Ebola outbreak and Annual Giving Drive
Dear fellow King County employee:
King County Executive Dow Constantine
As you know, the Ebola outbreak has caused devastating loss of life and decimated families in West Africa. The World Health Organization estimates 10,000 new cases of Ebola could occur every week by December if the virus is not contained.
With our Public Health department leading the way, we in King County are prepared in the event that the Ebola virus should ever come to Washington State. Our experts tell us that the most effective way to prevent the virus from spreading is to support the communities in West Africa that were first impacted.
Governments and non-profits are on the front lines of the response, and I have heard from many of you that as global citizens you want to do your part. As a result, I have directed the Employee Giving Program to set up a page dedicated to nonprofit organizations that are responding to the Ebola Crisis. Among the organizations the program has identified as first-responders are Partners in Health #3530, Medical Teams International #9461, and PATH International #3501.
During the Annual Giving Drive you have more options available through the workplace than any other time of year, by pledging before the deadline, November 21, 2014, and putting the words “In Honor of Ebola Response” in the dedication portion of your form.
There are three ways to give:
- Payroll Deduction – One time, once a month, or twice month.
- Time Donation – Now up to three nonprofit organizations. Please use a paper form for more than one. Read more here.
- Check – Made directly out to the nonprofit.
If you have already made your pledge and would like to make an additional donation, you must submit a paper pledge form with the “additional” box checked at the top of the form. You cannot make an additional online pledge if you have already pledged online.
Click here to make a pledge online
Click here to make a pledge with a paper form (for more than one time donation)
If you submit a paper pledge form, please send your form to the program at CNK-ES-0231 or by mail to 401 5th Ave, 2nd Floor, Seattle, WA 98104. If you have any questions you may contact Junelle Kroontje at 206.263.9405 or by email Junelle.kroontje@kingcounty.gov.
Thank you for opening your hearts to the people affected by Ebola and investing in a global health response that will save thousands of lives and improve the outcomes for thousands more.
Sincerely,
Dow Constantine
King County Executive
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Kudos! Ruth Ann Dunn, Metro Transit Operator
Greetings Harold [Taniguchi, Director, Department of Transportation], I am writing to let you know that tonight, your bus operator, route 17 bus #2737, was excellent at working with a rider with special needs. She was able to diffuse a potentially difficult interaction between passengers, and develop a trust with this young man in a very short time.
Her calm and caring command, her extra helpfulness, and lack of judgmental treatment, helped all of us riders. I am sure that this young man left the bus with a little less anxiety and a little more confidence to meet the big challenges he had before him. And who knows, it might have been just enough of a reduction in anxiety to enable him to reach success.
On the whole, I am usually impressed with your operators and the way they handle things. This operator this evening did something that meant even more – Stella Chao, Deputy Director, Environmental Health Division, Public Health – Seattle & King County
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Equity and Social Justice Fair coming Nov. 20
On Thursday, Nov. 20, King County will host an Equity and Social Justice (ESJ) Fair to showcase ESJ work efforts, results, and future plans across all of our departments and agencies.
The ESJ Fair has three goals:
- Build internal awareness of the ESJ ordinance among all King County employees;
- Showcase recent and current activities and the results of our ESJ work; and
- Share information and activities across departments in order to learn from each other, stimulate additional action, and inform future work efforts.
What can you do to help?
- Share your ideas with your Interbranch Team Representative (IBT) and internal ESJ teams to help decide what your department will showcase. Make it fun with activities to encourage participation and networking.
- Can you volunteer? Check with your supervisor if you would like to volunteer for planning committees, to staff tables, serve as greeters, decorate the room, or assist with set-up/tear-down. Your Interbranch Team Representative will be able to help you identify various roles.
- Attend! Register here, then save the date to your Outlook calendar, and come by to learn more about King County’s ESJ efforts.
The ESJ Fair will be held on Thursday, Nov. 20, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Chinook Building, Rooms 121/123.Register here.
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County archivists preserve, celebrate our history
Within King County Archives’ climate controlled vault resides the first record of marriage in Seattle, the minutes of an 1853 County Commissioners’ proceedings for the Washington Territory and a blueprint of a 1915 King County Ferry.
The documents were just a few of the artifacts Archives chosen to highlight for the nonprofit Historical Seattle’s workshop called “Digging Deeper.” The King County Archives was the last stop in the six month series where participants visited a different archive each month to get a behind-the-scenes look into research materials in the many archives in Seattle and King County.
“They wanted to increase their members’ comfort level with conducting searches within the archives,” Carol Shenk, a County archivist, said of the Digger Deeper series, something that she was very happy to support.
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Five Questions with Theresa Roscoe, Career Support Services Manager, Human Resources Division
1. What was your first role at King County? I began my career at King County 25 years ago as a temporary receptionist for the Office of Civil Rights, after identifying the County as an organization where I felt I could learn and further my career. During my career at King County I worked in Human Resources, the Executive Office and in Transit.
