Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month upcoming events
National Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month officially starts on September 15 and ends October 15. This month is an opportunity to recognize and celebrate the long and important presence and contributions of Hispanic and Latino and Latina (Latinx) Americans in North America.
In line with Metro’s values of community building, shared learning, and increased understanding, employees are invited to participate in three interactive Lunch and Learn events celebrating Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month. These will be held on Sept. 6, Sept. 13 and Oct. 1. For information about each event, click here.
In addition to participating in these Metro sponsored events, employees are also encouraged to attend community events throughout the month, including the annual Seattle Fiestas Patrias celebration. The two-day engagement puts the spotlight on Brazilian, Mexican, Honduran, Guatemalan, Chilean and Costa Rican communities in the Pacific Northwest and features folkloric dance and musical performances, authentic cuisine and children’s activities
Celebrations will be held Sept. 15 in South Park from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. and Seattle Center noon to 9 p.m. and Sept. 16 at Seattle Center from noon to 6 p.m. Additional information will be coming soon about how to join Metro and King County in the South Park parade.
National Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month is observed in the United States, Canada, and Latin America. The celebration starts in the middle of the month, as opposed to the end, because Sept. 15 marks the independence days of five Latin America countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Mexico, Chile, and Belize follow shortly after, on Sept. 16, 18 and 21, respectively.
For more information contact Anita Whitfield or Penny Lara.
Share this:
Celebrating King County Metro named the best large transit system in North America
Executive Constantine today is hosting a celebration at Metro’s South Base to commemorate King County Metro being named the best large transit system in North America.
“To our talented Metro employees, our steadfast partners, and our loyal customers: Thank you for helping us bring this prestigious award to King County,” said Executive Constantine.
Below is a video that puts the award in the context of the work King County is doing in all operations to create the nation’s best-run government.
Share this:
The bare bones: How WA State’s only forensic anthropologist does it all
For King County Forensic Anthropologist Katherine Taylor and her team, attempting to identify missing persons or unidentified bodies can be a slow, painstaking exercise that can take years to complete.
For some cases the technology just hasn’t caught up to assist in the identification of the person, and in other cases the information doesn’t seem to piece together. There was one specific story that Katherine recalled where her team tried everything they could before finally catching a break.
“First we found the cranium. Over the course of a couple months we found more of the body,” Katherine said. “We didn’t have the whole body. Unidentified female – young female, and we couldn’t get her ID’d.”
The unidentified female was in the middle of a root canal, and they sent a mass bulletin to all of the Washington State dentists in the dental society to see if a patient never came back to finish their root canal. The search yielded no results. She decided to continue her search on a new missing persons website at the time called North American Missing Persons Network.
“I pulled up a crime stoppers bulletin out of another county,” she said. “It was the only time I’ve ever had a gut feeling in my life; I knew instantly it was her.”
After pursuing her gut instinct, law enforcement was able to pull dental records for the missing person. It was a match. She called the family to let them know. The mom was hysterical, and Katherine was able to help calm her down. The family later invited her to the funeral where she was brought in front of the crowd and introduced to everyone.
“Afterwards all these people were coming up to me and hugging me and thanking me,” said Katherine. “I thought ‘this is why I do my job.’”
Katherine is both the forensic anthropologist for Washington State and King County’s Medical Examiner’s Office. The work her and her team are completing is rewarding, but also emotionally taxing.
“You need an outlet, so I watch a sad movie once a month or so and just cry,” she said. “Everybody who works at this office deals with that. It is emotionally very draining to do this job.”
If you look at The American Board of Forensic Anthropology’s map, which details where all their board-certified forensic anthropologists are located, there is only one pin sticking out of Washington State, representing Katherine.
“As an anthropologist I am on call pretty much 24/7, because I am the only one in the state,” she said. “One time they found me when I was on vacation at Disney World. I can carry a cellphone, and law enforcement can text me a picture of a bone. I can turn around immediately and say ‘that’s not human dispose of it, and clear your scene.’”
While identifying missing and unidentified persons is a large part of Katherine’s job, she also does biological profiling, DNA sampling, works with law enforcement and identifies bones, performs dental and body X-ray comparisons, conducts mass fatality planning, speaks with missing persons families, testifies on court cases, works on the cold cases team, provides specialized training to King County law enforcement, search and rescue, cadaver dog handlers, crime scene responders, and teaches a buried body school twice a year. While funded by the entire state, many of her trainings are unique to King County since that is where her office is located.
“I am getting to the point where I can’t do it all by myself,” she said. “Thankfully I have an intern right now, and I am hoping that I will hang onto an intern position because it is overwhelming.”
