Summary

Public Health is launching its new 5-year strategic plan to deliver on its vision for health, well-being, and racial equity for everyone in King County. The plan was developed in collaboration with staff, community, and institutional partners to meet the most important health challenges facing King County. 

Story

Public Health – Seattle & King County today announced the launch of a strategic plan for improving the health and well-being of people in our community over the next five years.  

The plan was developed with participation from nearly 100 community and public health system partners and hundreds of staff and informed by what we have learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, King County’s commitment to equity, and declaration of racism as a public health crisis.  

“For every person in King County to be able to thrive, everyone must have the best chance to be healthy, and that's why a strong public health focus is so important. This strategic plan sets a vision and lays out decisive action for making one of the nation’s best health departments even better,” said King County Executive Dow Constantine. “I am grateful for our community partners who helped build this plan and look forward to their collaboration in carrying it forward.” 

Building on a fundamental commitment to equity and anti-racism, the plan includes five priority areas: 

• Climate and Health 
• Emerging Threats to Community Health and Wellbeing 
• Information, Impact, and Innovation 
• Partnerships 
• Workforce and Infrastructure 

For accountability, each priority area includes goals, objectives, actions, and measures that will help community and staff track progress. 

"This strategic plan is a visionary plan with equity at its core, said King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, Chair of the King County Board of Health. "The collaboration with community partners, organizations and individuals was essential to assuring that the plan reflects the goals and values of the people we serve, and that Public Health’s services meet community needs." 

“Our strategic plan will have wide-reaching impacts, driven by our commitment to modernize and transform our work to provide even higher quality public health services,” said Dr. Faisal Khan, Director for Public Health – Seattle & King County. "The plan reflects our steadfast partnership with community to strive for a King County where health, well-being and racial equity are experienced every day by everyone.” 

Several themes emerge from the plan, reflecting a shared community and Public Health commitment to protecting and improving everyone’s health and well-being: 

• Health inequities: While King County residents have some of the best health outcomes in the country, this is not shared equally. The new strategic plan is squarely focused on improving health outcomes for all through eliminating health inequities across King County communities. It will center equity and anti-racism in program planning and execution, incorporate community voices in program decision-making, and use data to prioritize efforts in communities with the largest health inequities, among other strategies.  

• Acute health threats: The plan calls out specific priorities around acute threats to the community. These priorities include climate and health, gun violence prevention, overdose prevention, health for people experiencing homelessness, and community well-being and youth behavioral health.  

• Policy, community engagement, and partnerships: The plan also addresses policy development; equitable communications; community, institutional and academic partnerships, particularly among organizations that serve Black, Indigenous and People of Color; and underscores the need to modernize data systems and community contracting, among other services and programs. 

• A stronger health department: We also seek to become stronger as a public health department by supporting our current outstanding workforce and the workforce of the future; and preparing to respond to future public health emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic.   

What community partners are saying: 

Lalita Uppala, representing Indian American Community Services and also working as a Public Health Community Navigator, said, “As a representative of the South Asian and Indian American immigrant community, I am energized and inspired to live in a county where the public health department develops its strategic plan in partnership with community based organizations, where there is an acknowledgement and willingness to work upstream to address the determinants of health and root causes of inequity, where dialog and discussion have been encouraged to understand and be willing to include equitable, anti-racist, trauma-informed approaches through systems and processes.” 

Emma Maria Maceda, representing Grupo Asesor Latino and working as a Public Health Community Navigator, said, “The ongoing pandemic had disproportionately affected marginalized communities, exposing systemic injustices at the government level. My engagement with Public Health – Seattle & King County has empowered our communities, validated our concerns, and strengthened our collective voice. Being able to participate in high-level discussions about public health has certainly contributed to our fight for justice and equity. The acknowledgment and consideration of our concerns have instilled a sense of ownership and responsibility toward the health and well-being of our communities. Ultimately, this whole process offers a promising outlook on inclusivity and the possible change that can come when voices that are traditionally on the periphery of public decisions are welcomed and given due consideration in policy-making processes.” 

To learn more about Public Health’s strategic plan visit the Strategic Plan website.