Tag Archives: Choose 180

Community Groups Say ShotSpotter in Proposed Mayoral Budget May Harm South End

by Lauryn Bray


On Sept. 27, 2022, Mayor Bruce Harrell delivered his budget proposal for 2023, which included a $10 million increase in funding for the Regional Homelessness Authority, a $1 million increase to the $6 million budget for projects designed to reduce traffic collisions in the Rainier Valley, and pay increases for homelessness service providers. The budget also outlines increased spending for police, using the JumpStart payroll tax for non-JumpStart programs, moving the City’s parking enforcement back to the Seattle Police Department, and installing ShotSpotters in Rainier Beach. As Bruce Harrell attempts to follow through with his campaign promise to address public safety concerns, he seeks to undo the abolition efforts of the 2020–2022 state of civil unrest.

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Regional Peacekeepers Seek to Keep Community Members — and Hope — Alive

by Rosette Royale

The Emerald is a blueprint to showing, sharing, and bridging Black and Brown folks through the power of storytelling. The Emerald is what we should be truly striving for as a community. Don’t just talk about it. Create a way to practice and be about us coming together. The Emerald is setting the example. Join me in supporting the Emerald as a recurring donor during their 8th anniversary campaign, Ripples & Sparks at Home, April 20–28. Become a Rainmaker today by choosing the “recurring donor” option on the donation page!

—Sharon Nyree Williams, Artist, Orator, & Rainmaker

Everyone lost to gun violence is someone’s beloved.  Beloved is a multi-media campaign exploring gun violence in-depth in four phases: The Problem of gun violence as a symptom of illness (or infection) caused by systemic inequality; The History of gun violence, root causes, and local and national data trends. The Solutions to end gun violence including King County Public Health’s regional approach to gun violence prevention and treatments; and finally, the ideation of a world without gun violence, The Beloved Community. The Beloved project is brought to you in partnership with Seattle Office of Arts & Culture Hope Corps program, King County’s Public Health team, Converge Media, Black Coffee Northwest, Toybox Consulting, Creative Justice, The Facts Newspaper, Forever Safe Spaces, Northwest African American Museum, Presidential Media, and the South Seattle Emerald.


When a gunshot is fired in King County, Khalid Adams finds out through an alert on his phone. Then his time as a violence interrupter begins.

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Transforming Lives: Doug Wheeler Carries On Family Legacy

by Beverly Aarons


“Doug gave me a standard as a Black man,” said Merman Sallier, a music producer and digital instructor from Seattle who grew up in the Central District and attended Zion Preparatory Academy with the class of ’91. “Just the way he carried himself and the way he communicated with people — his cars, his relationship with his wife, his relationship with his children, just everything. He was someone that me and a lot of my friends looked up to as the standard. At the time, the only other Black men to emulate in his community were drug dealers and pimps.” But even “those guys looked up to Doug,” said Sallier.

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The Morning Update Show — 3/14

The Morning Update Show — hosted by Trae Holiday and The Big O (Omari Salisbury) — is the only weekday news and information livestream that delivers culturally relevant content to the Pacific Northwest’s urban audience. Omari and Trae analyze the day’s local and national headlines as well as melanin magic in our community. Watch live every weekday at 11 a.m. on any of the following channels, hosted by Converge Media: YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, Periscope, and whereweconverge.com.

We also post the Morning Update Show here on the Emerald each day after it airs, so you can catch up any time of day while you peruse our latest posts.

Morning Update Show — Monday, March 14

LIVE — Sean Goode of Choose180 | “Goode News” From Across the Community | BELOVED King County Spreads Love | South End Stand Up! BUILD 206 Hits the Airwaves | Black Love: How Did We Meet Again?

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The Morning Update Show — 2/14

The Morning Update Show — hosted by Trae Holiday and The Big O (Omari Salisbury) — is the only weekday news and information livestream that delivers culturally relevant content to the Pacific Northwest’s urban audience. Omari and Trae analyze the day’s local and national headlines as well as melanin magic in our community. Watch live every weekday at 11 a.m. on any of the following channels, hosted by Converge Media: YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, Periscope, and whereweconverge.com.

We also post the Morning Update Show here on the Emerald each day after it airs, so you can catch up any time of day while you peruse our latest posts.

Morning Update Show — Monday, Feb. 14

LIVE — Sean Goode of Choose 180 | “Goode News” From Across the Community | LIVE — DeeSha Connor of WADOH | Vaccination and the Black Community in WA State | MLK Mural on MLK Way Restored!

