Current Trends

• Background
• Stakeholders
• Local Trend Data
• Alignment
• Small Grants Fund
• Best and Promising Practices Index
• Resources

Vision

United Way of King County envisions a learning community where local participants identify and implement new strategies to improve local community conditions.  Community members have the tools, training, volunteers and networks to take a leadership role in implementing new solutions to make real and lasting change in local communities.     

Background

New Solutions is tasked with engaging community participants in identifying and implementing new strategies to improve local community conditions.  This group will act as the front-line in facilitating new solutions with United Way of King County impact councils, staff and community leaders.   

The balance of the Community Assessment is great at mining catalogues of data to determine trends, constituencies, published best and promising practices and inventory the key indicators to be addressed to improve King County as a whole.  These efforts are great on a grand scale, but King County covers 1,566,120 square miles with a growing heterogeneous population of 1,861,792 people.  It is easy to overlook pockets of severe need or gloss over disparities in our midst. 

New Solutions is a means of bridging the publications with the public.  This Council was forged from 4 subregional councils guided by a geographic lens.   The subregions looked at the unique geography, built environment, demographics, and human service issues of a given region.  The Sub-regional councils advocated for and infused seed investments in locally identified agencies and programs.  New Solutions will remove the geographic lens and work with communities as they self-identify their constituencies, needs and strategies.   

This council aims to solicit more input - to engage more community members, to identify trends that are not yet available in the datasets.  The rationale being, the wealth of knowledge for community conditions is in the community.  United Way’s role is to help convene, provide the tools and the means for community members to self determine local solutions.    

Guidance

•        Increase our understanding of and responsiveness to diverse communities

•        Increase opportunities to identify and implement tailored services for underserved (traditionally and newly) communities where there is opportunity to build and strengthen communities

•        Support organizing and community conversations where organizations aren’t playing that role

•        Support key organizations because of the key role they play in organizing, outreach and community connections

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Stakeholders

New Solutions continues to identify the role and action of volunteers in this new structure. Following are key themes:

Communication strategies:

o       Information gathering and Stakeholder input in communities including existing research, reports and data

o       Impact council interaction/support of Out of Rain, Early Learning, and Strengthening Our Community, and interaction/support of Volunteer Center and Public Policy

o       Create community level profiles to be included in the Community Assessment

o       Sort and access structures, tables and networks throughout the county identify and links to United Way of King County Impact work

•        Grass Roots workgroups – Topic focused, local groups working to improve community conditions.  New Solutions is identifying topics and sub-populations to pilot small innovative projects with.

•        Faith Based Communities - Often on the frontline of human service needs, develop a working collaborative community of learning with leaders of all local faith based constituencies.  There are strong networks in some areas of the county and non-existent infrastructure elsewhere.  New Solutions is working to engage, expand and share our learning with these communities. 

•        Geographic Focus -  Identifying where there are underserved populations, deep pockets of isolation or need and cross-referencing where United Way or others have assets in these communities.  New Solutions is looking at identifying approximately 5 “Watch Communities.”  A sub-committee will work with local residents to identify needs, solutions and opportunities to work with New Solutions, our partners and United Way Impact Councils.

•        Equity in Action – Despite the diversity, wealth and education of this community, evidence shows disproportional outcomes are previlant in all stages of life.  When all other factors are accounted for our demographics continue to show that basic tenants including, birth outcomes, graduation, and homeownership opportunities are not reaching our diverse population.  New Solutions will engage underserved populations, work on policy, outreach and coordination to better link services and aim for more equitable results.  Many groups are already on the ground doing this work, New Solutions will not create new workgroups where there is traction but will be at the table and will lend our resources and assets to the mix. 

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Local Trend Data

Children gain the key skills for school readiness through day-to-day experiences that encourage their social growth and learning. Extensive research shows that the relationships children have with their parents and caregivers play a significant role in this growth, since stable and secure relationships are central to healthy human development.

Nurturing is a difficult concept to measure. We know that poverty and living in an impoverished neighborhood are some of the greatest and most common threats to a family’s ability to provide optimal nurturing.

• There are 76,400 families with children ages 0-5 in King County.
• An estimated 1300 families received intensive family support through home visiting programs in 2005.

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Alignment

Early intervention services exist for infants and toddlers, birth to three, who have a developmental disability and/or delay and their families. Research indicates that early diagnosis and access to services can reduce the intensity of service required later in a child’s life and prevent involvement in special education for some children.

• There are 65,000 children birth to three years of age in King County, and it is estimated that up to 2.2% or nearly 2,000 annually, experience developmental disabilities.
• The average age of identification of developmental delays in King County is 1.8 years. Federal guideline for early identification is an average age of 1 year.^[13]

Read more about early intervention

Children’s Health Care

In order for problems with development and other health problems to be identified, children should have regular health care from a consistent provider or group of providers. Consistent, quality health care is the most effective way to insure early intervention . This can prevent problems from developing into more serious problems that limit a child’s ability to meet their greatest developmental potential.

• 4.3 % of children under age 18 are uninsured
• 3.9% of children in King County have medical needs that could not be met because of cost.^[14]

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Small Grants Funds

Research shows that high quality early care and education have a huge impact on children’s lives. The quality of this care is critical to promoting healthy development and preparing children for school success.

The status of child care in King County

• 51% of children in households surveyed in the 2004 Communities Count survey said the children were in regularly scheduled care. This would translate to about 74,000 children 0-6 and 161,000 children 0-14 if applied to 2006 population totals.
• 45% of those children were in child care for at least 25 hours per week.
• 176,942 children in King County live in a two parent family in which both parents work or in a single parent family in which their parent works.^[15]
• In 2005 King County had about 1800 licensed child care programs with capacity for about 50,000 children. Half of these slots were available to school age children, however some of those could serve younger children as well.
• Over 20,000 people provide informal care to a child while the parent works. This is referred to as “Family, Friend and Neighbor (FFN) Care”. 18% of parents surveyed by Communities Count said their child was in FFN care. If applied to the total population, this would suggest that about 29,000 children are cared for in such informal ways.
• About 11,000 children in King County are in subsidized care at any one time.
• 55% of parents with children 0-5 in child care expressed some dissatisfaction with at least one aspect of their child care.

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Head Start, Early Head Start, Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP)

The purpose of the Head Start Program, authorized by Congress in the Head Start Act, is “to promote school readiness by enhancing the social and cognitive development of low income children through the provision, to low income children and their families, of health educational, nutritional, social, and other services that are determined based on family needs assessments, to be necessary.”

• In 2006, a projected 30% of the 11,414 young children in King County eligible for Head Start and ECEAP services were served by those programs. This left 7990 eligible children unserved.^[16]
• Early Head Start enrollment in King County is 298, representing 2% of the eligible population (19,303).^[17]

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Poverty

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Best Practices

Go to the index to best and promising practices

Resources

Footnotes