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AN ORDINANCE relating to the development of a youth action plan that sets King County's priorities for serving infants through young adults.
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STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. Since the 1960s, King County has participated in and funded programs aimed at assisting children and youth. This work includes but is not limited to federal fund distribution, as well as local programming and funding.
2. Today, King County spends over seventy-five million dollars annually on a wide range of programs that influence youth at all stages of development from birth to young adult. Theses services and programs are provided across King County government by several departments and agencies. While most of these programs may be successful individually, it is not clear whether they operate at a scale or collaboratively to make a difference in improving overall outcomes for infants, children, youth and young adults. There is no single point of accountability or unified policy vision for coordinating the county's wide array of children and youth services or programs.
3. King County's various departments and agencies contract with dozens of community-based organizations and local nonprofit organizations that work in collaboration with each other, the county and other governments to serve children, youth and their families. The community-based organizations and local nonprofit organizations include: geographically focused organizations; organizations focused on serving specific cultural and ethnic populations; organizations serving gay, lesbian and transgender youth and young adults; and organizations targeting justice-involved or at-risk youth.
4. King County has adopted policies to directly guide or substantially influence services and programs aimed at children and youth such as the Juvenile Justice Operational Master Plan, the Human Services Framework Policies and the Strategic Plan.
5. In 1992 King County established the children and family commission, to define King County's mission, role and goals in provision of services to children, youth and families. Ordinance 13811, adopted in 2000, further defined the role and duties of the commission, noting that the commission acted in an advisory capacity to the county executive, superior court and the county council. The children and family commission was defunded and dismantled in 2011, due in part to declining revenues and the county's constrained fiscal environment.
6. The absence of the children and family commission has left a significant gap in advising the executive, superior court and the county council on matters related to children, youth, and families, especially as related to building linkages between the county's service systems, communities and schools. In a 2011 letter, the exiting commission members stated that they were "deeply concerned with the county's lack of transparency and accountability," especially around decision making involving revenue historically supporting the work, outcomes and reports of the children and family commission.
7. King County government has been developing and implementing a performance and accountability system that focuses on results. The purpose of this system is to improve King County government's ability to measure how it is operating and performing, plan for the future and report on its performance across all of the services delivered to citizens.
8. A cornerstone of that performance and accountability system is the county's Strategic Plan, adopted by the council in July 2010 via Ordinance 16897. The plan calls for improved customer service, greater efficiency in government and more robust partnerships across the region.
9. The King County Strategic Plan states that it embodies the priorities of the residents of King County and the values of all of the separately-elected officials in King County government. It furthers states that the purpose of the action plan is to guide decisions in times of fiscal challenge, as well as in future prosperity. The plan also represents King County government's commitment to deliver county services that meet and exceed the standards of professionalism, efficiency, quality and customer service as appropriate to the current funding and policy environment.
10. The Strategic Plan contains specific goals related to the county's functions and lines of business. For health and human services-related areas, a health and human potential goal was established to "promote opportunities for all communities and individuals to realize their full potential."
11. Led by the committee to end homelessness, King County has been actively working with a wide array of stakeholders, including nonprofit community agencies, government leaders, private philanthropy and homeless and formerly homeless young people, on a homeless youth and young adult initiative. The purpose of the community-wide initiative is to prevent and reduce youth and young adult homelessness in the county.
12. In November 2012, the council passed Motion 13768 requesting the executive, in collaboration with the departments of public health and community and human services and a community stakeholder panel informed by local and national expertise, to develop and submit a plan for council review and approval for an accountable and integrated system of health, human services and community-based prevention in King County.
13. In January 2013, the executive convened a thirty-member community stakeholder panel, referred to in this ordinance as "the health and human services transformation panel," that included representatives from the healthcare, human services and prevention sectors, the business community, the geographic subregions of King County and local and national experts in system transformation and innovation. The health and human services transformation panel met between February and May 2013 to advise staff on key design elements of the transformation plan.
