Get involved with the Employee Giving Program
Interested in getting involved with the community? Consider being a part of the Employee Giving Program (EGP)!
From sitting on the EGP Committee to becoming an Ambassador, there’s at least five important reasons why you should consider this opportunity.
With the Annual Giving Drive just around the corner, for those interested in becoming an Ambassador, the training program kicks off next week.
Sign up soon as seats are quickly being filled! Find more information here.
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Mentors needed! Employees encouraged to apply
Do you have a specific job or technical skill you’d like to share? Are you passionate about King County and its success? Are you an experienced leader that understands the thrill of engaging and empowering others? If you answer “yes” to any of these questions, we need you.
The request for mentors has been very high, and we need a large pool of mentors to meet those requests. You don’t need to be a manager to be a mentor, just knowledge and expertise in a particular skill and an interest in sharing.
Help us create a vibrant, effective learning culture here at King County. Consider contributing your time and skills as a mentor. One hour. Once a month. That’s all it takes to impact someone else’s life.
Intrigued? Contact KCMentoring@KingCounty.gov today.
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King County Executive announces new grant opportunities for unincorporated area projects
King County Executive Dow Constantine today announced the availability of Community Service Area grant funding for a wide variety of educational, cultural and environmental projects that will benefit residents of unincorporated areas.
“Community Service Area grants help people share in local art, enhance our forests and green spaces, and connect with neighbors young and old,” said Executive Constantine. “We are proud to support the youth and senior projects, movie and music nights, and neighborhood gatherings that help make King County such a great place to call home.”
A total of $90,000 in King County Community Service Area Program grant funding is available for projects costing less than $5,000.
Previous grant funding for projects benefiting unincorporated King County residents have included vegetation restoration and enhancement projects, free summertime concerts, community clean-up events and clubhouse exterior remodels in public areas.
Read more in the official press release.
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RESCHEDULED: End-of-Summer Countywide Potluck, new date Thursday, Sept. 28
In order to be inclusive and support the County’s Equity and Social Justice goals to allow for observance of the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah, FMD have rescheduled the End-of-Summer Countywide Potluck to take place Thursday, September 28.
Please join us on the Admin Plaza from 11:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m.
Volunteers are needed to bring a dish to share. Contact Nancy Kodani-Lee at 7-8012 or Julie Long at 7-0204 to let us know what you’ll bring.
There will also be a Table Tennis Tournament during the Potluck. Sign up with Jane Wu at 3-8523.
Thank you for your understanding. We look forward to seeing you on the 28.
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King County controls a new noxious weed!
Crossposted from Noxious Weeds Blog
It’s not every day you find a new noxious weed in your county, but this August King County had one of those days. On Aug. 15, our program was alerted to an infestation of the Class A noxious weed ricefield bulrush (Schoenoplectus mucronatus) growing in a wetland just east of Redmond. Sean Davis with Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge in Clark County helped confirm the ID of the species. Prior to this discovery, the main known location of this plant in Washington state had been in the Ridgefield refuge, along with a few other populations in southwest Washington, such as Beacon Rock in Skamania County and Whipple Creek (part of Salmon Creek) in Clark County.
On Aug. 16, Aquatic Lands Specialist Ben Peterson, County Lands Specialist Roy Brunskill, Regional Weed Specialist Patrick Sowers, and Riparian Projects Team Member Kirk Massee visited the site to control the infestation.
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Survey communications: Asking questions, acting on what we hear
When you ask someone for their feedback on something, you’d better have a plan for how you are going to act on that feedback.
That’s exactly what King County has done with its annual employee survey. Almost 340 action plans were created to act on the issues you said were important in the 2016 survey.
Two critical issues you raised were Career Opportunities and Leadership Visibility. Here are some of the ways that we acted on your responses:
Career Opportunities
- Expanded the Bridge Fellowship program to provide leadership and development opportunities to more employees.
- Created an intensive leadership training program to help managers and supervisors support their employees to do their best work.
Leadership Visibility
- Executive Constantine has launched quarterly listening sessions with employees, met with employees on site visits, and continued his employee video messages.
- Multiple departments have worked to improve communications channels and build understanding of division and department priorities.
The 2017 King County Employee Survey will open Monday, Sept. 18, running until Friday, Oct. 6, and distribution of paper surveys will start Monday, Sept. 11, to Friday, Oct. 6, for employees without email. Superior Court, District Court and the Sheriff’s Office are not participating in this year’s countywide survey. All employees are eligible to take the survey except Short Term Temps, interns or those who started before August 25, 2017.
