Crossposted from Public Health Insider  Armed with pen and paper, a dozen artists roamed the floor of the Seattle/King County Clinic, a  four-day pop-up clinic at the Seattle Center’s Key Arena that provided free medical, dental, and vision care to nearly 4,500 people last October. These were some of the most respected comics artists in the Pacific Northwest, and they were there to find out who these patients were, what experiences they had in trying to get healthcare day-to-day, and why so many were willing to wait for many hours at the Seattle Center–even overnight–for this… Read More

King County is helping residents who are underrepresented in the technology field explore careers in information technology through a unique one-day training in coding. Twenty-one King County residents from the Rainier Valley, White Center, and Tukwila/SeaTac areas explored careers in software development and information technology at a free, one-day Coding 101 workshop provided by Code Fellows at WorkSource Renton in January. All of the participants come from Communities of Opportunity, a program founded by King County and the Seattle Foundation that aims to improve health and well-being in ethnically and geographically diverse… Read More

Crossposted from Tails from RASKC This is the last of the nine segments which Univision Seattle, KUNS Channel 51, is proudly airing on Wednesdays at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. This segment focuses on RASKC’s Angel Fund, but provides an underlying message about its support to victims of domestic violence. Learn more about RASKC’s stories on Univision. Read more at Tails from RASKC

An innovative sediment cleanup technology is being tested by the Lower Duwamish Work Group. Activated Carbon, common in household water filters, was placed on three plots in the Lower Duwamish. Three years of monitoring now begins to evaluate the effectiveness of Activated Carbon in trapping contaminants and the effects the filtering has on organisms living in the sediment. The Lower Duwamish Waterway Group is composed of specialists from King County, the City of Seattle, the Port of Seattle and the Boeing Company. The County’s Wastewater Treatment Division constructed the pilot project and… Read More

What you need to do know to avoid disruption  On July 1, 2017, western Washington will incorporate the new area code 564. The new area code is an overlay for phone numbers issued in the current 206, 360, 253, and 425 area codes and will cover new phone numbers only.  What this means is: As phone numbers in the current area code are no longer available, a new phone number will be assigned using the 564 area code. As of July 1, 7-digit dialing when making local calls within the same area… Read More

Join us at this month’s Climate Preparedness Lunch and Learn to hear from the WLRD Rural and Regional Services team about how the County’s Forest Health plan is preparing us for climate change impacts. Wednesday, March 8, from noon to 1 p.m. King Street Center, 6th Floor, King and Chinook Rooms All King County employees welcome, but space is limited. Please sign up here.. For more information, please contact Jessica Engel at Jessica.engel@kingcounty.gov or 206-477-3132.

The City of Kent recently completed one of the eleven projects funded in part by the DNRP Wastewater Treatment Division 2016 WaterWorks Grant Program. In addition to remediating the soil of the Leber Homestead, which is where this grant was used, the purpose of the project was to provide rearing and refuge habitat for salmon, especially for juvenile Chinook salmon, which are a threatened species in the Puget Sound. “The Kent project is a win for the environment and also for public health,” said King County Councilmember Dave Upthegrove. During the project,… Read More