Archives for March 2018

Executive Constantine today signed legislation to establish the King County Immigrant and Refugee Commission, a permanent body that will serve as a hub for organizations that strengthen immigrant and refugee communities.

Executive Constantine and members of the County Council join with members of the immigrant and refugee community to celebrate the newly established King County Immigrant and Refugee Commission.

King County Executive Dow Constantine today signed legislation passed by the King County Council to create an Immigrant and Refugee Commission, a permanent body committed to upholding the commitment to being a welcoming county and to integrate, strengthen, and value immigrant and refugee communities.

The 13-member Commission will serve as a hub for organizations that connect immigrant and refugee communities, aligning their work with all levels of government to maximize their collective impact. The goal is to help the nearly 500,000 immigrants and refugees who live in King County successfully integrate culturally, economically, and civically while maintaining their own identities.

“The commission will maximize the work we do with community partners to help immigrants and refugees thrive in their new home,” said Executive Constantine. “Together, we will ensure that all people who come here to build a better life can contribute to the prosperity of our region, just as many of our ancestors did generations ago.”

As a hub for collective action, the Commission will bring together community organizations, governments, and service providers to achieve greater impacts in areas of biggest concern for immigrants and refugees, such as jobs and economic development, housing, transportation and health. By uniting efforts throughout all 39 cities and the unincorporated communities in King County, it will help guide a regional approach to helping refugees and immigrants thrive as residents.

“It is in the public interest that an immigrant and refugee commission be formed to enhance the integration of immigrants and refugees culturally, economically and civically, in order to strengthen the communities where they live and to support them to become part of the fabric of society, by having the tools they need to thrive and succeed while maintaining their own identities.”

“The formation of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Immigrant and Refugee Commission continues our work to ensure that our government and region is at the forefront in addressing the needs and concerns of these communities,” said County Councilmember Larry Gossett. “Together with the legislation passed by the Council this week and the formation of this commission, we will continue to build Dr. King’s Beloved Community and to make King County a welcoming and safe community for all.”

“Today, by establishing an immigrant and refugee commission, we acknowledge that unique challenges and opportunities are faced by certain communities,” said Council Vice Chair Rod Dembowski. “We demonstrate we are leading with racial justice by addressing that disproportionate barriers exist and create difficulties for some of our immigrants and refugees from reaching their full potential. Our commission members with lived experience of these barriers, will help guide us as a government to do our best by these communities.”

“The Immigrant and Refugee Commission makes our collective commitment to equity, fairness, and representation a reality,” said Council Chair Joe McDermott, “For too long, the voice of these communities has been silenced and ignored, and this Commission will provide an opportunity for greater collaboration between these communities and local governments, so we can advance our collective prosperity.”

Promoting civic participation and government representation

The framework of the Commission is based on recommendations made by the King County Immigrant and Refugee Task Force, created by Executive Constantine and the County Council in 2015.

Examples of the work the Commission will do includes:

• Assist and advise the County Executive, County Council, offices of the Assessor, Sheriff, Prosecuting Attorney, and Elections and all other departments on issues, programs, policies, and legislation that impacts immigrant and refugee communities.
• Promote civic participation and government representation by refugee and immigrant community members.
• Collaborate with all levels of government to ensure effective outreach and engagement with immigrant and refugee communities.
• Assist with the development and implementation of King County policies and regulations protecting and impacting refugee and immigrant communities.
• Evaluate county programs and services from the perspective of immigrant and refugee communities.
• Increase public awareness of immigrants and refugees and their contributions to the community.

A Commission that reflects the diversity of King County’s immigrant and refugee communities

The Commission will reflect King County’s increasingly diverse population with members from a wide range of life experiences, ethnicities, socioeconomic statuses, and professional backgrounds. It also will reflect each of the county’s geographic regions with at least six members representing unincorporated communities and cities other than Seattle.

There will be members who represent organizations that meet the specific needs of immigrants as well as members who represent organizations that meet the specific to refugees. Small, local organizations will be represented along with larger ones.

The task force recommended that half of the members should be women. It also called for including members who earn a lower income to reflect the life experiences of many immigrants and refugees.

Immigrants now account for nearly 23 percent of King County’s population

Of King County’s 2.15 million residents, an estimated 488,000 – nearly 23 percent – were born in a different country. That is up from 20 percent in 2010.

More than half of King County’s immigrant population is from Asia, with smaller shares from Latin America, Europe, and Africa.

King County’s total population has increased by 212,000 over the past six years. About 44 percent of that growth is from residents who already live here having children. Another 44 percent is from people who were born in other countries. About 12 percent is from people who moved from other states, notably California, Oregon, and Texas.

King County is challenging a U.S. Department of Health & Human Services decision to cancel federal teen pregnancy prevention grants that fund sexual health education developed by Public Health—Seattle & King County. The lawsuit is part of a national effort to push back against the politicization of public health initiatives.

A lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court requests an injunction to block the administration from terminating the federal Teen Pregnancy Prevention grants two years early – and to restrain federal officials from applying an ideological bias to deny science-based projects that have been rigorously vetted and already funded by Congress.

The federal grants have traditionally supported science-based approaches to health and sex education, including a five-year, $5 million competitive award for King County’s FLASH sex education curriculum. FLASH research is underway in schools in the Midwest and rural South, testing the impact on students’ ability to delay sexual activity and to protect themselves from pregnancy and STD’s.

In July, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) announced it was immediately cancelling the program two years early, cutting $2 million from King County, and effectively gutting the research – and ignoring the mandate of Congress, which has continually funded the program for nearly a decade.

The abrupt and early end to the teen pregnancy prevention funding makes it impossible to complete a vital evaluation of FLASH. The evaluation would objectively confirm whether the curriculum increases the number of students who are delaying sex and increases the use of birth control and condoms for those who choose to be sexually active.

An evidence-based curriculum helps local school boards justify the use of FLASH when there is growing pressure in some areas to use unproven and harmful ideological-based curriculum.

“The Trump administration had no legal right to eliminate the teen pregnancy prevention grants and block us from completing our research,” said Executive Constantine. “King County created FLASH, one of the most respected sexual health education programs in the nation. Pulling back the funding completely disregards science and evidence in favor of right-wing ideology that is out of touch with reality. We are fighting back to protect women’s and young people’s health, and to continue effective programs that meet our common goals.”

Teen pregnancy rates in King County are among the lowest in the nation – thanks in part to the widespread use of the FLASH curriculum. The teen birth rate has fallen from 21.5 per 1,000 in 2008 to a remarkably low 8.0 in 2016 – a 63 percent decline.

“This is a huge blow to our project, to all of the other teen pregnancy evaluations, and to the evidence base for sex education nationwide,” said Public Health Director Patty Hayes. “Our goal with FLASH is to improve the quality of what happens in classrooms across the nation and to protect our most vulnerable youth.”

In August, King County filed an appeal of the decision to cut the grant with HHS. To date, King County has received no response from HHS.

King County is represented in this suit by the national non-profit legal organization Democracy Forward. Information about other TPPP legal actions can be found here.

Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and Hawaiian Islands also filed lawsuits today to preserve their teen pregnancy grants.

“This administration has a reckless disregard for science and data,” said Carole Miller, chief learning officer at Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and Hawaiian Islands.

“By eliminating funding for evidence-based programming and redirecting funds to abstinence only programs, we are setting ourselves up for failure. TPPP is popular; it does good work, and it has helped millions of young people stay safe and healthy. We are going to fight this in the court every step of the way because more than a million people benefit from these tools and resources, often in places where there are no other programs that help young people and families make smart decisions about their future.”