2. What do you do as Manager of Career Support Services? My role is to manage the day-to day activities of the Career Support Services staff. As part of my job, I am responsible for drafting and/or making recommendations on policies and procedures, designing new programs, developing online and classroom training, developing and maintaining good internal and external partnerships, and resolving issues and concerns. Because we provide countywide services, I work directly with the Office of Labor Relations, management from all departments, the Human Resources community and our employees. I love my work as a manager of this area because our team has the opportunity to help King County employees and watch them develop.
3. What services does your group offer King County employees? Career Support Services provides a variety of services and resources to County employees, community partners and the general public. This program was originally created to provide direct services and resources to assist employees who received lay-off notices. Some of these services include conducting individualized skill assessments; providing guidance in resume and cover letter writing; coordinating and facilitating informational meetings; coordinating a variety of external services; identifying and providing training to help employees be successful; providing mentoring and job shadowing opportunities; identifying, developing and facilitating a variety of training programs; and creating and maintaining internal/external relationships to provide additional services and resources to employees.
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KCEGP Nonprofit Expos provide quality connections between nonprofits and employees
The King County Employee Giving Program (EGP) hosted five Nonprofit Expos in September and October to help employees get a better understanding of how their contributions to the Annual Giving Drive have a real impact on the lives of people and animals, on the arts, and on the environment, both here and abroad.
The Nonprofit Expos featured more than 140 nonprofit organizations and reached more than 800 employees directly from every King County department and Separately Elected office.
“The Nonprofit Expos are about enabling quality conversations between employees and nonprofits,” said Junelle Kroontje, KCEGP Administrator. “The program not only provides opportunities for giving but acts as a resource, and these events are a perfect example of that. For example, Regional Animal Services of King County consistently adopts out animals brought to our events and employees tell me about finding a service that they needed for a family member who has just been diagnosed with a disease, or an opportunity to volunteer.”
Bringing nonprofits into the worksite is the number one way that employees learn about new organizations to support.
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Emergency Sign Language at your fingertips
Does your work ever require a sign language interpreter to assist a customer in an emergency situation?
The Emergency Sign Language Interpreter Program (ESLIP) provides sign language interpreters for emergency and time-sensitive situations on a 24-hour basis, every day for King County and City of Seattle programs. These services are provided to ensure effective communication during emergency encounters and situations with individuals who are Deaf, Deaf-Blind, or hard of hearing using on-call interpreters.
Situations when ESLIP interpreters should be called include, but are not limited to:
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Macklemore speaks at 20-year celebration of Drug Court
King County’s Drug Diversion Court celebrated 20 years of changing lives yesterday at an event at King County Courthouse.
Drug Diversion Court is a rigorous minimum 11-month, four-phase program that holds participants accountable for their sobriety. Drug Court participants are required to meet with a Drug Court judge once every two weeks, go to chemical dependency treatment three times a week and are randomly drug tested twice a week.
The celebration, dubbed “20 Years of Changing Lives,” was attended by County Executive Dow Constantine, King County Councilmembers Kathy Lambert and Larry Gossett, U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo Martinez, King County Superior Court Judge Gregory Canova, Director of the Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention Willie Hayes, scores of graduates, family and friends, and award-winning Seattle rapper Macklemore.
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KCIT employee gets some help from technology and four-legged friend
Next time you contact KCIT for email or SharePoint help, you may be talking to an employee who has a four-legged friend helping him in his work day.
Dan Johnson, a Systems Engineer with King County’s Department of Information Technology, has been with the County since 1997, initially in the KCIT Help Desk, and now supporting a range of Exchange email, SharePoint and cloud-based services for employees.
“My work focus has expanded far beyond Exchange email to include unified communications, the Office 365 suite, and distributed administration and security,” Dan said. “I used to support one major application/service, Exchange Server. Now, I support many cloud-based services and also do much more project work along with also providing day-to-day operational support for all the systems mentioned above [SharePoint, Exchange Online Protection, CRM, Office Web Apps].”
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Get to know four participants in 2014 Annual Giving Drive
Whether your passion is protecting animals, improving literacy, preventing hunger, helping seniors or young people, or supporting the arts, there are more than 950 participating nonprofit organizations that you can choose to contribute to in the 2014 Annual Giving Drive, which kicked off September 24.
If you make a pledge to any of the more than 950 nonprofit organizations by 5 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 24, you will be entered into a random drawing for two lift tickets to Stevens Pass. If you have already made a pledge, you will be automatically entered into the drawing. Click here to make a pledge.
Meet four of this year’s participating nonprofits (see full list of participating nonprofits here):
Landesa (9556) works to secure land rights for the world’s poorest people – those 2.47 billion chiefly rural people who live on less than two dollars a day. Landesa partners with developing country governments to design and implement laws, policies, and programs concerning land that provide opportunity, further economic growth, and promote social justice.
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