The annual Employee Survey is part of our Investing in You efforts. See all the employee survey responses here (intranet).
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DPD employee graduates from Washington Leadership Institute
Pictured: Matthew Sanders, left, with colleague Edwin Aralica at the WLI Graduation. Photo by Karen Murray.
DPD’s own Matthew Sanders, an attorney in the Association of Counsel for the Accused Division, graduated from the 2017 Washington Leadership Institute (WLI) last week. The WLI is a program sponsored by the University of Washington and Washington State Bar Association to recruit, train, and develop attorneys from traditionally underrepresented groups for future leadership positions within the bar association and the legal community at large.
The program selects attorneys with three to ten years’ experience for an eight month program that includes weekly meetings and offers participants the chance to receive mentoring from well-known leaders in the legal community, attend training sessions, and experience one on one interactions with judges. Matt had the wonderful opportunity to work with Justice Mary Yu from the Washington Supreme Court. The WLI fellows also completed a community service project. This was quite a commitment on the part of Matthew, and we are all very proud of his hard work and participation.
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Public Health: Providing a range of services downtown Seattle
By Jimmy’a (jih-MY-uh) Carter, a summer intern for the Executive’s Office Customer Service team. Jimmy’a, a 16 year old who will be a junior this fall at West Auburn High School, plans to attend a four-year college and get a degree in youth counseling. She joins us from the Bridge to Prosperity mentoring program.
Earlier this month, I took a trip to the King County’s Downtown Public Health Center. I was so excited to learn how everything works in a busy clinic that serves different types of clients.
Pictured from left Social Workers Mary Cate and Michelle Bollinger.
Social workers Mary Cate and Michelle Bollinger gave me a tour around the offices and introduced me to people with different jobs in the various programs at the clinic. They said they love being able to help so many different people every day.
There are programs that are helpful to woman and families in need, like the WIC program, which improves health and influences lifetime nutrition by giving low-income parents money to buy nutritious food.
The Nurse-Family Partnership is another community health program that helps young, low-income mothers who are pregnant with their first child by matching them up with registered nurses to provide support from pregnancy through a child’s second birthday. The clinic also provides the Kids Plus program: a team of nurses and social workers who help homeless children and families with their health and social needs.
For example, they take donations for things like new diapers and baby gear, and slightly used things like baby and kids clothing, supplies, and toys in good condition to give to families with children who need them.
The clinic staff serves many customers who speak languages other than English. They have some staff who speak different languages, and they can also call a Language Line for an interpreter to help them understand what the clients need, and to explain how the clinic can help. They also help people who have come to the United States through refugee programs and help them with things like figuring out what immunizations and other medical and mental health care they need as they get settled in America.
The Public Health clinic staff also serve residents who live in the Mary’s Place homeless shelter and day center a couple of blocks away in downtown Seattle. Public Health partnered with Amazon to create the shelter in an old motel. It’s different from most shelters because it’s for families and you can have pets there. Being close to downtown and buses also makes it easier for the families in the shelter to get to other services they need.
Back at the main clinic, we also toured the Robert Clewis Center – Needle Exchange. The center is named after a much-loved former employee and community organizer.
Education specialist Mel LaBelle
Education Specialist Mel LaBelle explained that the needle exchange provides a safe place for people who use drugs by injection to come in and exchange dirty needles for clean ones. By providing a safe environment for getting rid of used needles and getting clean ones without being judged, the program helps keep used needles off the street, and also helps keep injectable drug users safer by giving them new needles, which helps decrease the spread of HIV and hepatitis through infected needles. The needle exchange also provides other services like health care and helping drug users get into drug treatment.
I already thought that public health was an asset to our community. But on this visit, I learned that they help out in more ways than I realized: from the needle exchange and medical care for homeless people, to supplies for families trying to find housing, to helping single mothers get housing and keep their babies up to date with immunizations, and so much more. Overall, it was a good experience.
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Increasing diversity in applicants, King County Sheriff’s Office
Blending in at recruitment events is one of the few changes that King County Sheriff’s Office has made to represent the County’s welcoming atmosphere and boost recruitment for females into commissioned officer positions.
Court Protection Unit Sergeant Loi Dawkins trades in her full officer uniform for a polo shirt and cargo pants to attend recruitment events, a softer approach, she says, to entice career seekers to engage with recruitment staff.
Pictured from left Court Protection Unit Sergeant Loi Dawkins with other King County Sheriff’s Office employees.
