This article appears in print in the October 2018 issue. Click here to subscribe.

This year’s Crosscut Courage Award winners span a spectrum, from business owner and political newcomer to youth supporter and longtime public officeholder. The one thing they all have in common is a bold determination to lift up those who are often unheard, to have faith in those whom others doubt, and to persevere when everyone says it’s all for naught.

Winners were nominated by the community and selected by an independent panel of civic leaders.

Photograph by Matt McKnight

David Brewster Lifetime Achievement Award 
Daniel J. Evans
former governor

Dan Evans has spent a lifetime in politics, serving in the Washington State House of Representatives, as governor of Washington state and in the U.S. Senate.  

During his three consecutive terms as governor, from 1965 to 1977, the Seattle native was instrumental in aiding thousands of Vietnamese refugees, creating the foundation for a resettlement program that still exists today.

A lifelong outdoorsman, Evans wrote the 1984 Washington State Wilderness Act, protecting more than 1 million acres of national forestlands. He was a key figure in creating North Cascades National Park, the Alpine Lakes Wilderness and the scenic corridor in the Columbia River Gorge.

His connection to the outdoors was established as a child, when he spent time in the Olympics as a Boy Scout. “I fell in love with the mountains,” he says, “and I’ve been hiking and climbing ever since.”

Last year, in honor of the Republican’s history of conservation advocacy, the wilderness area within Olympic National Park was renamed the Daniel J. Evans Wilderness.

Photograph by Matt McKnight

Courage in Business 
Beto Yarce
executive director, Ventures

Beto Yarce considered himself luckier than most immigrants when he came to the U.S. from Mexico 15 years ago. His education, his English language skills and the financial support of his family allowed him to maneuver through the many roadblocks on his path to entrepreneurship. Yet he saw the hardships others faced and did something about it. 

What started as a volunteer position with the workers’ rights organization Casa Latina, helping undocumented immigrants start their own businesses, led Yarce to a paid position with Ventures, a nonprofit agency that offers microloans, technical assistance, business development training, coaching and other business services to low-income and immigrant populations. 

Today, Yarce is the executive director of Ventures, where he has helped launch hundreds of new businesses in the Puget Sound region by offering loans ranging from $1,000 to $35,000. 

“A lot of people talk about giving people a second chance,” says Yarce. “Many of [our clients] never even had a first chance. I want to change that.”

Left to right: Nikkita Oliver, Aaron Counts, Heidi Jackson, Kardea Buss, Jordan Howland. Photograph by Matt McKnight.

Courage in Culture 
Creative Justice
community art program 

Creative Justice is a community art program that offers young people in trouble a chance to avoid probation or time in juvenile jail. 

Formed in 2015, Creative Justice was borne out of concern for responsible stewardship of public art funds and the debate surrounding construction of the county’s new Children and Family Justice Center, known by critics as the “youth jail.” Participants engage with local artists in a 12- to 16-week-long program, creating a project or presentation that explores themes that affect the participants’ daily lives, such as gentrification and the school-to-prison pipeline. The program also reinforces social skills and behaviors that help participants make positive life choices. However, Aaron Counts, the program’s lead artist, stresses that the emphasis for Creative Justice is on charting a new, more humane path for the nation’s justice system, “and to challenge local judges and prosecutors to view our youth with a wider lens.” 

The results have been promising. In 2016, 48 young participants who were referred to Creative Justice brought with them a total of 72 charges; of those, 39 charges were dismissed, and 13 felonies were reduced to misdemeanors. “Through incarceration, people are removed from the community,” says Counts. “This is bringing people closer together.”

Photograph by Matt McKnight

Courage in Elected Office 
Tim Burgess
former Seattle City Council member

Asked about his proudest moments during nearly 10 years on Seattle’s City Council, Tim Burgess cites the strides he made toward benefiting some of the city’s youngest residents.

Burgess was the mastermind of a 2014 policy that brought free or subsidized preschool to low-income families, an effort that had to overcome fierce opposition from labor unions, which presented a competing initiative. The city projects that the program, up for renewal this November as a part of the city’s Families and Education Levy, will have benefited approximately 1,500 students by the beginning of this school year.

Burgess stepped down from politics following a brief stint as the city’s mayor in 2017, appointed after former Mayor Ed Murray resigned amid allegations of sexual misconduct. He was the second-longest-sitting member on the City Council at that time.

A former radio journalist, ad agency owner and Seattle police officer, Burgess is known among his council peers as a collaborator and a consensus builder. “You have to learn to get along with people,” he says, “or you’re not going to get much done.”

Photograph by Matt McKnight

Courage in Public Service
Lauren Davis
activist

Lauren Davis stood by the side of her best friend, Ricky Garcia, as his suicide attempts and a debilitating addiction to alcohol and opiates sent him to the hospital countless times. But no matter how dire Garcia’s situation, Washington state law would not allow him to be involuntarily committed to addiction care.

Davis, who found this unacceptable, fought to create a law that would allow those struggling with a substance abuse disorder to receive the addiction treatment they needed. Ricky’s Law, which passed in 2016 and went into effect this past April, calls for the construction of nine inpatient addiction treatment facilities (seven for adults, two for adolescents) and earmarks an unprecedented $57 million in state and federal dollars per biennium for addiction treatment. 

In March, Davis announced her candidacy for the 32nd Legislative District in the Washington State House of Representatives, where she hopes to continue to advocate for those unable to help themselves. “[This journey] gave me unwavering hope that no one, no one, has fallen too far to recover,” she says.

Photograph by Matt McKnight

Courage in Technology
Trish Millines Dziko
founder, Technology Access Foundation

From the day Trish Millines Dziko started working in the tech industry in the late 1970s, she noticed the lack of people of color in the field. While her career took her to companies both large and small, including Computer Sciences Corporation, Hughes Aircraft Company, Fortune Systems, TeleCalc and Microsoft, the industry’s lack of diversity remained constant.

Dziko eventually left the industry and started the nonprofit Technology Access Foundation (TAF) in an effort to create opportunities for students of color to engage with science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines. Since TAF’s start in 1996, about 15,000 students have been educated through the foundation, which includes an academy for grades 6–12 and several “transformation” schools. Additionally, TAF provides a teacher training institute and a fellowship program for educators. Almost all TAF students have attended college.

“We got kids thinking they could do something completely different,” Dziko says, “things society has been telling them they couldn’t do.” 

Courage Awards Breakfast
Join Crosscut and media sponsor Seattle magazine in honoring the Courage Award winners at the Crosscut Courage Awards Breakfast on October 10. Tickets and reserved tables are available now at crosscut.com/courage-awards.