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

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

Events
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…
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Give JOY! Give Warmth! GIVE with WestSide Baby!

Give JOY! Give Warmth! GIVE with WestSide Baby!

Events
Give JOY! Give Warmth! GIVE with WestSide Baby! Give JOY!Give Warmth!GIVE with WestSide Baby! JOY: a source or cause of great happiness This week, our dedicated volunteers and staff are busy filling hundreds of requests for warm coats, rain boots, and other winter essentials. Every single request is handled with care and hope that JOY will be felt when the child receives their items.  Give JOY! In the next six weeks, WestSide Baby, with the help of our partner agencies, will distribute over 800,000 diapers and 500+ clothing bags to children within our community. Will you help us spread more JOY this year? Give Dollars for Diapers Give dollars for diapers through a one-time gift, or by subscribing to our Boxes for Babies monthly giving program, where your year-end gift…
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Take Action with WestSide Baby to end diaper need!

Take Action with WestSide Baby to end diaper need!

Events
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.…
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Diaper Need is an Economic Justice Issue

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

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

Events
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…
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Collaboration is key in ending the basic needs gap

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

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…
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A Historic Moment to End Diaper Need

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,…
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Building up communities to become whole, together!

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

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…
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