2021 – WestSide Baby

30Nov 2021 by Toni Sarge

COVID-19 Health and Safety for WestSide Baby’s Community

News

Thank you for continuing to do your part in keeping our community safe & healthy! COVID-19 Health and Safety COVID-19 Vaccine Requirement UPDATE: November 30, 2021 As we evaluate compliance with new King County and City of Seattle Executive Orders requiring vaccines, we will suspend consideration of all vaccine exemptions until further notice. WestSide Baby will require staff and volunteers to be vaccinated by Monday, November 15, 2021, with considerations for exemptions for religious, medical, deeply held personal reasons, and children under the age of 12 (until the vaccine is available to children under the age of 12). We have chosen to require the vaccine because it is proven to be the most effective tool to keep ourselves and others safe and healthy, especially as the children we serve are unable to. Getting…

26Sep 2021 by Tiffany Mathisen

Take Action with WestSide Baby to end diaper need!

News

It's National Diaper Need Awareness Week! Diaper Need is a lack of a sufficient supply of diapers to keep a baby clean, dry and healthy. Diaper need affects 1 in 3 families nationally and 23% of families in King County. Within this 23%, families from BIPOC backgrounds are disproportionately impacted by diaper need. Our social safety net does not ensure equal access to basic needs items. Nationally, low-income families pay up to 14% of their entire income on disposable diapers. WIC & food stamps do NOT cover diapers. And while the financial burdens of the pandemic continue, diapers are also becoming increasingly more difficult to afford with prices increasing 12% in under 2 years from the end of 2019 to June of 2021. Read the recent blog post from summer intern, Siona, to learn more.…

08Sep 2021 by Toni Sarge

Diaper Need is an Economic Justice Issue

News

Diaper Need is an Economic Justice Issue By Siona Wadhawan In honor of September's Diaper Need Awareness week, our summer intern, Siona Wadhawan, wrote blog posts highlighting how diaper need is often MORE than just what it seems. Stay tuned for Part II later this month! While families across the U.S continue to face financial burdens exacerbated by the pandemic, diapers are becoming increasingly more difficult to afford. Diaper prices have risen at alarming rates since the beginning of the pandemic, becoming more expensive and inaccessible to working families. According to the Wall Street Journal, prices rose over 12% in under 2 years from the end of 2019 to June of 2021. This rise in prices comes on top of the increased financial hardships families are facing due to Covid-19…

03Aug 2021 by Toni Sarge

Join our board: Currently recruiting new members to start in January 2022!

News

WestSide Baby is currently recruiting new Board members to start in January 2022 Are you dedicated to improving the lives of children and families in your community and do you want to bring your lived experience, community connections, skills, and expertise to a nonprofit working toward social change? We encourage you to apply for a Board of Directors position, to start in January 2022! Interview with WestSide Baby's Board of Director's Vice-Chair, Erin Hulme WSB Staff: What are you and other Board members hoping to learn from new Board members? Erin: We are seeking new Board members with lived experience of the mission of WestSide Baby. As an organization authentically looking to meet community needs, we want our Board members to be able to speak to this need and engage with the true concept of diaper need, not just…

06Jul 2021 by Toni Sarge

Collaboration is key in ending the basic needs gap

Portfolio

Our Provider Partners Part III Erika Schultz / The Seattle Times Collaboration is key in ending the basic needs gap A Deeper Dive into WestSide Baby's Provider Partner Programs Read Part II of our Provider Partner Series In order to ensure WestSide Baby is moving toward our vision, we collect and analyze data on a biannual basis. As Part III and the final part of our Provider Partners Series, we wanted to share some of the data and information we learned in our data collection process in 2020 and in early 2021. Who are our providers? In 2020, we partnered with 83 agencies, 95 programs, and 115 unique sites around King County. Here is the breakdown by Program/Agency focus: How do we ensure our partnerships are equity-focused towards our vision of ending the basic needs gap? …

