About the series: We dig into the stories of SESEC program participants and their growth as leaders in the Southend community. We follow how they have developed new skills and undertaken or improved their projects as a result of SESEC programming.
Ian Bright grew up in Southend and is now a sophomore at UW Seattle. During his first year at Cleveland High School, he founded the Georgetown Youth Council, which works on air quality, wastewater treatment, rainwater management, and education initiatives. In 2023, he participated in SESEC’s Youth Participatory Grantmaking Project because he wanted to further serve his community.
“I thought it was a really cool opportunity to have some impact on where money is going. And you know, as someone who grew up in a poor area in Seattle,” Bright says, “it was a really unique opportunity, especially as someone who was 18 at the time. I thought I could make some change, and so I wanted to pursue that.”
He then returned as a student facilitator in 2024, leading the new cohort of students in deciding where $15,000 would be allocated in grant monies.
“I thought that it’d be a really good opportunity to grow my skills as a facilitator. I’m not the best at speaking in those environments where I’m, essentially in front of a class,” he says, “and so I thought it was a cool opportunity to be on the other end of that and I thought it could help me a lot in my with my own organization too.”
He says SESEC has given him the tools to develop his leadership skills in public speaking, time management, and event facilitation professionally. SESEC staff also taught him new knowledge of grantmaking and philanthropy as a participant and facilitator, which he brought to his time at the Georgetown Youth Council.
Bright is currently working on a project to help clean the air in Georgetown. According to the Duwamish River Community Coalition, data shows that South Park and Georgetown neighborhoods have a life expectancy that is eight years shorter than the Seattle average. When compared with a wealthier neighborhood of Laurelhursts in North Seattle, the gap is even more disproportionate—as it is 13 years less.
Bright expressed his appreciation for growing up in the Southend despite the disparities.
“You have to deal with a lot of hardships. But I think the sense of community is really special, and other parts of Seattle really don’t have it in the same way. So being able to connect and have all these people that are able to help you,” Bright says, “I had so many mentors in my life and people who helped me build this organization, and I don’t think I would have had those if I was from other parts of Seattle. So I feel really fortunate to have those opportunities.”
For more information about the Georgetown Youth Council, see their Instagram.
Learn more about the Youth Participatory Grantmakers Project here.
