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July 13, 2005
King County Executive Ron Sims today announced the creation of a new Healthy Families and Communities Task Force, to be co-chaired by Metropolitan King County Council Budget Chair Larry Gossett and Renton Mayor Kathy Keolker-Wheeler that will work to move the region forward with the critical next steps in creating funding stability for regional human services.
“Vulnerable individuals and families across King County are facing incredible challenges everyday in finding safe housing, food, affordable child care, and other services,” said Executive Sims. “The Healthy Families and Communities Task Force will help us to identify what we must do, now and in the years to come, to ensure that our region is able to meet the needs of those in our community who are currently being left behind.”
Executive Sims is convening Healthy Families and Communities to implement the recommendations set forth in the 2004 final report of the Task Force on Regional Human Services that called for stronger regional coordination of efforts and public education, as well as a dedicated source of revenue to fund community health and human services for the future. The 2004 Task Force identified many areas where current county and local resources were simply not sufficient to meet existing human service needs.
In King County, there are over 85,000 children who need child care, but only 44,000 child care slots are currently available. One in ten county residents lacks health insurance. On any given night, an estimated 8,300 individuals are homeless and of those, 575 reported they had experienced domestic violence or abuse in the past year, contributing to their homelessness.
“It is critical that our region take steps to assure the availability of health and human services for our most at-risk citizens,” said Sims. “I am very pleased and grateful to Councilmember Gossett and Mayor Keolker-Wheeler for agreeing to serve as the co-chairs of this important task force. Each brings leadership and a strong commitment to finding real solutions that will improve the lives of our most vulnerable residents and ensure the continuation of our programs and services for the long-term.”
Healthy Families and Communities will focus on determining the financing needed to help the low-income or disabled individuals and families who rely on the region’s human service network for food, housing, affordable health care, a safe haven from abuse, employment training and other supports. Private donations alone cannot sustain these programs, and funding cuts at all levels of government over the past several years are threatening the future of these programs.
Councilmember Gossett and Mayor Keolker-Wheeler will be joined by other local elected officials, community leaders and representatives from business, foundations and social services. The first meeting of the Healthy Families and Communities Task Force will be July 29, 2005.
For more information, call Maritza Rivera, Project Director, Healthy Families and Communities at 206-296-5244.
Updated: July 13, 2005
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