News – WestSide Baby

25Jul 2022 by Iana Mae Abinales

Bulk Diaper Program Expansion

News

Bulk Diaper Program Expansion Featuring Muslimahs Against Abuse Center After over 20 years of striving to meet the diaper need gap that exists in our community, WestSide Baby has distributed over 17 million diapers to families and their children. While this deserves to be celebrated, we are focused on how much more we can and should do to respond to the disproportionate need that continues to grow in the wake of historic inflation, systemic racism and job insecurity. Over the past 2+ years, we have responded in a crisis by increasing our distribution of diapers by over 60% to a growing network of partner organizations providing critical care to our community. In just the last two months we have brought on 27 new partnerships with direct services organizations serving families…

01Mar 2022 by Toni Sarge

WestSide Baby in the News

News

WestSide Baby in the News WA bill proposes subsidy to help some families buy diapers Families receiving TANF could get more money for diapers if Senate Bill 5838 passes in the Legislature. Crosscut | March 1, 2022 Sequoia Dolan considers herself Wonder Woman. She gets up before 6:30 a.m., prepares breakfast for her children, drops her son off at school, waits at the bus stop with her daughter and then spends time with her 2-year-old. Her little one is still in diapers, which may become easier for her to afford if Washington lawmakers can pass Senate Bill 5838, which would give extra money to families trying to make ends meet. To get through the month, Dolan typically buys a box of diapers from Costco and another from Safeway before heading…

12Jan 2022 by Toni Sarge

Introducing the Diaper Need Act: Helping families with babies and young children afford diapers

News, Portfolio

Introducing the Diaper Need Act: Helping families with babies and young children afford diapers Diaper cash assistance: Addressing #diaperneed for Washington families The 2022 legislative session has begun and WestSide Baby and the Washington Diaper Bank Coalition are excited to announce the introduction of The End Diaper Need Act, with bills in both the House and the Senate (See the bills here: HB1947 & SB5838). WestSide Baby legislative champions Representative Noel Frame, Representative Jesse Johnson, Senator T'wina Nobles, and Senator Ann Rivers are leading the way for this important legislation acknowledging the high cost of diapers for families. The challenge. Unlike other essentials such as food or health insurance, no public assistance programs help families pay for diapers – and diapers can cost up to $100 a month for a newborn. The only other state in…

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 Erica Plowden

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,…

23Feb 2021 by Toni Sarge

Join me for a special conversation with storyteller Mia Birdsong!

Events, 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…

16Feb 2021 by Toni Sarge

Announcing 2021 Corporate & Business Sponsorship Opportunities

Events, News, Portfolio

New ways your business can support children and families with WestSide Baby this year! By Carina Schubert, WestSide Baby’s Director of Development Have your ever wondered how your company can invest in the community in a tangible way during a time when the need is growing rapidly around us? A partnership with WestSide Baby as a corporate sponsor can ensure that children in your neighborhood have the most basic items they need to be happy and healthy. I am excited to announce our new sponsorship package, centering the needs of our community first, and providing necessary funds for WestSide Baby, and creating unique opportunities for your business to get involved. We need you. If you've been in our warehouse before COVID times, either volunteering with your co-workers or on a…

05Nov 2020 by Toni Sarge

New Mural: “WestSide Baby’s Community”

News

WestSide Baby's Community Mural Over the weekend, our north-facing wall was given a beautiful update with a mural, titled “WestSide Baby’s Community” by artist Angelina Villalobos (@onesevennine) We are so excited to share our new mural with you! "WestSide Baby's Community" is the end result of many conversations for many years, but was pushed forward by our desire to communicate our organizational values of Humanity, Resilience, and Intentionality OUTSIDE our warehouse walls in response to the murder of George Floyd in late May and the continued fight for justice in our community and beyond. A team of WestSide Baby staff worked with the artist to design a mural that honored that sentiment with words such as justice, humanity, and equity. A note from the Artist, Angelina Villalobos: I centered a…

05Aug 2020 by Erica Plowden

We Stuffed the Bus!

Events, News

We did it! We collected over 400,000 diapers this summer! Thank you for being a part of our 20th year of Stuff the Bus. Our community came together to collect 405,597 diapers! We could not have done this without those who hosted diaper drives, collected basics for babies, donated hygiene items and used our Amazon Wishlist to get those most needed items to WestSide Baby. YOU helped us beat our 350,000 Stuff the Bus diaper goal! Stuff the Bus Impact In 2019, WestSide Baby distributed 1.5 million diapers to King County families in need. Covid-19 has made Diaper Need more complex this year and to combat the need, we have distributed over 1.1 million diapers so far this year. We are proud of this number and we are only able…

08Jun 2020 by Toni Sarge

Black Lives Matter.

News, Portfolio

Committing to Action. Black Lives Matter. At WestSide Baby this means black children, black families, and black health matters. We cannot be in alignment with our WestSide Baby values of humanity, of intentional action, and of resilience; our vision that all children have their basic needs met cannot be realized until black lives matter and until race no longer determines how likely it is that a child will have their most basic needs unmet. @ohhappydaniLawrence Bryant of [email protected] We acknowledge and apologize that we have stayed safe, we have avoided rocking the boat, and we are therefore complicit in allowing racism to persist. We at WestSide Baby mourn deeply and stand in solidarity with those in Seattle and beyond protesting and calling for justice for the murders of Ahmaud Arbery,…