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The Morning Update Show — 1/10

The Morning Update Show — hosted by Trae Holiday and The Big O (Omari Salisbury) — is the only weekday news and information livestream that delivers culturally relevant content to the Pacific Northwest’s urban audience. Omari and Trae analyze the day’s local and national headlines as well as melanin magic in our community. Watch live every weekday at 11 a.m. on any of the following channels, hosted by Converge Media: YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, Periscope, and whereweconverge.com.

We also post the Morning Update Show here on the Emerald each day after it airs, so you can catch up any time of day while you peruse our latest posts.

Morning Update Show — Monday, January 10

LIVE — Sean Goode of Choose 180 | Gov. Inslee Rescinds Directive Banning Affirmative Action | Herbold Calls for Increased SPD Oversight | City Council to Hold Hearing With OPA | King County Prosecutor Satterberg Won’t Seek Reelection

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Local Nonprofit Announces Livable Wage for Entire Staff

by M. Anthony Davis


Choose 180, a local nonprofit that supports youth, announced that it would raise its baseline salary to $70,000 per year, a more than $20,000 pay increase for frontline staff.

“The way we will structure this,” said Executive Director Sean Goode, “is that all direct service folks will make $70,000, our managers will make $75,000, and our directors will make $80,000.” 

Choose 180 has built a reputation in the community for advocacy and support to youth facing incarceration. Through programs and partnerships, Choose 180 provides youth with workshops focused on empowerment and positive choices as well as felony intervention. It connects youth with “success coaches,” school-based diversion programs for youth facing expulsion or suspension, job training, and more programs and opportunities designed to interrupt the school-to-prison pipeline. 

This will be a huge leap for some employees, who made around $48,000 per year. The internal messaging was delivered at a recent staff meeting. 

“Some of them left with a $20,000 pay increase, with the understanding that it’s going to show up on the next check,” Goode said. 

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The Morning Update Show — 11/15

The Morning Update Show — hosted by Trae Holiday and The Big O (Omari Salisbury) — is the only weekday news and information livestream that delivers culturally relevant content to the Pacific Northwest’s urban audience. Omari and Trae analyze the day’s local and national headlines as well as melanin magic in our community. Watch live every weekday at 11 a.m. on any of the following channels, hosted by Converge Media: YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, Periscope, and whereweconverge.com.

We also post the Morning Update Show here on the Emerald each day after it airs, so you can catch up any time of day while you peruse our latest posts.

Morning Update Show — Monday, Nov. 15

It is Choose 180 Day at Converge Media Studios. As we celebrate and uplift the work of Choose 180, we are joined by their Executive Director Sean Goode as well as Cortez Charles as they update the community on the work the organization is doing and share some new and exciting news.

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The Unlikely Partnership Supporting South Seattle Youth Through Forest Science

CHOOSE 180 Interns Research Hemlock Tree Mortality at Seward Park 

by Ronnie Estoque


Paul Shannon, a forest steward at Green Seattle Partnership and member of Friends of Seward Park, heard Sean Goode speak on the radio last summer, after the police killing of George Floyd, about the importance of community support for racial justice. Inspired and impressed by Goode’s segment, Shannon reached out and became a volunteer for Goode’s organization, CHOOSE 180, which supports young people who are disproportionately impacted by the criminal justice system in King County. 

As the executive director of the organization, Goode seeks to provide job training for youth participants in CHOOSE 180. This summer, for example, they offered an entrepreneurship internship that taught business basics. But Shannon’s expertise offered a unique opportunity to the youth in the program. He just wrapped up leading a six-week paid internship program with CHOOSE 180 to provide three of their interns the opportunity to learn a different kind of trade. Specifically, they worked to assess the die-off of hemlocks, the Washington State tree, in the old-growth forest at Seward Park.

“The outdoors has been largely colonized,” said Goode. “And because it’s been colonized, and it’s been a place of discomfort for many Black and Brown folks, it’s not a natural partnership for us to lean into when we’re thinking about ways to support young people and job training.” 

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The Morning Update Show — 8/13/21

The Morning Update Show — hosted by Trae Holiday and The Big O (Omari Salisbury) — is the only weekday news and information livestream that delivers culturally relevant content to the Pacific Northwest’s urban audience. Omari and Trae analyze the day’s local and national headlines as well as melanin magic in our community. Watch live every weekday at 11 a.m. on any of the following channels, hosted by Converge Media: YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, Periscope, and whereweconverge.com.

We also post the Morning Update Show here on the Emerald each day after it airs, so you can catch up any time of day while you peruse our latest posts.

Morning Update Show — Friday, August 13

Live From Liberty Bank Building | LIVE — Sean Goode of Choose 180 | LIVE — Michelle Reese | LIVE — Ayenay Abye | #FeelGoodFriday

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