14. On June 26, 2013, the executive transmitted the requested transformation plan. It recognizes various populations and diversity of those in need of services throughout the county. The transformation plan is individual, family and community centered, and takes a whole-person approach where the preferences, strengths, needs and goals of individuals and families come first. The transformation plan includes integration efforts and interventions that occur at two levels: the individual and family level, which assures that individuals and families can access an array of person-centered, integrated, culturally competent services; and the community level, which creates community-level improvements because health is most deeply influenced by where people live, work, learn and play. The transformation plan establishes a path to achieve an outcome-driven system where providers, consumers, funders and policy makers are called to work together collectively and are mutually accountable through contracts and compacts that include shared priorities, strategies and measurements for assuring health and human service outcomes.
15. On June 19, 2013, King County council's committee of the whole received a briefing entitled "implementation of the action plan goals," where the executive outlined priorities related to specific goals of the action plan. In that briefing, the executive identified a number of priorities for 2015-2019 related to the health and human potential goal area.
16. In that briefing, the executive also stated that King County will develop a youth agenda that defines outcomes, priorities, and actions for pursuing the proposed vision that all infants reach adulthood healthy and safe, academically or vocationally succeeding and socially and civically engaged.
17. There is a need to provide continuing direction regarding the development and implementation of a youth action plan to ensure that the county's existing adopted policy goals, as included in the Juvenile Justice Operational Master Plan, Human Services Framework Policy, Equity and Social Justice Initiative and Strategic Plan, are reflected throughout the process and that work undertaken by the county, such as the homeless youth and young adult initiative and the health and human services transformation plan, are taken into consideration. The development and implementation of the youth action plan needs to be accomplished transparently, collaboratively and strategically, in partnership with children and youth serving community providers, consumers, philanthropy, separately elected officials including the council, other jurisdictions and school districts.
18. It is the policy of the county that citizens and policy makers be able to measure the effectiveness of the investment of public funds.
19. The health and human services transformation plan has begun the work of creating a more collaborative, transparent, effective health and human services system in King County, using collective impact as a frame for collaborative efforts, bringing partners together to develop shared agreements on the process and outcome measures that lead to change, the activities that demonstrate progress on outcomes and understanding of the resources necessary to bring about change.
20. The framework of the transformation plan shares common attributes with a number of current youth-focused community-based initiatives and a focus on a common set of shared outcomes that are being developed transparently, collaboratively and strategically in partnership with multiple stakeholders and being driven by results achieved through collective accountability and the use of data to align efforts across organizations. A youth plan should build on these current efforts.
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. There is hereby created a youth action plan task force that will develop a proposed youth action plan to be submitted to the executive and council, along with a motion adopting the youth action plan. Each member of the task force shall have substantial experience and expertise relevant to children and youth matters and shall have an ability and willingness to attend meetings and participate effectively as a member of the task force. The executive and council shall ensure that diversity of views and experiences are reflected in the appointment of task force members. Diversity of views and experiences shall include, but not be limited to racial, ethnic, gender identity, geographic and faith diversity. The task force shall be composed one representative from each of the following:
A. The King County Youth and Family Service Associations;
B. A provider of youth homeless services;
C. A provider of before and after school care and youth recreation services;
D. A provider of culturally specific children, youth and family services;
E. A youth justice organization;
F. An organization serving gay, lesbian and transgender youth;
G. A provider of both mental health and chemical dependency services to children and youth;
H. An organization serving foster youth;
I. An organization serving immigrant and refugee youth;
J. An organization serving gang involved or youth at risk of gang involvement;
K. A provider or expert on early childhood learning and/or development;
L. A youth focused philanthropic organization
M. The city of Seattle;
N. The city of Bellevue;
O. The Sound Cities Association;
P. Puget Sound Educational Service District;
Q. The executive;
R. The council;
S. Superior court;
T. The sheriff;
U. The prosecuting attorney; and
V. The Committee to End Homelessness in King County.
SECTION 2. The members of the task force shall be appointed by the executive and submitted to the council with a motion for confirmation no later than forty-five days after adoption of this ordinance.
