Announcing strategic partnership with CoLab to advance Washington Thriving
As part of the first initiatives to implement the Strategic Plan, Washington Thriving has established a partnership with the CoLab for Community and Behavioral Health at the University of Washington (CoLab) Over the next 18 months, this partnership will help advance two of the first initiatives while also trying out an iterative, collaborative policy development, evaluation, and learning approach that can be built into the envisioned System of Care over time.
CoLab is an interdisciplinary center that works across School of Medicine/Psychiatry, School of Social Work, Department of Psychology, Evans School of Public Policy, and the School of Public Health with collaborations involving Washington State University, service providers, nonprofits, community advocates, state, county, and city agencies, national and international experts. The CoLab will leverage its eighteen year partnership as a contracted partner with Health Care Authority to support Washington Thriving and its partners.
CoLab will bring its practical and tested methods of facilitating collaborative policy and systems development to this role, as well as its established relationships with community, service providers, other Washington state universities, and policy partners. CoLab’s track record of integrating community voice, service expertise and research evidence into actionable practice aligns with the core principles of Washington Thriving.
As part of Washington Thriving’s first initiatives, CoLab will begin work on two important facets of the System of Care:
K-12 student well-being: Aligned with proposed legislation (HB1634), CoLab will work in partnership with the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) as the sponsoring organization to co-develop a statewide technical assistance framework to support schools navigating the complex landscape of behavioral health, which is a critical factor in students’ learning readiness and well-being. Through an inclusive co-design process, CoLab and OSPI will work alongside students, families, educators, community and state partners to ensure that technical assistance responds to real needs on the ground, including by improving identification of and access to available behavioral health services, supports, and funding streams.
System-level outcomes for System of Care infrastructure: To support Washington Thriving’s future performance measurement and accountability, CoLab will follow a similar inclusive co-design process to identify meaningful outcomes and metrics that reflect Washington Thriving values and implementation philosophy, are feasible to track and measure, and provide insight into how the system is performing.
This work is in early stages of development. We welcome input and will share more detail as it takes shape.
This partnership demonstrates Washington Thriving’s commitment to a learning systems approach - continuously improving by translating research into practice, measuring what works, and adapting based on evidence and community input.
CoLab will work closely with the Washington Thriving project team and leadership to ensure that the CYBHWG is consulted along the way and that the work stays aligned with emerging priorities and structures.