King County joins the 100-Day Challenge to tackle youth homelessness
Shared from the DCHS Touching Base Newsletter
King, Pierce and Spokane counties have joined together with A Way Home Washington to accelerate local efforts to prevent and end youth homelessness.
In Washington state, more than 13,000 people between the ages of 12 and 24 lack a safe, stable place to call home. The recent King County point-in-time count, released by All Home on May 31, 2017, counted a total of 1,498 unaccompanied youth and young adults homeless (up to age 25) in King County on January 27, 2017.
Called the 100-Day Challenge, each of the three regions formed teams to identify specific goals they will work to achieve over a period of 100 days. The King County 100-Day Challenge team will focus on 1) accelerating housing placements for young people experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness, and 2) reducing the number of unsheltered young people in the community on the Coordinated Entry for All (CEA) list. The challenge officially started on April 20.
The King County team is hard at work problem solving barriers to housing placements for youth. One of the problems they have identified is that transitional housing placements are taking too much time, leaving housing beds unoccupied. Housing program staff and CEA staff are working together to improve their protocols and collaboration so that young people are housed more quickly and easily.
The Schultz Family Foundation and the Raikes Foundation, two local philanthropic leaders active in and committed to addressing youth homelessness, are providing financial support for the Challenge. Rapid Results Institute (RRI) is providing coaching and support to the teams from all three regions, and facilitated a two-day workshop in April to launch the 100-Day Challenge. RRI’s past challenges around veteran and youth homelessness have shown that the limited timeframe of 100 days provides the urgency needed to identify, innovate and fuel effective approaches for communities.
Communities in the Pierce County region will use the 100 days to significantly and sustainably reduce the number of youth/young adults experiencing homelessness, with a focus on diverting young people from the criminal justice system and preventing homelessness. Spokane’s Challenge Team will work to ensure youth and young adults who have been involved with systems such as foster care, treatment facilities and juvenile justice, exit to a safe place to live and do not fall into homelessness.
The 100-Day Challenges are part of a growing national movement to prevent and end youth homelessness in America. In Austin, Cleveland and Los Angeles, similar challenges helped house 413 young people in just 100 days. A Way Home Washington has created a hashtag, #WAChallengeAccepted, and is providing updates on Twitter, Facebook and the A Way Home Washington website.
To learn more about what DCHS is doing in our community, read the most recent issue of the Touching Base Newsletter (on SharePoint).
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Investing in You
Dear fellow King County employee,
Over the past few years, we’ve done a lot of work to make King County a workplace that supports you, your ideas and your passion for public service. Through our annual employee survey, Equity and Social Justice focus groups, and engagement action plans we asked you what you need to do your best work and have been acting on what you said.
Today I am launching Investing in You, which builds on our employee-focused efforts in Equity and Social Justice, Best-Run Government: Employees and Continuous Improvement and brings them together into a single employee-focused strategy.
The goal of Investing in You is to make King County a great place to work, where you have equitable opportunities to learn and advance, try new ideas, be healthy and safe, and receive fair, competitive compensation and tools to be your best at work.
It prioritizes actions in six goal areas to create a workplace that fully represents the diversity of our communities and where you have the tools, resources and support to innovate, achieve your career goals and do the work that you care deeply about.
Please watch this short video about Investing in You and check out this webpage for more information on the six goal areas and key actions.
Sincerely,
Dow Constantine
King County Executive
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Northshore Clinic prepares for move to Totem Lake in June
This June, the Northshore Public Health Center will move from its current location of 25 years in south Bothell to a new location in Kirkland. The new location at Totem Lake offers better access for clients and closer proximity to key health care partners, particularly Evergreen Medical Center. The new site’s services – Maternity Support Services, WIC (Women Infants and Children), enrollment into health insurance, Orca Lift and other services – will be adjacent to a Metro transit center. The move is the final phase in the sale of the Northshore facility. Selling Northshore was the preferred choice in a study required by a Council Proviso, with the funds helping to improve the Public Health Fund balance.
The final day of services at the old site will likely be Wednesday, June 7, and will be closed on June 8, 9 and 12th to prepare for the move to the Totem Lake area. The anticipated day for opening to the public at the new site is Tuesday, June 13.
For updates and more information visit the Northshore Public Health Center webpage here or contact the center directly at 206-263-2680.
