This was originally posted on the Department of Community & Human Services Cultivating Connections blog.
The Children, Youth, and Young Adult Division (CYYAD) works to ensure all young people in King County have equitable opportunities to be happy, healthy, safe, and thriving members of their communities.
In 2024, CYYAD was able to help young people accomplish their education and employment goals, build connections within their communities, and help families access basic needs.
See some of the ways CYYAD made this happen in 2024:
Education and Employment
CYYAD helps young people in their education and employment goals in attaining their high school degree, pursuing higher education and career advancements. CYYAD celebrated a big year for young people in making these accomplishments:
- 940 young people were served through CYYAD’s education programs: YouthSource, CECO, and Learning Center Seattle.
- 219 young people attained high school equivalent degrees
- 59 young people attained post-secondary advancements
- About 84 percent of young people exited CYYAD programs with increased employability
Read this story about Jordan Kinney, a young person who was able to find his dream job in 2024 as a Utility Maintenance Worker at King County Airport with support from the King County program Career Launchpad.
The Best Starts Youth Development strategy served about 5,000 youth in 2024. In addition to hosting four learning circles, the Youth Development team also brought on a consultant to provide training on how to manage anxiety with young people.
Helping families and the community with basic needs
Through the Best Starts for Kids investment in child care 1,573 children received subsidies that helped their families afford child care.
Additionally, the Best Starts Child Care Wage Boost Pilot hit a critical milestones in 2024 and is now set to launch applications and payments to child care workers this month. The pilot’s investments will reach about 1,400 workers with quarterly payments (up to $1,040 for part-time workers and up to $2,080 for full-time workers) through 2027 to study worker retention, continuity of care, family experience, sector sustainability, and facility stability.
At the annual Reconnect to Opportunity High School Resource Fair in August the ReOpp team distributed 250 backpacks filled with school supplies and served 466 community members. The team worked with 23 community partners to get resources into families’ hands at the event.
King County, in partnership with Shoreline Community College and the Shoreline Foundation, launched a small 2-year pilot in the fall to provide stable housing to housing insecure students. Five students are now enrolled in the program and in on-campus housing.
King County’s Center for Education and Career Opportunities partnered with the Shoreline Fire Department and launched a firefighting internship program in summer 2024 helping young people get internships in firefighting.
Building connections and capacity with community partners
Best Starts for Kids invests deeply in technical assistance and capacity building to ensure equitable access to funding and to support sustainability of programming in organizations that hold deep expertise and connection to community.
In 2024 the Technical Assistance and Capacity Building Investment:
- Coordinated 197 capacity building projects to help Best Starts partners build infrastructure;
- Provided free funding opportunity application assistance to 75 unique organizations;
- Awarded 107 capacity building mini-grants to Best Starts partners to purchase technology and other supports;
- Selected 18 new culturally-responsive consultants to provide Technical Assistance and Capacity Building to community-based organizations.
Through the Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Account (PSTAA), which directs Sound Transit 3 funds into early education and youth supports, King County funded a kitchen renovation for Tall Trees Childcare in Renton. The child care facilities received the full amount of $75,000 for a kitchen renovation, air conditioning in the rooms and renovation of an old fence.
The Positive Family Connections Strategy released 15 Family Network Mini Grants in August 2024. The strategy awarded the mini grants to family groups working with a fiscal sponsor. Each of the 15 awardees had family engagement projects completed in community by end of 2024.
In December, Acting Director for CYYAD, Jen Tanaka, was interviewed for United Way of King County’s podcast, Hourglass. She discussed PSTAA’s public-private partnership with United Way on the Racial Equity Coalition’s Love & Liberation work, the importance of pooling funds/resources to work towards the same goal, and the impact Love & Liberation has made on young people and community leaders.
Supporting community healing and care
The Restorative Community Pathways program has created another path for King County youth involved in the legal system through a community-based diversion program.
Through 2024 more than 1,680 youth participants and people who have experienced harm have been referred to the program from the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
- Between 2022 and 2024, 89 percent of participants are increasing connection through peers and mentors in the community in the last year.
- In 2024, 91 percent of participants have had a basic need met such as housing, rent support, groceries, and mental and physical health in the last year.
- Between 2023 and 2024, 74 percent of participants exiting the program completed services since 2023. Participants complete the RCP program when they have made substantial progress on, or completed, goals and have a support system within their community.
