Community Connections Partner: Cultivate South Park

Cultivate South Park (CSP) is a small nonprofit that operates a food bank, an arts & culture center, economic development programming for small businesses and community real estate ownership projects. CSP’s mission is connecting neighbors and their gifts to co-create a thriving and equitable South Park. 

In 2018, CSP drew together diverse coalitions around land use and hunger, formally incorporating as a 501(c)3 in early 2020. When the world shut down because of COVID, its members went door-to-door to serve families, elderly shut-ins and other vulnerable people. CSP’s community response was featured nationally by YES! Magazine (“South Park: One Square Mile of Ready for Anything”). The organization’s service model is summarized as “Solidarity, Not Charity”; instead of a typical food bank, CSP hosts a Latin-style market arranged like a retail store in which people take whatever they can use and are never charged. 

Working with the City of Seattle, Cultural Space Agency and an anonymous donor, CSP obtained a 32,000-square-foot space in South Park. Dubbed “El Barrio,” it features a historic event space, the Little Space teaching center, affordable apartments, restaurants and small retail establishments. El Barrio hosts community programs centered on youth, the environment, arts, job skills and health/wellness. Programs are planned with neighbors, while the Youth Advisory Board programs grow youth leadership and develop job skills in a neighborhood where few youth jobs are available. 

CSP is inclusive by design, with its work based on the Assets-Based Community Development (ABCD) model popularized by Chicago’s John McKnight and Barack Obama. CSP believes that everyone has gifts to contribute in an inclusive society and its mission statement reflects the ABCD values: “Cultivate South Park is a resident-led Asset-Based Community Development organization that identifies, connects and celebrates neighborhood gifts to create a thriving, equitable South Park.”  

Community Partner Testimony: “Cultivate South Park has had the amazing opportunity to partner with the Seattle Symphony for the last year! During that time, we have had the chance to offer tickets and transportation to families to see shows at Benaroya Hall, and community members who are also artists had the freedom to perform during Day of Music this June. We have so much gratitude to the Symphony for extending their arms to the far reaches of our beautiful communities here in Seattle!” 

Cultivate South Park is one of more than 90 partners in the Seattle Symphony’s Community Connections program, which provides complimentary tickets to fellow nonprofit organizations across the Puget Sound region. 

UP NEXT: Join the Seattle Symphony at Benaroya Hall for a Side-by-Side with Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra (SYSO) on Thursday, February 13, 2025, at 7:30pm. The Seattle Symphony will share the stage with SYSO ensembles for an evening of side-by-side performances! Reserve your FREE tickets here; walk-ups also welcome.