From Response to Recovery
COVID-19 is a wakeup call for our region. We must address long-standing racial inequities as we respond to the crisis.
In Program Year 2019 (July 1, 2019 – June 30, 2020) we served 41,069 people, including 1,365 young people (age 16-24). We also served 1,735 businesses, including 413 we had not worked with before. Those numbers only hint at the unthinkable challenges our communities and systems faced this year—a global pandemic that took lives and upended livelihoods and had an unequal impact on Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC), and immigrants and refugees. From infection rates to employment rates, those most at risk were most impacted.
The onset of COVID-19 in early March disrupted the region’s economy, workforce, health, and public well-being. There was unprecedented job loss, with over one in three jobs potentially affected. Some sectors were hit harder than others, and BIPOC workers, immigrants and refugees were overrepresented in those sectors, as well as in low-wage occupations. As of October 2020, the unemployment rate in King County stood at 4.7%, down from its peak of 14.9% in May, but up from where it was at the start of the year. Black, American Indians/Alaska Natives, and Pacific Islander workers, women, and those without postsecondary credentials (high school degree or some college) are experiencing unemployment at disproportionate rates. The massive job loss, concentrated in low-wage workers, has exacerbated already stark income inequity that existed before the pandemic.
We were forced to re-imagine the delivery of our services. Thanks to the tireless and adaptable efforts of staff and program partners, we were able to continue helping community members sign up for unemployment insurance, sort through benefits, prepare and apply for jobs, and provide a host of other services. We’ve learned a few things over the past months: technology access is more vital than ever, whether it be to apply for unemployment insurance, re-skill, or look for a job; language barriers to many public resources prevent access for the most vulnerable; immigrants and refugees face interconnected obstacles that demand a system that works together; and workplace safety has grown to mean more than just slips and trips—it’s essential in job placement and retention.
Our community is still in crisis. With entire industries shuttered and families facing deep challenges, we can’t help but hope for a return to normal. But recent months have shown us again that normal is not enough. We hear the demands for racial justice from the movement happening in our streets. Systemic racism will still be with us even when this pandemic is over. Communities of color, challenged by so many losses, must be at the center of our recovery strategy.
We can and will rebuild better. But we can’t do that without understanding the underlying inequities and pervasive structural disparities exposed by this disaster. Recovery efforts that do not explicitly address these inequities will only worsen them. In the near future we will share a Regional Strategic Plan to explicitly advance race-conscious programming and policy by applying an equity lens to every dimension of planning and implementation, not isolating equity to a separate set of strategies.
Our work is possible because of our board and staff, who commit time and energy to this vision, and our partners in the community: contracted providers nimbly transitioning to virtual services; industry leaders taking up advocacy for social justice; government moving resources into communities faster and with less red tape; and labor partners underscoring why job quality and safety matter. Without these partners our work would not progress.
Thank you for your dedication and your care. It matters now more than ever.
Marie Kurose
Chief Executive Officer
Kristen Fox
Board Chair