From July to September of 2024, the Inspire Olympia’s Cultural Access in Public Schools (CAPS) initiative funded 10 organizations offering programs for the Olympia School District (OSD).
Cultural Access Program Manager Marygrace Goddu briefed the Olympia City Council and OSD Board of Directors at a work session on Thursday, March 6.
Goddu highlighted that CAPS has served 3,782 students for 24 in-class programs and 2,720 for 27 field trips.
Inspire Olympia reimburses eligible cultural organizations for the field trips they provide to school district students, and also directly reimburses the school district for the transportation costs to and from these programs.
A new CAPS coordinator is set to be hired this year, which Goddu says would aid Inspire Olympia to diversify programs, work with teachers, provide necessary services, make interests accessible and meet standards.
“It has already been a decade since the cultural access measure passed the state Legislature, and that measure said that revenue from a voter-approved sales property tax increase can be used to strengthen access to cultural organizations and their public programming,” Goddu said.
The measure gives local jurisdictions the authority to collect tax; Olympia has set 21% of sales tax to be used in this manner.
In 2015, the state Legislature authorized voter-approved tax increases at the local level to support greater access to cultural events and experiences.
In early 2022, voters approved the Inspire Olympia initiative, making the city the second jurisdiction in the state to have a cultural access program.
“It is 1/10th of 1% of our sales tax, and that's about $3 million a year that we now can reinvest into the community through the work of nonprofit organizations, who do public program programming, and that programming needs to be specifically mission-focused in arts, culture, heritage or science,” Goddu said.
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griffithga
As a recipient of funding from Inspire Olympia, the Olympia Historical Society & Bigelow House Museum can attest to the value of this program as truly a lifeline for our organization to be able to serve our community by expanding our programming on local history. We are now able to expand availability of Bigelow House Museum tour days to every Sunday of each month at 1, 2, and 3:oo. Together with our Roger Easton History Grant program we are also serving Reeves Middle School's Washington state history classes with a visit to Squaxin Park and the Bigelow House Museum to learn more about local history. For our small, non-profit heritage organization, Inspire Olympia funding has been a game-changer. Thanks to Inspire Olympia program staff and Olympia voters for your work that is realizing true benefits for the entire community.
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