09Jun 2021 by Toni Sarge

One Year Later: Frequently Asked Questions about WestSide Baby’s Operations and COVID-19 Response

News, Portfolio

FAQ June 1, 2021 ARCHIVED: THIS POST IS NO LONGER UPDATED AS OF SEPTEMBER 2021. King County & WestSide Baby in Phase III WestSide Baby exists to provide basic essentials for children in need. Our operations during the COVID-19 pandemic have, and will continue to, center our community – families furthest from access to essential items. We continue to work through our network of 100+ partner organizations to find out what families need and focus our efforts to source and supply those items. During this pandemic, we will also center the health & safety of our staff, volunteers, and donors by keeping volunteer and item collection within the guidance provided by Public Health Seattle & King County and the Washington State Department of Health. As of June 2021, WestSide Baby is in Phase 3 of our COVID Modified…

28Apr 2021 by Tiffany Mathisen

A Historic Moment to End Diaper Need

News, Portfolio

We are celebrating a historic moment in Washington for families! A major in investment has been made to systemically address diaper need across our state for the first time. We applaud the Washington Legislature for a budget that honors diapers as a very necessary and basic human right! Although lawmakers did not include the $80 monthly "diaper stipend", $5 million in grants will go to Washington's diaper banks over the next two years to provide approximately 29 million diapers to families who are unable to access an adequate supply otherwise. As we celebrate, we acknowledge that this investment must only be a starting place. In King County alone, more than 1 in 5 families - 1 in 3 for many BIPOC communities - struggled to afford enough diapers before the pandemic,…

30Mar 2021 by Toni Sarge

Building up communities to become whole, together!

Portfolio

Our Provider Partners Part II Building up communities to become whole, together! Partner Agency Highlight: Friends of the Children - Seattle Read Part I of our Provider Partner Series Our partners span multiple disciplines and social services areas including public health, social work, food security, domestic violence, early learning, infant mental health, education, and more. Research supports that the agency partnership model has many positive implications for both the partner agencies and the recipients including increased communication between providers and clients, client program retention, and connection to other services—all of which ultimately contribute to lasting, positive outcomes for families. Friends of the Children Seattle Friends of the Children–Seattle is a chapter of a nationwide organization dedicated to breaking the cycle of generational poverty through salaried, professional mentoring. The national organization was founded…

09Mar 2021 by Toni Sarge

Working with our Partner Providers to respond to the highest rates of diaper need our community has ever seen

Portfolio

Our Provider Partners: Part I Working with our Partner Providers to respond to the highest rates of diaper need our community has ever seen Who are WestSide Baby's "Provider Partners"? WestSide Baby envisions a day when all children are equipped with the basic items they need to grow into healthy, happy, and resilient members of our community. In order to do that, WestSide Baby partners with more than 100 social service agencies and 400+ agency workers throughout King County to provide essential items to local children free of charge. WestSide Baby's 2020 Provider Partner Program by Focus Area: Our partners span multiple disciplines and social service sectors including public health, social work, food security, domestic violence, early learning, infant mental health, and more. Why is this distribution model important? Research supports that the agency partnership model has many positive implications for both the…

23Feb 2021 by Toni Sarge

Join me for a special conversation with storyteller Mia Birdsong!

News

I am so excited to announce that Mia Birdsong will be joining me in conversation at Beyond the Basics, our upcoming virtual gathering! From Sarah Cody Roth, WestSide Baby's Executive Director I know you received our invitation to Beyond the Basics – a WestSide Baby Virtual Gathering, and I wanted to follow up to announce our program will include a conversation with Mia Birdsong, a pathfinder, community curator, and storyteller who steadily engages the leadership and wisdom of people experiencing injustice to chart new visions of American life. At the event, we will talk about her book, her podcast, and shifting the narrative on how we address poverty, specifically in relation to the importance of WestSide Baby’s vision to ensure every child has their basic needs met. Read more about Mia below, and please join me at Beyond the…