Exactly a month today, we here at United Way of King County wrapped up our 11th season of the Free Tax Campaign!

If you don’t know, the Free Tax Campaign is a volunteer program which provides free tax preparation for low-income families and individuals in King County.  Along with tax prep, our volunteers also connect people to valuable asset-building services such as helping them apply for public benefits, pulling credit reports, applying for the FAFSA, and a number of additional…

The sun is shining bright in Seattle and we’re gearing up for summer.  As we start daydreaming about backyard barbecues and trips to the beach, the United Way team is hard at work building our effort to fight summer hunger.

One in five kids is at risk of hunger in our community.  The number of Latino and African American children struggling with hunger  is even higher. In King County there are 99,000 kids who take part in the free and reduced-price lunch program for low-income families. …

As members of the United Way Emerging Leaders Task Force, we were asked to represent the next generation of philanthropists at Lobby Day in Olympia. At first, we were skeptical. Would any real progress come from our efforts? Would anyone pay attention to our opinions? Over the course of the day and following weeks, we discovered that we could make our voices heard.

We not only spoke with 24 legislators, but we also had two members testify in…

On Thursday, April 18^th Comcast Corporation was recognized at the Annual United Way Worldwide Staff Leadership Conference by receiving two United Way Spirit of America Summit Awards in the area of Philanthropy and Volunteer Engagement, way to go Comcast.

Nationally, last year Comcast invested more than $334 million in programs and partnerships in 39 states. This includes $9.5 million of cash and in-kind support to United Way partners nationally. As part of that $9.5 million, Comcast provides airing of public service announcements which is valued…

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The Legislature is scheduled to conclude its regular legislative session this Sunday, April 28, but because it has been unable to complete all of its business to date, Governor Inslee is expected to call it back for one or more Special Sessions, most likely after a short break.  At this point, there is a $900 million divide between the Democratic House budget and the Majority Coalition Senate budget resulting from the House support for closing tax breaks and extending certain taxes in order to support K-12…

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This was prepared by Amnon Shoenfeld, Director of King County Mental Health, Chemical Abuse and Dependency Services Division, DCHS

The House, Senate and Governor’s budgets all book savings from Medicaid expansion based upon numbers of new people enrolled in Medicaid and savings to the system resulting from integration of medical, mental health, prevention services resulting in less costly outpatient visits.  These savings assumptions, however, may prove inaccurate for several reasons.

Mental Health

The Governor’s budget and the House and Senate budgets assume that the…

Governor Inslee released his budget priorities for “Working Washington” on March 28, the state Senate released their biennial budget on April 3, and the House released its budget on April 11.  The budgets differ significantly in support for housing and human services but have overlap in education.  With all budgets formally released, active negotiation among the three parties now begins on the FY 2013-15 biennial budget.

All three budgets emphasize education including some early learning but deal with housing and basic needs differently.  The Governor proposes…

Every summer, kids get out of school and look forward to months of sun and fun. But many also face months of hunger, since they don’t have access to school meals in the summer. Luckily there is the summer meals program which offers healthy meals to kids 18 and younger. Here’s the rub, we need to get this message out to kids and families who don’t know about the program. We’ll be going to schools and community events…

Recently, United Way of King County hosted it’s first ever Parent-Child Home Program’s Home Visitor Gathering.  In 2004, when the Parent-Child Home Program (PCHP) first came to King County, Atlantic Street Center was the first agency to provide PCHP home visiting services to families.  Back then, there were only 2 home visitors (along with their supervisor) doing this work.  In 2005, with the addition of two more agencies, Neighborhood House and Southwest…