The Healthy Children’s Fund directs investments through a set of clearly defined strategies that reflect community priorities and proven best practices.
Together, they ensure that public funding is used effectively to create lasting, measurable change in Whatcom County. Specifically, the Healthy Children’s Fund follows 10 core strategies developed in its implementation plan.
Expanding Early Learning & Care
Early learning lays the foundation for a child’s lifelong success. Yet many families in Whatcom County face limited access to affordable, high-quality, professional and accessible care. By investing in facilities, workforce development, and affordability, the Healthy Children’s Fund helps ensure that every child can learn, grow, and enter kindergarten ready to succeed, regardless of background or circumstance.
The Healthy Children’s Fund has six strategies for providing assistance related to early learning and care, developed in its County Council approved Implementation Plan.
Strategy 1:
Use small capital projects to expand, renovate or repurpose buildings to increase early learning and care slots in a mixed-delivery system.
Strategy 2:
Coordinate current and develop additional pathways to ensure a stable early learning and care workforce that can deliver high-quality programs for children.
Strategy 3:
Improve access to early learning and care through subsidies that reduce the cost of programs for children from families that are cost-burdened.
Strategy 4:
Ensure access to early learning and care by promoting the expansion and retention of the early learning and care workforce.
Strategy 5:
Create regional early learning and care hubs that include shared administrative services, co-located early learning and other services for children and families, and support for smaller providers in the county (i.e., the “hub and spoke model”).
Strategy 6:
Support innovative approaches to meet various Healthy Children’s Fund goals for early learning and care.
Supporting Vulnerable Children
Some children and families experience challenges that put their health, safety, and stability at risk. The Healthy Children’s Fund invests in programs that provide housing support, mental and behavioral health services, and parenting resources to reduce trauma and build resilience. These investments strengthen families today while creating a healthier, more equitable future for the next generation.
The Healthy Children’s Fund has four strategies approved by County Council that are focused specifically on meeting the needs of vulnerable children.
Strategy 1:
Recruit mental and behavioral health workforce to Whatcom County.
Strategy 2:
Develop and/or expand resources and programs for families who disproportionately experience housing instability.
Strategy 3:
Expand and enhance early parenting support.
Strategy 4:
Integrate and co-locate services via coordinated access to resource navigation.
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