Our communications team will tell you that writing the ‘newsletter update’ is the hardest task they ever assign to me, mostly because writing something brief is so much harder than writing something long. From now through the end of the year is often when we gather, feeling gratitude for those we love. In his blog, […]
CEO Update
Working together to uphold Vital Conditions
It has been almost one year since a “greater than” 100-year flood impacted Whatcom, Skagit, and other counties around the state of Washington. Close to 2,000 households were displaced in North Sound, and one year later many of those families are still waiting for repairs or permanent placement. Access to affordable housing was already severely […]
Collaborative Action Network: Aspirations and Actions
I am often asked the rationale behind the common agreements that we have asked all partners to commit to. For those who aren’t familiar with them they are linked here. Since 2014, when leaders from across five counties and eight tribal nations formed what is now North Sound ACH, the underlying focus on advancing equity has […]
Intersections
When I became an adult, I could not get a credit card unless my father or (if I had) a husband to act as co-signer. I could not have had a jury of my peers because not all states allowed women to serve on juries. There was no protection for women who were raped by […]
Why Do We Focus on Equity?
Since 2018, when we first started contracting with clinical and community providers, we have asked for twice-yearly updates reporting on progress, challenges and how to mitigate them, and what aspects of innovative work can be sustained without Medicaid Transformation Project dollars. The past two years have been challenging for staff and the people they serve. […]



