Love and Justice Alliance is Building Progressive Political Power in SW Washington

Love and Justice Alliance (LJA) is a new 501(c)(4) organization building progressive political power for communities of color in Southwest Washington. They officially launched on July 16 with a block party at their space in Vancouver, bringing community members together to celebrate and get excited about organizing for racial equity.

LJA is Southwest Washington Equity Coalition’s sister organization. LJA has tapped leaders such as Heather Sheppard, Tanika Siscoe, Rosealinda Mendoza, and Duana Johnson who completed SWEC’s Vancouver Community Leadership Institute. These leaders will put their training into action to advance a racial equity agenda in SW Washington. 

These are some incredible, committed community leaders. For example, Duana was recently awarded the Nancy Amidei Movement Builder Award from Washington Low Income Housing Alliance. She credits LJA and SWEC with helping her find her voice as a homeless, Indigenous, disabled veteran and survivor of sexual assault.

During Washington’s 2025 legislative session, LJA took their people to Olympia to advocate for safe and supportive public schools (HB 1296), which passed, as well as rent stabilization (HB 1217), which also passed. Several students participated in the campaign for HB 1296. They had the opportunity to speak on Oregon Public Broadcasting’s Think Out Loud news show, and one of the students has even gone on to volunteer on candidate campaigns and is excited to build a career in politics. LJA has also been busy connecting with local elected officials, including hosting a brunch for all elected officials in Clark County. 

In the near future, Love and Justice Alliance plans to focus on base building and deep canvassing. They’re currently developing a campaign for a ballot initiative to implement districting in Vancouver with a goal of increasing diversity in representation on City Council. While LJA would like to focus on supporting progressive BIPOC candidates for office, the pipeline of leaders who want to run for office in SW Washington or who have the skills to run campaigns doesn’t exist yet. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done to get to that point.

In their application for a Civic Health General Operating Support Grant, LJA shared, “While Southwest Washington is a robust and vibrant community of people of color and incredible culturally-specific community-based organizations, there is a lack of organizations working to build collective power amongst these groups and communities.” While Southwest Washington Equity Alliance did their best to build this collective power, they were limited in what they could do by their 501(c)(3) status. After consulting with other organizations that SWEC’s leadership admires, such as Puget Sound Sage, Sage Leaders, NAYA Family Center, NAYA Action Fund, and the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance, it became clear that a 501(c)(4) arm would be vital to moving this work forward. This motivated the organization to form the Love and Justice Alliance.

By surveying local organizations this May, including SW WA LULAC, NAACP of Vancouver, Fourth Plain Forward and approximately 30 others, SWEC and LJA affirmed the need and desire for an organization in SW Washington devoted to base building, power building, and advocacy for racial justice.

One survey respondent said: “SWEC does an excellent job of bringing the community together while fostering relationships between them and other organizations. This is one of SWEC's key strengths, as we not only build trust within the coalition but also within the broader community.”

Northwest Health Foundation is proud to support Love and Justice Alliance through our Civic Health initiative, and we are excited to witness their growth as they continue to build political power with Black, Indigenous and communities of color across Southwest Washington.