As a kid in the South End, Marvin Marshall played sports at Rainier Playfield and Rainier Community Center.
He also faced challenges as a youth: spending time in foster care, getting involved in gangs, and being impacted by the carceral system. "When I was younger, I knew I wanted to change [my lifestyle], but I didn't know what that could look like," he said.
These days, Marshall works as the executive director of the Freedom Project, a Renton-based organization that serves more than 700 people in South King County each year, offering programs that link people to housing and food resources, post-incarceration reentry services, workshops for nonviolent communication, and more. But those programs are threatened by federal funding cuts.
On April 22, The Center for Children & Youth Justice (CCYJ) received notice that $4.1 million of its grants were terminated effective immediately. The grants, canceled by the Department of Justice, would have funded Washington State's Community Violence Intervention (CVI) programs. CCYJ is a sponsor of the Freedom Project, which, until the budget cuts, had a budget of more than $3 million. Now, the Freedom Project budget will take a hit of $510,000.
Programs centered on community violence intervention facilitate the coordination and collaboration of community and service organizations along with law enforcement. The programs help high-risk youth by offering mediation, support services, and more. Research shows that violence comes at a high social and economic cost to communities and public systems.
For example, when someone is shot, EMTs and law enforcement are dispatched. There can be costs for cleanup services and the trauma center. There are charges for opening a police investigation and for district attorney and prosecuting attorney work, and the list goes on. Implementing violence-intervention programs has been shown to decrease gun violence in communities by 8% to 60%.
Marshall says that if a South End family's house was sprayed with bullets, the Freedom Project could help. "[In that case,] you talk about relocating families, helping with groceries, navigating the hospital stay, and finding culturally relevant mental health help, as well as considering behavioral health and chemical dependency resources. The work is mentorship and walking the journey alongside community members," he said.
The South End, Marshall says, possesses characteristics that affect the organization's work. "The area is made up of pockets of communities. Someone from Beacon Hill might not have the same type of experience as someone on Henderson. Then there are the Asian communities, the African American groups, and the Pacific Islander communities," Marshall said. He noted the need for more language interpretation in the neighborhood, along with resources for the cultural differences associated with talking about gang violence and community support.
Marshall says that after he had come home from prison, a mentor encouraged him to work in street outreach. Marshall took a job with YMCA's Alive and Free program, meeting with youth on the street and coordinating resources. "I didn't realize that I could take my lived experience and my passion, pain, and trauma and use it to help others. It was easy for me, and it [didn't feel like] work for me then," Marshall said.
"Idle time is the worst for a young person," he said. He recalled the programs he had access to when he was young: dance parties at Rainier Community Center and after-school activities, like late-night youth programs open until 1 a.m. with a special bus that followed Route 48 to drop youth off near their homes. Today, Marshall says it's hard to get youth to take the bus anywhere.
Marshall says a young person he once worked with called from a juvenile prison to catch up and tell Marshall he remembered the wisdom he had imparted in the past. Marshall found that rewarding. "Some people get it right away, some people get it eventually, and some, never at all," Marshall said. "All those tough conversations. They were storing them somewhere. They were listening, though the actions [at the time] didn't show it."
The takeaway for Marshall: "Know you're doing your best. Stay even-keeled. [This is] a marathon."
Jasira Andrus, an employee at The Beacon Cinema, took tickets one April evening at a screening of The Encampments, a film about the weekslong Palestinian solidarity movement at Columbia University in 2024. She says she observed a wide range of emotions as audiences left the theater after seeing the film. "[There's been] grief, pride, a desire [to be part of] change, and gratitude for the film," she said. "One of the beautiful things about cinema and documentaries is it shines a light on what's occurring in the world and the range of human experience." She added, "In our small theater, you get that sense of a shared connection, not just with the film itself, but with the other folks in the audience."
The Encampments recounts how students on the Columbia campus created encampments and occupied Hamilton Hall to demand divestment of the university's funds from businesses that profit from Israel's attacks on Gaza. The movement sparked similar student protests throughout the country and internationally. The film, produced by Seattle rapper Macklemore, had a successful opening weekend in New York, leading to a high per-screen earnings average in March. It has been in more than 60 theaters in the U.S. and Canada.
The Encampments will continue playing at The Beacon through May 15.
Audience member Jay Preusker graduated from Seattle University but says he spent a lot of time at the University of Washington (UW) encampments in May 2024. Preusker says he became nostalgic watching the film.
"It was one of the most amazing environments I've been in," he said. Preusker recalled protesters at the UW encampments educating each other about the Palestinian conflict through film and discussion. "It was important to feel like you could do something. You weren't the only person watching your phone everyday, scrolling and feeling hopeless," he said.
President Donald Trump's administration is investigating 60 universities throughout the country, including the University of Washington in Seattle, for "antisemitic discrimination and harassment." On May 7 in New York, dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters, who demanded Columbia divest its endowment from companies that profit Israel's war on Gaza, were arrested. They had occupied the campus' Butler Library. Closer to home, UW recently suspended more than 20 students for a May 5 protest and occupation of an engineering building, when they pressed the school to sever ties with Boeing, which maintains military contracts with Israel. The Trump administration has launched a review of UW's latest demonstration.
The Beacon Cinema's co-owner Tommy Swenson wrote in a statement that the film was released with a great deal of urgency in response to the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, the lead negotiator during Columbia University's pro-Palestinian student movement. Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student, was apprehended by ICE this March and faces deportation, despite being a legal U.S. permanent resident with no criminal conviction. Khalil is currently detained at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center while lawyers and activists fight for his release.
Swenson wrote that the theater was glad to clear space on its calendar to show The Encampments. "We believe it's of primary importance to continue speaking out for Palestinian liberation, especially now in this moment of escalating repression, when they're trying to make the price for Palestinian solidarity higher than ever."
The 10th Annual Renton Career Fair is May 14–15.
The Wednesday job fair is for all jobs except those in health care, and Thursday is dedicated only to jobs in health care.
Free resume review services will be provided by the Employment Security Department if you bring your draft resume.
Help keep BIPOC-led, community-powered journalism free — become a Rainmaker today.