“For some people, it makes them feel more comfortable with approaching us when they otherwise would be intimidated by a gun, badge and uniform,” Sgt. Dawkins said. “I have noticed a difference because some people think ‘I don’t know if I want to talk to a police officer,’ and then they realize they’ve been talking to a police officer all along; it allows for us to open up the dialogue and give them the idea that this is something they should look into.”
A mother of three, Sgt. Dawkins can relate to parents, specifically females that are reluctant to pursue a career as a police officer.
“One of the biggest challenges is convincing women that there is a place and need for them in policing overall, specifically in our department,” Sgt. Dawkins said. “Some of them express the challenges of the schedule. Single moms who have to deal with childcare issues, where work shifts are not conducive to that type of lifestyle, and others say ‘gosh, you know, I’ve never really thought about it until now,’” Sgt. Dawkins said.
In her capacity, Sgt. Dawkins oversees recruitment and plans all recruitment events which range from attending job fairs to public speaking opportunities to prescreening for backgrounds.
In the last year, the Sheriff’s Office recruiters have attended the Northwest Women’s Show and Women in Trades career fair. They have also attended the Women in Law Enforcement career fair in Bellevue for two consecutive years.
Since January 2017, the Sheriff’s Office has experienced a 46% increase of diversity in applicants including women. The Sheriff’s Office has also seen an influx of Lateral candidates from other departments. With the combined efforts, there are now over 80 females representing KCSO.
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Metro Transit’s Nathan Vass is committed to the challenging Route 7
This article originally appeared in The Seattle Times. It features Metro operator Nathan Vass.
He is known among passengers, co-workers and friends as a charismatic storyteller who can defuse tough situations that come with a nighttime bus route traversing Seattle’s urban core.
LeRoy Haigler first rode Metro Transit’s No. 7 bus after a one-way train ride from his home in Philadelphia to start over in Seattle.
Homeless and fleeing family trauma, the 19-year-old had little money, few belongings and no place to go. He boarded the downtown-bound bus on Rainier Avenue round midnight, finding a seat in the back after swapping a quick greeting with the driver, Nathan Vass.
That was Sept. 13, 2014. Haigler remembers it as the day Vass saved his life.
“Not a way, like, oh, he jumped in a burning building or he stopped a car from hitting me,” Haigler said. “Nathan gave me hope. ”
At the route’s end, Vass listened to Haigler’s story, explained temporary shelter options in Seattle and gave the teen $20 before the two parted ways. The conversation and cash, Haigler said recently, was what he needed to get through the night and eventually start applying for jobs.
Vass, 31, a Metro driver for the past 10 years, is known among passengers, co-workers and friends for his ability to connect with people, suggest help if it’s needed and defuse those tough situations that come with a nighttime bus route traversing Seattle’s urban core.
He greets each rider who boards “the 7,” a route with a reputation among drivers for trouble. He personally calls out each of his route’s 126 stops — from Rainier Beach to the University District — rather than relying on the recorded announcements most drivers use.
Regular riders often find space near him to talk, and he knows hundreds of passengers by name.
“One of the things you’ll notice about Nathan is every person who gets on the bus, nobody gets ignored,” said Celia Berk, 20, of Capitol Hill, who first rode Vass’ bus about five years ago.
Born in Los Angeles, Vass’ fascination with public transit began young. He grew up in Seattle, where he began riding buses at age 12 to people-watch and take pictures.
That’s when working for Metro became a goal.
Now, Vass documents his experiences as a driver through words and pictures in a blog, The View From Nathan’s Bus, which he hopes one day will become a book.
“If we’re going to anthropomorphize buses, they’ve become, like, the friendly uncle who loves everyone, who doesn’t judge,” Vass said. “The bus is rare in that it brings together all class groups and my route, specifically, everyone. ”
Vass makes Route 7 his own
Route 7 is one of Metro’s busiest bus lines, shuttling about 11,000 people each day through diverse and more affordable South Seattle neighborhoods and into a city center being transformed by wealth from the tech boom.
The 7 extends farther north at night, pushing past downtown’s high-rises and construction cranes, to include Route 49’s stops for partyers on Capitol Hilland students in the University District.
Considering its high ridership and wide geographic sweep, the 7 ranks among Metro’s highest for safety threats.
Bus operators across the transit agency’s roughly 185-route system deal with people in distress, acting inappropriately or being threatening. Eighty-six bus operators were assaulted last year, Metro reports.
Read more at The Seattle Times. Image courtesy of The Seattle Times.
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