From Sultan to Olympia: A Voice for Families

When I arrived in Olympia for my first legislative session in 2018, I thought everyone knew about family support centers. After all, ours in Sultan had been serving the community since 1992.

But as I began talking with people, I discovered that many had never heard of them. One of those early conversations was with my colleague, Representative Tom Dent. Our offices were next door to each other, and we often had morning coffee together. During one of our first coffee conversations, I brought up family support centers and was surprised to learn that Tom had never heard of them.

That was when I realized that before I could ask others to support family support centers, I needed to explain what they were and why they mattered to children and families.

My work was cut out for me.

I found myself bringing up family resource centers whenever the opportunity arose, even during committee meetings. During one meeting, the question came up of where foster families could meet with parents in a comfortable, non-threatening setting. I pointed to family support centers as places that could help meet those needs because they were run by the community, not by the government.

I also discovered that Washington law did not define family resource centers. The work we had been doing locally in Sultan for so many years still needed recognition at the state level. I realized legislators needed to understand the importance of having a place for children and families to turn to for support.

I found others working toward the same goal.

Volunteers of America had already been an advocate for family support centers. Having served on their board for four years during the 1990s, I understood their work firsthand. They had been facilitating Sultan's Family Support Center since 1992.

Another advocate was Laurie Lippold from Partners for Our Children, a research and policy center at the University of Washington School of Social Work. Laurie and I had been working closely on issues affecting children through my work on the Human Services, Youth and Families Committee.

When I mentioned to Laurie that we needed help getting family support centers recognized at the state level, she introduced me to Children's Home Society of Washington. They, too, were working to make these centers more widely recognized.

Then, in 2021, came a major breakthrough, House Bill 1237 passed both the House and Senate and was signed into law, giving family resource centers an official definition in Washington State law and establishing common principles for their work. Although some communities call them family support centers and others call them family resource centers, they serve the same purpose.

Although the legislation did not provide direct funding, it was an important step toward statewide recognition. It gave existing and newly formed centers a common definition and helped state agencies better identify and understand the services they provide to families.

Children's Home Society of Washington also helped establish the Washington State Family Resource Center Network, which officially launched in 2023. Today, more than 120 family resource centers serve communities throughout Washington State.

For me, this work began with the Family Support Center in Sultan. When I arrived in Olympia, I never imagined that sharing what we had accomplished in our community would lead to working with others to bring family resource centers into Washington State law. What began in Sultan became part of something much larger, helping communities across the state recognize the importance of supporting children and families.