King County Executive Dow Constantine
May 21, 2014
Mercer Island Community Center

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"Children are the world's most valuable resource and its best hope for the future."

President John F. Kennedy said those words in July 1963. It was true then – and it is true today. The health and well-being of our planet is in our hands now, but one day, sooner than we realize, we will relinquish it to the next generation. 

What will they say of our stewardship? Two of the greatest generational challenges of our time are confronting climate change and building equity and opportunity. 

As members of the Youth Action Plan Task Force, you will play a critical role in helping us to achieve the latter.

King County is growing, and changing. The County has added 200,000 people over the past decade – the vast majority of them people of color. Bellevue and Redmond are now more diverse than Seattle.

We are a prosperous county. Median household income is $71,000, well above the nation. Median life expectancy is nearly 82 years, well above the nation. Unemployment is 4.7 percent, two points better than the nation. 

But inequities across our region are growing more pronounced. 

Where you live, how much you make, and the color of your skin remain major predictors of your chances of living well and thriving. When comparing our 10 ZIP codes with the highest household incomes to the 10 with the lowest – there is a difference in average household income of more than $100,000. 

When we compare the 10 ZIP codes with the highest life expectancy to the 10 with the lowest, there is a difference of more than 10 years.

As many as 5,000 youth and young adults experience homelessness in King County each year. More than half are young people of color. Some have aged out of foster care. Nearly a quarter are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning – and their families have withdrawn their supports. And 1 in 5 children in King County is hungry today. 

Our King County Strategic Plan makes this promise: that we will “provide opportunities for all communities and individuals to realize their full potential.” And to do that, we must also transform the way we deliver health and human services.

The goal of our countywide Health and Human Services Transformation Plan is to align our efforts so that we can make the most of our investments and deliver the most value to people.

We have incredible partners – including all of you in this room, and new partners like Living Cities, which last week chose King County as one of its newest sites for building economic opportunities for low-income communities. 

Working together, we can achieve so much more than we can achieve working alone. We can create and develop projects together to achieve better outcomes – whether through affordable housing, access to health care, and nutritious food – or by creating walkable neighborhoods where young people can live, play, and thrive.

Transforming systems of care and transforming communities must be a region-wide effort. We must be bold. We must be creative. We must be willing to challenge the status quo. We must look at the full spectrum – from birth to early adulthood.

Let’s not wait until a young person is in trouble. 

Instead, let’s think upstream and plan for how we can reach our young people before they need costly services. How can we prevent children from falling behind in school and failing to graduate? How can we prevent addictions and hospitalizations? How can we prevent gang and criminal justice involvement? How can we prevent family and youth homelessness so our young people break the cycle of hopelessness?

How we care and support our youngest residents makes a difference for a lifetime. The first years last forever. 

King County is very fortunate that all of you in this room have brought your dedication, expertise, and commitment to this work. You have dedicated your professional lives to helping children succeed. 

And many of you are also parents. Throughout my career in public service, I have talked about supporting our children and families to thrive. But, as you may know, my perspective on children and families has changed a bit in recent weeks. 

Now that I am somebody’s father, it’s no longer theoretical. It’s personal. This is Sabrina’s future and that of her future classmates. The teenagers we help now may well be her teachers tomorrow.  

So let us work together to make sure that all of King County’s sons and daughters have the opportunity to achieve their dreams. Every child deserves a solid foundation on which to build a life and a future.  

“Children are the world's most valuable resource and its best hope for the future.”

With your help, we can make that possible. Thank you.