SECTION 3. The executive and council shall ensure that recommendations contained in the youth action plan are developed with input from:
A. Youth; and
B. The departments of community and human services, public health, adult and juvenile detention, judicial administration, natural resources and parks and public defense.
SECTION 4. A. The task force shall make recommendations to the executive and the council in a proposed youth action plan that shall be submitted to the council by April 15, 2015. The task force shall also submit a progress report to the executive and council by September 18, 2014, detailing progress to date of the task force. The youth action plan shall contain recommendations on the following matters and the rationale for each recommendation shall be detailed and included in the youth action plan:
1. Identification of the mission and vision of the youth action plan, and whether the executive's stated vision of "infants reach adulthood healthy and safe, academically or vocationally succeeding, and socially and civically engaged" reflects the recommendations of the task force;
2. A bill of rights for King County's youth akin to the youth bills of rights that many jurisdictions in California and elsewhere around the country have adopted;
3. Whether King County should establish a single point of accountability for children and youth services, programs and policy in the county and recommendations on what form, model or structure that point of accountability should take, and recommendations on its role and duties;
5. Identification of what age range the proposed youth action plan will address and/or serve, and whether families are included in the youth action plan;
6. Identification of improvements, efficiencies, gaps, opportunities to take promising practices to scale and areas for better integration or coordination, or both, of services, programs and policies for children and youth within and outside of King County government;
7. Recommendations on King County's role and involvement with early childhood learning programs and initiatives;
8. Identification of the barriers within and outside of King County government that prevent children, youth and families from realizing their full potential and recommendations on how the county might proceed eliminating those barriers;
9. Recommendations on the update of the King County Strategic Plan and social justice and equity goals as it relates to youth;
10. Identification of the children, youth and family programs, methodologies and service models that the county should prioritize to achieve outcomes and meet policy goals;
11. Recommendation on the county's funding of services and programs for youth, including the prioritization of existing and potential new resources to achieve recommended outcomes; and
12. Identification of an evaluation and reporting structure, process and implementation timeline for the youth action plan.
B. The youth action plan and the report required in subsection A. of this section shall be filed with the clerk of the council in the form of a paper and an electronic copy with the clerk of the council, who shall retain the paper copy and forward an electronic copy to all councilmembers.
SECTION 5. A. The following tasks shall be accomplished under the direction of the task force by council and executive staff and shall inform the development of the recommendations under section 4 of this ordinance:
1. Conduct an inventory of the county's children, youth and young adult programs, including a determination of the amount of 2013 investment; and
2. Review promising community initiatives and best practices, including those utilizing a collective impact model, occurring in King County and across the nation.
B. King County departments and agencies shall provide information as requested by the council and executive staff for preparation of the report.
SECTION 6. In the process of the development of the youth action plan under section 4 of this ordinance, the task force shall also consult with King County government boards and commissions that address matters involving children, youth and families, including the mental illness and drug dependency oversight committee, the committee to end homelessness and the veterans and human services levy citizen oversight boards. The task force shall also consult with non-King County governmental entities and agencies such as, but not limited to, United for Youth, Reclaiming Futures, the Community Center for Education Results, Eastside Pathways, SOAR, Youth Engagement Practitioners, TeamChild, Seattle Youth Violence Prevention Initiative and Youth Development Executives of King County. The task force shall ensure that the recommendations are coordinated and collaborate with best practices currently underway in the community and leverage these practices.
SECTION 7. The task force shall conduct community, stakeholder and consumer information meetings throughout the development of the recommendations and proposed youth action plan in order to keep interested parties informed and up-to-date on the work of the task force.
SECTION 8. The adopted youth action plan shall provide a policy basis for the development and implementation of King County policies and programs involving youth.