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Social Media Spotlight: Noxious Weeds Blog
Noxious Weeds Blog provides information and updates on noxious weeds and invasive plants found in King County, Washington, tips on identifying and controlling weeds throughout the year, updates on events and classes, and noxious weed news from around the state and beyond. Our goal is to provide information that is useful for everyone impacted by noxious weeds, from homeowners and gardeners to vegetation managers, restoration workers and landscape professionals. We also include job listings, program news, grants, and other information that we think would be useful to people working on noxious weeds.
Follow the Noxious Weeds blog today!
Click here to view all King County social media pages.
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Featured Job: Industrial Maintenance Electrician
Closing Date/Time: Continuous
Salary: $40.53 – $42.50 Hourly
Job Type: Multiple job types-career service and/or temp
Location: Multiple locations in King County, Washington
Department: Department of Natural Resources & Parks – Wastewater Treatment Division
Description: This position performs a variety of highly skilled journey-level work constructing, troubleshooting, maintaining and wiring a wide variety of equipment and conducting preventive maintenance programs. This position requires the use of analytical skills in implementing various aspects of process control.
The Wastewater Treatment Division is committed to the principles of equity and social justice. We value diverse perspectives and life experiences in our workforce, and are committed to building a culturally diverse and inclusive environment. WTD strives to provide equitable services to residents and businesses across King County.
Learn more about this position, or view all available jobs.
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Kudos! Detention Officer receives MLK Medal of Distinguished Service Award
Juvenile Detention Officer Joseph Townsend was recently awarded the MLK Medal of Distinguished Service award by Councilmember Pete von Reichbauer. The Metropolitan King County Council honor is presented annually to those who make a particularly strong impact on the County, with the hope to encourage others to renew their dedication to serve their community.
Townsend was recognized with the award for his mentorship of young people throughout South King County. He coaches the Thomas Jefferson High School baseball team, as well as the school’s nationally ranked Girls Bowling team.
Read more in the official press release.
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Tech Tip: Multimedia version: Designing with scale in mind
Scale is a large part of design, sometimes literally. In a very basic definition, scale is the deliberate sizing of individual elements.
Scale can help us make sense of designs and images, but, scale doesn’t always have to be based on realism. You can size your elements dramatically large or small to create stunning effects and to signal which parts of your design are more important and which are less.
For example, check out this poster for the movie Drive. In this poster, the lead character has been scaled up dramatically, drawing attention to him first, and the other faces second. While this scale is not technically based on realism as people’s faces are generally the same size in real life, the dramatic scaling up and down of faces helps viewers to get a quick grasp on each character’s level of importance in the film, as well as making for an effective design.
This Tech Tip is courtesy of www.canva.com.
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Secure Your Load to prevent road debris and accidents, June 6
The old car transports a heap of rubbish
In recognition of “Secure Your Load Day” on Tuesday, June 6, a national effort championed by King County resident Robin Abel, the King County Solid Waste Division is encouraging all residents to take the time to properly secure their loads to improve road safety, avoid fees, and prevent litter. A recent study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that road debris contributes to more than 50,000 traffic crashes every year in the U.S. Of those crashes, 125 people lost their lives. It only takes a few minutes to properly secure your load to prevent auto crashes, injuries, deaths, and fines from law enforcement.
You can find more information about securing your load by visiting the Solid Waste Division website here.
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Opportunities at Work: Igniting Employee Development session for supervisors and managers, June 26
We’re building a culture where all King County employees are inspired to learn, grow and thrive. Supervisors and managers play a key role in that. This special, one-time pilot session will support supervisors and managers in their role championing development for the people they lead.
This session will be held Monday, June 26 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. in King Street Center, 8th Floor Conference Center. In this half-day forum, supervisors and managers will:
- Recognize the important role they play in developing the people they lead
- Discuss barriers and learn best practices in employment development
- Explore skills and behaviors that enable them to better support employees in their development efforts
- Identify development tools and resources that help meet engagement action plans and Equity & Social Justice: Workplace and Workforce goals.
To register and for more information, view the Eventbrite listing here.
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PlazaFest: Food Carts are back by popular demand, June 6
Food cart vendors will be available on the Administration Building plaza Tuesday, June 6 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
The Facilities Management Division is close to finalizing a plan for food carts and other food options on a more consistent basis, through the summer months. Look for more information soon. For questions about PlazaFest on June 6, email Judy Hairston.
Employee News 