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Programs and opportunities

Programs and opportunities

Investing in promotion, prevention and early intervention

Best Starts for Kids partners with community organizations, non-profits, schools and school districts, tribes and tribal organizations, and public or governmental agencies to support the health and well-being of communities across King County. We consider Best Starts funding recipients as partners. Working together, we build on the strengths of families and communities so that babies are born healthy, children thrive and establish a strong foundation in life, and young people grow into happy, healthy adults.

The calendar below shares upcoming Request for Proposal (RFP) funding opportunities from the beginning of 2022 and staggered throughout the year. We encourage everyone to subscribe to our newsletter and blog to receive notices when a new funding opportunity is released and information about quarterly virtual open houses!

Do you have any questions? Please contact Best.Starts@kingcounty.gov for general inquiries and/or the RFP lead contact for specific questions about an open RFP.

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Open funding opportunities

Home-Based Services: Supportive Environments RFA

Opening date - March 19, 2024

Closing date - April 16, 2024 at 3:00 PM

This funding supports

Prenatal - Age 5

Funding opportunity website

https://www.zoomgrants.com/gprop2.asp?donorid=2209&rfpid=5209

About this funding opportunity

Improving outcomes for families and children requires not only strong programs and sound implementation, but also supportive environments—systems and environmental conditions that facilitate programs in doing their work and meeting community needs. This RFA is seeking a facilitator able to assemble and hold space for a home-based services collaborative advisory group. In addition, the facilitator will work collaboratively to harness the agency of this group to identify home-based services community priorities and support the implementation of their goals. This facilitator must be able to bring individuals from diverse communities and approaches together in dialogue about deeply personal topics. The core of this facilitator’s work will be to center and support the group’s identified needs, priorities and next steps.

This funding opportunity builds upon the work initiated by the 2018-2022 Core Leadership Group to build a formal, sustained, and more equitable mechanism for gathering input, feedback and action from the home-based services community of families and providers. This group will identify and articulate the needs and goals of the wider home-based services community across King County, and take steps to make change in a community-driven way. Their voice will inform decision-making and improvements within the Best Starts’ Home-Based Services strategy. This group will also grow the capacity of the home-based services system in the steps they identify and take to create change.


Positive Family Connections Family Network Mini Grant RFP

Opens - March 15, 2024

Closes - April 26, 2024 at 2:00 PM

This funding supports

Age 5 – 24

About this funding opportunity

This RFP seeks to fund activities that support families with youth ages 5-24 as they navigate their changing relationships to strengthen the family, particularly the relationship between the young person and their parents/adult caregivers. Funding can be one-time projects or events. The proposed programming must take place during 2024. We welcome creative ideas that includes a focus on Self-Care, Helping Working Families and/or Mental Health Support.

This request is open to families collaborating for the purpose of interdependent problem solving and respite that focuses on improving connection among caregiving adults and the children/youth in their care. The collaborating families will need to have a fiscal sponsor such as a nonprofit organization, community-based organization, tribe and tribal organization, a for-profit entity or a public or governmental agency serving families in King County.

Eligible applicants must meet the following minimum qualifications:

  1. Be a group of collaborating families who develop or implement the proposal in partnership with a fiscal sponsor.
  2. Must have an active relationship for two years or more with the organization who will serve as their fiscal sponsor.
  3. Must currently be an active family network or coalition.
  4. Reside in King County and host or deliver the program and services within King County.

P-5 Community Designed Program Development Pilot Workshop Series – Participation Application

Opens - February 14, 2024

Closes - March 27, 2024 at 5 p.m.

This funding supports

Prenatal – Age 5

About this funding opportunity

This is a capacity building opportunity focused on supporting community in building new innovative and sustainable programs that center racial, economic, and geographic equity and promote positive change for babies, children, families, and communities. This pilot will not fund actual service delivery or guarantee future funding for service delivery.

Best Starts for Kids (Best Starts) invites community-based organizations, coalitions, and community groups to apply. Up to 12 programs and/or organizations will be accepted. In small group settings, participants will be supported to draft materials which will later guide their program. They will learn about approaches such as communicating program activities and outcomes, designing staff training materials, preparing for evaluation, budgeting, and planning for fundraising activities.

Applicants may apply to this Participation Application at no cost, and may also additionally apply for a stipend to support full participation.


Lead and Toxics: Reducing Toxics Exposures in our Communities RFP

Opens - February 23, 2024

Closes - April 17, 2024 at 2:00 PM

This funding supports

Prenatal – Age 5

About this funding opportunity

Communities have long been charting the path forward on environmental justice, pushing for equitable policies and practices to address and prevent harm from toxics exposures. The purpose of this RFP is to support the work of communities most impacted by toxics to address exposure sources harming families and young children in King County. PHSKC seeks to fund projects that do one or more of the following:

  1. Create opportunities for community organization coalition-building, skill-building, and cross-sector partnerships with the aim of informing systems-level policies and programs to reduce toxics exposures in children, pregnant people, and their families,
  2. Support community-based participatory research or citizen science projects that create opportunities to better understand and address toxics exposures of children and their families in priority communities,
  3. Create workforce development opportunities in healthcare to increase medical professionals’ ability to prevent and address toxics exposures in youth and children,
  4. Create workforce development opportunities or focused programs in industries that put children and families at risk for take-home exposures.

The RFP is specifically focused on reducing exposures amongst children, pregnant people, and their families to the toxics listed in:

Organizations can and are encouraged to submit a join application, however individual applications are still welcome. 


Upcoming funding opportunities

Contact Us

Phone 206-263-9105

TTY Relay: 711

Fax: 206-296-5260

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