Kudos to the the Family Intervention and Restorative Services (FIRS) program!
Compared to the same nine-month period last year, juvenile domestic violence case filings have dropped 62% since the FIRS program launched in January 2016. The program, offers youth arrested for family violence incidents space at an overnight respite center instead of secure detention. FIRS staff offer de-escalation counseling to safely reunite youth with their family. At no cost to them, families are offered in-home family counseling, mental health services, drug and alcohol services, and the Step-Up Program, which specifically addresses adolescent family violence. Read more about the program and its success here.
Sixteen remarkable achievements of 2016
King County Executive Dow Constantine just released a slideshow of 16 accomplishments in 2016 which highlight some of the remarkable achievements of King County employees and community partners over the last 12 months. “Your professionalism and passion improves the quality of life in our region,” Executive Constantine said in an email message to employees. “Your good work creates public trust that gives us the opportunity to lead bold initiatives that make even greater progress on the most important issues of our generation, including social justice, climate change and mobility.” You can check out the slideshow of… Read More
Downtown blood drive also donates to Northwest Harvest
Friday, December 30, Bloodworks Northwest is holding a blood drive for the King County Chinook and Administrative buildings, with a special promotion. For the first 30 people that register to donate, Bloodworks Northwest, will give a pound of food for each registered donor to Northwest Harvest. That’s 30 pounds of food that will help our local community! Friday, December 30, 2016 – from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (closed noon to 1 p.m.) Your single blood donation will help patients in need and help feed community members during the holidays! Please consider donating. Click here to make an appointment. For questions about… Read More
Closure reminders
Please note most King County government offices will be closed Monday Dec. 26 for Christmas and Monday Jan. 2 for New Year’s Day. Metro buses will operate on Sunday schedule. For other transit holiday information, please see Metro holiday schedules. All County transfer stations will be closed Jan 2. For garbage collection, please contact your hauler for details.
Top 10 successes for the Best-Run Government: Employees initiative
We’ve had tremendous successes this year in the Best-Run Government: Employees initiative, working to make King County an employer of choice. A 2017 goal is to communicate more regularly about our successes and challenges. In that vein, here are some highlights from the past year, including negotiation of a total compensation agreement, a record response to the engagement survey and a new interactive Leadership Essentials course.
“Sweet ’16” highlights and accomplishments
Crossposted from the DES Express It’s been a busy year in the Department of Executive Services! As 2016 comes to a close, we want to take a look back at our highlights and accomplishments this year, and celebrate 366 days of Delivering Excellent Service. We’re already looking forward to more great work in 2017! Thank you for all you do for the residents of King County. Read more at the DES Express
Important fire safety tips for this holiday season
Each year fires occurring during the holiday season cause injuries and damage. To ensure your happy holidays are fire safe you should follow a few extra fire safety precautions. Candles: Always put candles in candlesticks before you light them. Don’t use lit candles as decorations on your holiday tree or near flammable decorations and curtains. Never leave candles unattended or within the reach of young children. Extinguish all candles when leaving the room or going to sleep. Holiday trees: Dispose of fresh-cut trees before becoming dry to the extent that needles are falling and the color is fading. Contact… Read More
Ongoing Paid Parental Leave benefit
Based upon the success of the Paid Parental Leave Pilot Program, King County Council adopted legislation in November establishing an ongoing Paid Parental Leave benefit effective January 1, 2017. The benefit will be the same as it has been under the pilot program. Paid Parental Leave supplements an employee’s accrued paid leave to provide the employee the equivalent of his or her full salary for up to a total of twelve weeks, when combined with the employee’s accrued leave (except for one week of sick leave and one week of vacation leave),… Read More
Executive hosts first “Listening Session” to hear directly from employees
If you want to know what’s going on in any organization, you ask the people who are doing the work. That’s why King County Executive Dow Constantine hosted his first Employee Listening Session – to hear from employees about the issues they are facing in their workplaces, and what the County can do to help them thrive and better serve their customers. “Although I visit many King County work sites each month, I still don’t get as many opportunities as I would like to talk directly with individual employees, so I asked… Read More
Reminder: Win a book of poetry; further the conversation about equity and social justice, deadline December 30
This year an Equity and Social Justice (ESJ) project team in DNRP organized a series of four literary readings called “Reflecting on Race and Racism through Spoken Word, Story, and Conversation” that was open to all King County employees. The purpose was to provide a forum for employees to discuss issues of race and racism to help reject stereotypes, practice empathy, and come to a greater understanding of the roots of inequity and injustice. The ESJ literary project is also the reason behind this book giveaway open to all employees. To be… Read More
Employee News 