🌿Raices de la tierra
Where Culture, Nature, and Community Come Together
Raíces de la Tierra is a culturally-rooted, nature-based program designed to support families through creativity, environmental connection, and community healing. Inspired by ancestral traditions and guided by community wisdom, we create spaces where children, youth, and caregivers connect with each other by sharing stories, exploring identities, caring for the earth and creating art.
Our programs are multigenerational and multicultural, offering accessible, bilingual, and neurodiversity-affirming experiences that support family wellbeing and celebrate cultural identity.
We are restoring and stewarding four acres of riparian forest located on the shores of North Creek, an urban salmon spawning stream. By studying indigenous practices and listening to the land, plants, water, and animals we are learning how to support the ecosystem in sustainable ways, and how to be reciprocal members of the natural world.
What We Do
Our projects
Raices de la Tierra offers culturally grounded, nature connected activities that nurture identity, community, environmental awareness, and creativity. Our programs are intentionally accessible to low income, immigrant, multilingual, neurodivergent, and LGBTQ+ families so everyone can experience belonging, joy, and connection.
Air Quality Flag program
Raices de la Tierra host an official Air Quality Flag Program from AirNow to help families understand daily outdoor air conditions. Each morning, we check the Air Quality Index and display the correct flag color so our neighbors, children and caregivers can make safe decisions about outdoor activity. The program teaches families how air quality affects health and when to adjust outdoor play. This supports our commitment to environmental learning and community wellbeing.
To check the air quality in your area, visit the AirNow website below.
Spring & Summer Day Camps
A free, five day environmental camp for low income families, held in our four acre riparian forest along salmon spawning grounds. Camp activities include:
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Environmental science
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Land stewardship and restoration
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Salmon fry release
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Watershed and creek exploration
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Foraging and food preparation
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Upcycling and recycled art
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Cultural storytelling
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Restorative circles
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Movement, sports, and outdoor play
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Guest naturalists, artists, and cultural leaders
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Nutritious meals prepared together
The camp is fully bilingual and neurodiversity affirming. Youth participate in ways that match their sensory needs, learning styles, and personal interests. Families who often experience barriers in traditional outdoor programs find a welcoming, safe, supportive environment where their cultures, languages, and strengths are honored.
Conversation Circles
Monthly bilingual circles that bring families together to explore identity, culture, belonging, emotional expression, and community care. These circles offer a safe and supportive space where every voice is heard and valued.
Monthly Community Day
A monthly gathering focused on nature, creativity, and cultural connection. Families participate in:
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Eco Art using recycled and natural materials
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Creek walks and environmental learning
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Cultural music and drumming
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Storytelling and intergenerational sharing
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Restoration projects with community partners
This consistent gathering helps reduce isolation and builds strong community relationships, especially for immigrant and multilingual families who often lack safe places to connect.
Culturally Relevant Food Distribution
Weekly food distributions of fresh produce increase food security for families in our community. We partner with Edmonds Food Bank, CRN, and local grass roots food programs to reduce food waste and increase family nutrition.
We provide a 24/7 free standing food pantry that provides a reliable source of nutrition, small supplies and warm clothing to our neighbors. The pantry encourages people to leave and take food as they are able, building community care.
🌱 Our Commitment and Impact
Raices de la Tierra brings community together to explore how environmental justice and injustice impacts our daily lives. Through projects, conversation circles, and community care we are creating a shared understanding of what environmental justice looks and feels like.
Our gatherings are accessible, bilingual, and inclusive to support family wellbeing and celebrate cultural identity. We are creating spaces where every child and caregiver experiences belonging and feels safe, respected, and connected. We challenge practices that result in exclusion, and commit to including and celebrating immigrant, low income, multilingual, neurodivergent, BIPOC and LGBTQ+ families.
Through hands-on exploration, creative expression, restorative practices, and outdoor recreation, families build confidence, deepen their relationship with nature, and strengthen community bonds. Our programs are continuously shaped by family feedback, reflection circles, and intentional evaluation to ensure they remain responsive, culturally rooted, and impactful.
Our Partners and Collaborators
Raices de la Tierra is strengthened by meaningful partnerships and community collaboration. We want to acknowledge the support of Snohomish County Surface Water Management for their support in a major creek restoration project that widened the floodplain, planted an evolving forest, and taught us so much about how to support our riparian habitat.
We are grateful to ongoing collaborations and partnerships with
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Restoration 4 All
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UW Bothell
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Snohomish Conservation District
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Local artists, cultural leaders, and volunteers
The Well Being Community Center, home of Raices de la Tierra, received the Sound Green Solutions Award in recognition of its leadership in environmental restoration and youth engagement. This award reflects our shared commitment to ecological stewardship, community empowerment, and culturally rooted education.
