What we do

Health Equity and Anti-Racism Community Advisory Group (HEARCAG)

In early March 2020, we convened representatives from various community, business, and government sectors in King County to help slow the spread of COVID-19 with the goal of accelerating the use of the recommended and required community mitigation strategies. 

Committed to two-way communication, the Advisory Group helps share information and urge action within their respective networks. They also inform us on what they are seeing on the ground – both challenges and opportunities. Together, we work to help prevent, interrupt, and respond to misinformation and stigma. 

Learn more about HEARCAG.

Community Engagement and Partnerships Team

Community Navigators Program

Co-created with trusted community representatives, The Community Navigators Program convenes trusted messengers and community leaders to educate, equip, and serve as representatives of their communities with the goals of: 

• Providing culturally responsive information and resources on COVID-19
• Addressing social determinants of health
• Providing guidance to us to align with the needs of our communities 

Community Navigators speak and serve over 45 different communities and represent the communities most impacted by COVID-19: 

Black – Congolese – Indigenous of the Americas (Ireta P’urhepecha, Kichwa, Garifuna) – Khmer – Ethiopian – Garifuna – Samoan – East Indian – Latinx – Marshallese – Korean – Iraqi – Tongan – Fijian – Chinese – Afghan – Vietnamese – Filipino 

For more information about the Community Engagement and Partnerships team, contact Jennell Hicks.

Equity Response Team (ERT)

What is ERT?

ERT addresses racial equity and social justice issues raised by PHSKC teams, community members, and partner agencies through thought partnership, guidance, and advocacy.  Created early in the COVID-19 response, the ERT has been supporting the explicit incorporation of equity within PHSKC’s operational structure.

Who is ERT?

ERT members have represented different areas of subject matter expertise to include civil rights, LGBTQIA+, youth, community, faith, including tribal members and a bioethicist, as well as city and county staff. The ERT intentionally engages partners with the aim to decolonize the public health system, to recognize intersectionalities and the acknowledgement that everyone has their own unique experiences of discrimination and oppression and to center our department’s work to focus more on accountability with communities most impacted by inequities, and communities experiencing hate and bias.

For more information about the Equity Response Team, contact Mariel Torres Mehdipour.

Language Access Program

What are Community Language Access Services?

Language access services are equity in action. We partner with Snohomish, Tacoma-Pierce, Chelan-Douglas, Kittitas, Okanagan and Grant Counties to provide timely, culturally responsive, and accurate information to regional communities on a multitude of social determinants of health. Services include translation, community review, interpretation, voice over, and health literacy and language access basics for staff. Our Community Language Service Providers (CLSP or Contractors) are contracted individuals and agencies that use personal lived experience and community based, fluent language skills to provide these high-quality services.

For more information, contact our Language Access Program at email: ESJLanguages@kingcounty.gov