A New Name
Formerly known as The Pipeline Project, we have selected a new name that represents the true values and vision of our organization.
We choose to disassociate our organization with the commonly-held and damaging connotations of the word “pipeline,” such as:
- Environmental and land destruction
- Linear or unimaginative thinking
- Charity without genuine connection
- The school-to-prison pipeline
We choose instead to foster, hold ourselves accountable to, and strive to uplift the following characteristics:
- An understanding of complex journeys, the multitudes of pathways and tributaries that build an educational journey
- Empowerment for the students, schools, and communities we work with
- Partnerships with communities that are mutually beneficial, nourishing, and inspiring
- Building common, collective liberation across Washington state
- Our educational ecosystem which includes UW, rural and tribal schools
We hope you join us in celebrating the values that give us life, the same way that Seattle and Washington are provided for by our waterways, especially Puget Sound, the Duwamish River, the Columbia River, and the hundreds of other rivers that make up the State. We believe that connection and partnership are foundational to education and our lives.
We are now…
This renaming transition began by determining qualities we wanted our new name to reflect, including educational equity, community partnerships, and learning. We ran an initial focus group with students from First Nations, then expanded to focus groups with Pipeline students, alumni, and facilitators. Input from these focus groups led us to Tami Hohn, the Lushootseed language instructor at UW. With Tami’s guidance, we decided on our new name: Riverways Education Partnerships: Connecting schools and communities toward tribal sovereignty and racial justice.
Tami told us that historically, riverways have been connections from community to community, providing opportunities for both travel and communication. Riverways, like pipelines, act as a conduit from one place to another, but do not share in the destruction that makes pipelines so harmful to our tribal partners.
The words “Education Partnerships” emphasize the importance of our relationships with our community partners. “Partnerships” is also a nod to our long-standing partnership with the Seattle Public Schools, and to describe the mutually beneficial and collaborative relationships we aim to build with the students and communities we serve.
Our tagline, “Connecting with students, schools and communities toward tribal sovereignty and racial justice”, was crafted to explicitly name the anti-racist work we aim to do as an organization, and hold ourselves accountable to that work. To ensure that our tagline was inclusive of our tribal communities, we consulted with many of our Native partners, who encouraged us to include “tribal sovereignty” to ensure that our tribal partners are recognized for their sovereign status.
The history of the Pipeline Project is integral and the basis for who we are now. The foundations and connections we made in over 20 years will continue to grow and stay with us as we flow into a new future and shared vision. We are transitioning to a new name that represents the true values and vision of our organization.
Join Us
We hope you join us in celebrating the values that give us life, the same way that Seattle and Washington are provided for by our waterways, especially Puget Sound, the Duwamish River, the Columbia River, and the hundreds of other rivers that make up the State. We believe that connection and partnership are foundational to education and our lives.