“Working under her and alongside her has been a dream come true,” said Laura Digman, forensic anthropology intern. “She is extremely smart. She used to be a professor, which works in my favor because she is able to explain things in a way that I understand.”
Between training the future of her career field and all of the specialized training that she does to support King County’s law enforcement officials, Katherine has made a lasting impact.
“She says, ‘We’re just a spoke in the wheel of justice’,” Laura said of her mentor. “We just do whatever we can to help.”
Share this:
Mentorship orientation dates: Sept. 26, Oct. 17, Nov. 29
King County’s Mentoring Orientation Program is a half-day session designed to prepare you for your mentorship experience. You will attend this session with your partner to learn more about yourself as a mentee or mentor, and you will create the foundation of your mentoring relationship. You will work to uncover your strengths and challenges and identify the topic for your first mentoring session. You will brush up on listening and feedback skills and you will have your first mentoring session. The goal of this session to provide you with a solid foundation that supports your ongoing mentorship conversations.
By the end of this session, you will:
- Uncover your strengths and challenges and identify a topic for your first mentoring session
- Learn more about your Mentor or Mentee
- Lay the foundation for a successful mentoring relationship
You can register on Eventbrite, with the following prerequisites in mind:
- You must attend the King County Mentorship (Lunch-n-Learn) before you can register for this orientation program.
- You must complete the pre-work for this program. The pre-work will be emailed to you prior to the program.
- Attendance with your mentor/mentee is required to attend this session.
For questions or more information, email KCMentoring@KingCounty.gov.
Share this:
Mark your calendars: King County worksite flu shots coming soon!
Crossposted from Balanced You
2018 King County worksite flu shots for employees start next month! Brought to you by Balanced You, onsite flu shots are open to all King County employees and flu shots are provided at no cost to benefits-covered employees. Employees with no health benefits may self-pay for the vaccine (flu shots are $30 each). Flu shots are on a first-come, first-served basis.
In response to employee feedback, we’ve added additional worksites to this year’s schedule: Kent East Hill Public Health, Brightwater Treatment Plant, Power Distribution and Dexter Horton Building. We’ve also adjusted clinic times at some of the transit bases, so be sure to check out the full calendar below and mark your calendars for the location most convenient for you.
If you’re unable to take advantage of worksite flu shots, they are also available through your primary care physician and many local pharmacies.
Flu shot coordinators will provide more information before your worksite’s scheduled date.
Remember to come prepared:
- Bring your medical insurance card with you.
- Wear short sleeves, a sleeveless shirt or clothing that bares your shoulder easily. This makes for speedy service and short lines!
- If you need a receipt, please tell the clerk when you check in.
For more information regarding influenza, visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Influenza resource page.
View the entire schedule of dates, times and locations in the Balanced You post.
Share this:
Cirque du Soleil’s ‘Volta’ coming to Marymoor Park Sept. 7 – Nov. 4, employees save 25 percent!
Volta by Cirque du Soleil will be at King County’s Marymoor Park Sept. 7 thru Nov. 4.
Now through Sept. 9, employees can save 25 percent on tickets using this special link to purchase them. This great offer is valid only until Sept. 9.
Additional offers for Volta are available here.
See all available discounts on the Employee Discount webpage.
Share this:
Results for America praises King County’s revolutionary new approach to creating community partnerships
Results for America, a national research and policy organization dedicated to advancing evidence-based policymaking, praised King County’s revolutionary new approach to creating community partnerships. Researchers cited the county’s Best Starts for Kids initiative as an effective model for making contracts with service providers more accessible, collaborative, and outcome-focused.
The nonpartisan Washington, D.C.-based organization is sharing its case study of King County’s new approach with cities, counties, and states, encouraging other metropolitan regions to adopt a similar model.
“We made a commitment with Best Starts for Kids to transform the way we partner with community organizations to make the process more inclusive and more focused on outcomes,” said Executive Constantine. “We are honored that researchers at Results for America consider our new approach to be an effective model for improving the quality of life for the people we serve.”
Click on the image to view the case study.
“For too long, state and local government contracting has been more focused on compliance than outcomes,” said Results for America CEO and Co-Founder Michele Jolin. “We are encouraged by King County’s efforts to shift toward a more data-driven, collaborative, and outcomes-focused contracting process.”
Researchers found that King County’s approach led to a greater diversity of service providers, enhancing equity in service delivery in one of the most diverse regions of the country.
The case study notes that King County’s new contracting practices promote outcomes-focused, preventive, and early intervention services based on rigorous evidence of impact while simultaneously allowing the county to test and build evidence for innovative and community-based approaches.
