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Where mission
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This issue highlights timely resources and updates supporting children, youth, young adults, and families across Washington. We are sharing new legislation strengthening protections for youth experiencing homelessness, practical tools for providers and families, and updates from across the behavioral health system. You will also find a spotlight on collegiate recovery, an introduction to our Youth Liaison, and continued resources supporting safe sleep, integrated care, and community connection.
As always, thank you for the partnership that keeps youth and families at the center of this work.
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Washington state is taking significant steps to protect young people from falling through the cracks of public systems. Building Changes Washington, in partnership with the Office of Homeless Youth (OHY), the Department of Children, Youth & Families (DCYF), and Health Care Authority (HCA), continues its work through the SSB 6560 (2017–18), Ensuring that no youth is discharged from a public system into homelessness, and the Youth & Young Adult (YYA) Homelessness Prevention Workgroup to ensure no youth is discharged from a public system of care into homelessness.
This past legislative session brought major wins. The McKinney-Vento Act was codified into state law through HB 2594, requiring the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to submit a legislative report on the education of homeless young people by October 1, 2030. This ensures Washington will continue serving unaccompanied youth and unhoused families regardless of shifts at the federal level. Additionally, HB 1634 provides school districts with assistance to coordinate comprehensive behavioral health supports for students, while SB 5253 extends special education services to students with disabilities until the end of the school year in which they turn 22. These bills align with the 6560-Universal Prevention Subcommittee's recommendations.
In response, education, behavioral health, and housing agencies are ramping up trainings to identify and serve young people earlier and more frequently. Building Changes offers a free Introduction to Strengths-Based Services training through Switchboard, along with additional resources through their School/Housing Network.
Two additional resources are worth highlighting. The DOL2Go mobile unit from the Department of Licensing brings ID card and driver licensing services directly to agencies and rural areas, removing barriers for the people we serve. And Switchboard, a free one-stop resource hub for strengthening refugee services, offers technical assistance drop-in hours plus a robust library covering housing, case management, toolkits, and client rights guides.
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Statewide Family Network open forum
Are you interested in learning more about the child, youth, and family behavioral health community? Washington State Community Connectors holds a “Statewide Family Network Open Forum Meeting” on the fourth Monday of every other month. Participants hear updates on workgroups and committees, and learn about organizational partnerships, presentations and training.
Crisis Jam: Conversations on crisis, care, and systems change
Crisis Jam brings together leaders, practitioners, advocates, policymakers, and people with lived experience to explore ideas, challenges, and possibilities shaping behavioral health and crisis response. Watch a livestream or register to attend the weekly broadcast about crisis, care, and the systems that shape them.
Now available: Behavioral health dashboard webinar recording
The webinar recording is now available for the updated Behavioral Health Treatment Needs and Outcomes dashboard. The dashboard provides a snapshot of behavioral health needs, characteristics, and outcomes for children from birth, youth, and young adults enrolled in Apple Health. This expanded view supports a more complete understanding across the continuum and includes young adults for the first time.
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Hello! I'm Quentesa Garraway, Youth Liaison for the Division of Behavioral Health and Recovery, Prenatal–25 team. My role is to lead the development of youth and young adult peer leadership in Washington and serve as a bridge between youth peers and program leadership. Through my own lived experience and recovery journey, I work to ensure youth voice is not only heard but operationalized, translating lived experience into actionable insight that strengthens decision-making and program outcomes.
Over the coming months, I'll be sharing opportunities for engagement, updates on the youth and emerging adult peer workforce, and the work of our Statewide Behavioral Health Youth Network, which continues to grow, including a well-attended Annual Youth Wellness Summit in April.
I step into this work as a connector and advocate who believes in the power of youth voice and direction. Our youth peers are already leading, holding space, and speaking truth. My commitment is to amplify that work, strengthen collaboration, and ensure youth leadership is visible and supported at every level.
Consider this my virtual hello! I hope to connect with many of you in the coming months.
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The Collegiate Recovery Support(CRS) program provides students recovering or seeking recovery from addiction a supportive environment in higher education settings. These collegiate sites provide positive community connections, prevent a return to substance use, and promote successful academic performance. CRS intends to develop and sustain statewide programs through grant opportunities for higher education institutions (e.g. community, technical, and state colleges) that want to make a meaningful contribution to students seeking recovery services. In addition to offering recovery supports on campus, collegiate sites aim to leverage local community partners to holistically support students throughout their academic career, referring to other services to provide a diverse and inclusive approach to recovery.
CRS was spotlighted in the June Washington Recovery Alliance newsletter, reporting on the first-ever Recovery College Fair for high school students who identify as in recovery from addiction.
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Family Initiated Treatment (FIT) is a pathway that helps families and caregivers take an active role when a young person needs behavioral health support. FIT centers family voice and is designed to reduce barriers to getting started, supporting timely connection to services when families are unsure where to begin.
FIT works within the broader system of care by connecting families to behavioral health services for youth ages 13–17. It recognizes that families are often the first to notice changes in a young person's mood, behavior, or functioning, and provides a clear entry point to act on that concern.
For providers and partners, FIT offers an opportunity to support coordinated, family-centered access that aligns with integrated care goals.
Learn more:
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Creating a safe sleep environment is one of the most important things caregivers can do to protect infants. Here are practical steps to reduce risk and support safer sleep for your baby.
- Place your baby on their back every time they sleep. This significantly reduces risk.
- Babies with reflux or GERD should still sleep flat on their backs.
- If your baby can roll independently from back to front and front to back, you do not need to keep turning them over.
- Keep the sleep space clear of blankets, pillows, stuffed animals, pacifier clips, and crib bumpers.
- Use a firm, flat surface for all sleep.
- Stop swaddling at the first signs of rolling (typically between 2 and 4 months).
- Share a room, not a bed. Keep your baby in their own sleep space in your room for the first six months. If breastfeeding in bed, return your baby to their sleep space when done.
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