Best Starts for Kids Blog

Best Starts for Kids is a community-driven initiative to support every baby born and child raised in King County to reach adulthood happy, healthy, safe, and thriving. Supported by King County voters in 2015 and 2021, the initiative now includes additional funding for child care and capital projects.

About Us

Latest Posts

Communities of Opportunity (COO)

Being housed, healthy, employed, and connected to one's community are basic human needs. Yet from neighborhood to neighborhood, access to these essentials vary widely. Race, income, and zip code are major predictors of how healthy we are and even how long we live....

Technical Assistance & Capacity Building

Best Starts recognizes that many organizations, and the communities they serve, have historically experienced barriers to funding opportunities from government agencies such as King County. To address this, Best Starts provides free technical assistance (TA) to remove...

Youth & Family Homelessness Prevention Initiative

For low-income families, there are many challenges to maintaining a home and providing the basic necessities for growing kids in King County, the most expensive county in Washington state. To prevent youth and families with children from becoming homeless, the Youth...

Youth Development

Young people thrive when they have safe, supportive environments that provide a sense of belonging and purpose. Best Starts for Kids partners with schools and community-based organizations to invest in programs that support mentoring, leadership, positive identity...

Transitions to Adulthood

Youth across King County deserve equitable access to opportunities that will support their long-term success. Best Starts for Kids’ Transitions to Adulthood strategy supports young people 16-24 years old who face barriers in meeting their education and employment...

Stopping the School-to-Prison Pipeline (SSPP)

The SSPP strategy invests in efforts to support youth and young adults in King County who, as a result of systemic and institutional racism, are more likely to be excluded from higher education and employment and pushed into the criminal legal system. SSPP partners...

School-Based Screening, Brief intervention and Referral to Treatment/Services

We know that COVID-19 and systemic racism have dually exacerbated underlying mental and emotional issues felt by young people throughout the ongoing pandemic. One of the ways Best Starts for Kids is supporting youth mental health in the renewed levy is by partnering...

School-Based Health Centers

School-based health centers (SBHC) meet students where they are by offering comprehensive primary medical, behavioral health, and in some cases, dental services from clinics located within schools across King County. SBHC services support children and youth by...

Positive Family Connections

When a young person has trusted adults in their life who can support them, it increases their likelihood that they will experience academic success, achieve and maintain financial stability and make choices that support their health and well-being. A consistent and...

Liberation and Healing

Formerly known as the Trauma Informed and Restorative Practices strategy, Liberation and Healing addresses trauma and its impacts on young people by promoting strengths-based social and emotional supports through three programs: Liberation and Healing from Systemic...

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Our Impact

People Impacted

Invested in King County

Community Partners

New and Continuing Programs

Our Approach

Promotion

We increase positive opportunities available to babies, children, young people, and their families.

Prevention

We decrease factors that may prevent babies, children, and young people from growing up to be healthy and happy.

Early Intervention

We intervene early to support children and young people who need additional resources to succeed.

Policy & Systems Change

We work to change systems and policies so that all communities in the region can thrive and prosper regardless of race or place.

Our Commitment to Equity and Anti-Racism

Best Starts for Kids holds equity central to our work and we aspire to root out deeply entrenched systems of racism. We partner with communities and invest in community expertise to support where need is greatest.

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