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Washington Thriving implementation moves forward as work group sketches leadership council, coordinator and early initiatives
Summary
The Children, Youth and Behavioral Health Work Group discussed standing up a leadership council and hiring an executive coordinator to implement the Washington Thriving strategic plan, outlined early priorities (infrastructure, perinatal supports, K–12 and treatment services), and flagged membership, youth engagement and tribal consultation as near-term tasks.
The Children, Youth and Behavioral Health Work Group met in Olympia to begin translating the recently adopted Washington Thriving strategic plan into an implementation roadmap, focusing on governance structures and early initiatives.
Co-chair Keesha Kirschbaum, who opened the hybrid meeting, said the work group’s role has been reinforced by recent legislation and urged members to help set the near-term agenda. “This is a key part of the accountability function,” she said, describing the group’s expected role advising the implementation council and informing legislative recommendations.
Staff outlined two new, near-term structures: a leadership (implementation) council to be seated in the governor’s office and an executive coordinator position that will sit in the governor’s office to help run the implementation. The governor’s office has begun drafting a charter and a job description, and staff said the office expects to post the coordinator position soon and to nominate tribal representatives through government-to-government consultation.
Hannah Trafagan of the Health Care Authority framed the plan’s structure and priorities, explaining the three foundational dimensions that will guide implementation — system infrastructure, services and supports, and people and relationships — and how those dimensions map to the plan’s first initiatives. “The strategic plan has been submitted, and now as the work group ... takes the strategic plan ... how it was developed and just a part of the implementation and moving that forward,” she said.
The group directed particular attention to: ensuring lived-experience and tribal representation on the leadership council with technical supports for those members; defining clear, shared outcome measures the council will use to track progress; and sequencing the work so the council, subgroups and state agencies can coordinate without duplicating effort. Breakout discussions recommended that any leadership-council appointee be supported by staff and a small advisory team so one individual is not expected to carry community engagement alone.
Staff also described how initiative-specific work is already being scoped: perinatal supports and K–12 student behavioral health are in early discovery phases supported by partners (including BloomWorks and CoLab), while efforts to expand crisis, stabilization and middle-intensity treatment services remain in scoping.
The work group tasked staff with circulating the executive coordinator posting to the group and continuing outreach to tribal entities and youth networks to shape how seats are nominated and supported. The next full work group meetings are scheduled to be fully virtual on June 18 and July 9.
