintained, healthy & welcoming places to play. Plus, it helps me grow and learn.
Along with all the work you do at SPF and on committees, you also give a lot of your time by volunteering with the community. Would you like to share about any of the projects you support?
I’m on the board of the Duwamish River Community Coalition an environmental justice organization located in South Park that works on important EJ issues like river clean up and air quality in a way that centers community voice and lived experience. I also volunteer with the Healthy Places workgroup of the Healthy King County Coalition in developing and delivering leadership trainings around the built environment so that more Black and Brown community members feel comfortable entering spaces where decisions are made about their communities.
You have a deep well of knowledge in so many areas – including gardening! Can you leave us with some of your best gardening or planting advice?
Fall gardening – plant cover crop or cover with leaf mulch, feed the soil – it is a living organism.