One of Executive Constantine’s goals with Best Starts for Kids is to increase the number of community-based partners that compete for funding to help the county achieve better health and well-being outcomes, such as increasing the number of babies born at a healthy weight and increasing access to healthy food.
Smaller nonprofit organizations – particularly those that serve communities of color – experience challenges applying for public funding because they do not have the same capacity as larger organizations with resources and staff time dedicated to grant writing. With Best Starts for Kids, King County provides technical assistance to help them compete for funding and actively encourages more nonprofits to participate.
Preliminary results from one of Best Starts for Kids’ request for proposals show that 124 organizations have accessed the technical assistance resources King County now offers, such as data analytics support. Of those organizations, 52 percent had never applied for King County funding before, and 33 percent had never applied for any grant before.
Researchers also praised King County’s focus on delivering measurable results that improve the health and well-being outcomes for its constituents. Unlike the traditional approach to human service contracts that mainly provide funding, Best Starts for Kids partners with funded organizations to provide ongoing guidance and continually measures each program’s performance to ensure it delivers the desired outcomes.
Results for America’s mission is to help decision-makers at all levels of government harness the power of evidence and data to solve the world’s greatest challenges.
Executive Constantine’s Chief of Policy, Carrie Cihak, is one of 16 Results for America local government fellows from metropolitan regions that are advanced in their use of data and evidence to produce results for their communities.
Promoting healthier, more resilient children, youth, families and communities
Best Starts for Kids is a voter-approved initiative led by Executive Constantine to help put every baby born and every child raised in King County on a path toward lifelong success.
It invests in prevention and early intervention strategies that promote healthier, more resilient children, youth, families, and communities. It is considered the most comprehensive approach to childhood development in the United States, starting with prenatal support, sustaining the gain through teenage years, and investing in safe, healthy communities that reinforce progress.
Read more in the official press release.
Share this:
Executive’s modular housing announcement generates interest
King County Executive Dow Constantine announced plans for three pilots of modular construction in a news release that was distributed Aug. 22. Several outlets picked up the story:
King County will try modular housing to shelter homeless KUOW, Aug. 21
King County orders modular units for shelters and housing, Curbed Seattle, Aug. 21
Despite hurdles, King County moves ahead with $12M in modular housing for homeless, The Seattle Times, Aug. 23
Share this:
Kudos! to DPER for process improvements
In the last 12 months, about 60 percent of Department of Permitting and Environmental Review’s single-family building permits have been approved in less than six weeks, a marked acceleration from the preceding 12 months in which 35 percent of the same permits were approved in less than six weeks.
Additionally, card payments was launched at DPER during June 2017. Today, 45 percent of payments received for permits are made with Visa credit cards.
Kudos, DPER!
Share this:
AngaLee Alexander and her path to financial wellness
Crossposted from Balanced You
You may think financial coaching isn’t relevant to you. You think, “I don’t need any financial help.” Like many, once you really stop and look at your personal finances, there are many ways to improve.
AngaLee Alexander, a King County Business and Finance Officer, is a Health Hero. Like many of us, Alexander thought she had a handle on her finances until she decided to learn more about King County’s My Secure Advantage program.
My Secure Advantage (MSA) is a free benefit available to all County employees that provides tools and personal coaching to help you achieve your financial goals. “I didn’t really think I needed any help with my finances. However, I kept seeing the MSA information pop up and decided to talk to someone and see what they have to say,” said Alexander.
The road to financial wellness is just a phone call away. MSA provides 90 days of free, confidential telephone-based coaching. Money Coaches are unbiased, financial experts who can provided guidance and other resources to employees and their spouses or partners.
After initially signing up for the program, Alexander had some doubts until she met her MSA Money Coach, Derek. “I thought we were doing a good job saving for things like retirement, but Derek gave us homework to do and exercises that helped us identify additional ways to save,” Alexander stated. “We learned how small changes can make a big difference!”
One of those changes included swapping out the daily $4 lattes at the coffee shop for a coffee machine at home. “I didn’t think my husband would budge on his daily coffee habit. But once Derek helped us see how much money we could save by brewing our own cup of java in the mornings, he gave in!” Alexander laughs.
After several sessions with Money Coach Derek, Alexander is pleased with how she and her husband are more conscious about their financial wellness. “I think the MSA program is a wonderful thing for King County to offer employees. I plan on checking in with Derek again soon!”
Want to learn more about My Secure Advantage? Contact a Money Coach by calling 1-888-874-7290 or learn more online.
Do you have a Health Hero story to share? Call us at 206-263-9626 or email BalancedYou@kingcounty.gov.
Employee News 