Looking Back at a Transformative Year in Washington

Looking back at our collective progress in 2019, it’s remarkable to think about how far we’ve come. Upstream Washington launched partnerships with 12 health centers that serve more than 150,000 patients each year, delivering engaging classroom trainings, building new skills for clinicians, and funding grants for birth control for uninsured patients. Let’s take a look at what was an unforgettable year!

2019 by the numbers

12 Health center partners

24 health center sites trained, 72 clinicians trained, 237 support staff trained.

 

What you brought to us was truly a class act.”
– Klickitat Valley Health Agency Champion

Such great information learned from the
training and in an easily digestible and fun format.
Friendly to clinical and non-clinical staff alike.”
– Whidbey Health Support Staff

Very inclusive with all departments encouraged to participate in the training, not just for providers and medical staff.”
– Columbia Basin Health Association Support Staff

I thought it was really fun actually.
I would go again. When I saw it was about
birth control, I thought that had nothing to do with me,
but I actually really learned a lot and it makes sense
now why we were all there.”
– Public Health-Seattle & King County Admin Specialist

2019 has been a transformative year for contraceptive care in Washington, and for the Upstream team, too. We started the year with 10 employees, doubled in size quickly, then doubled again! All this happened as we continued to ramp up for our work with our health center partners. Fast forward to December—we are 41 dedicated staff working in five offices across the state, in Seattle, Spokane, Winthrop, Tri-Cities, and Olympia, with our team living and working in the communities we serve.

2020 will see us continue our core mission while beginning new phases of work with a focus on immediate postpartum contraception, precepting, and beginning work in a behavioral health setting. The new year will also see us welcoming three new partners in early 2020—MultiCare, Pacific County Public Health, and the Jamestown Family Health Clinic.

To celebrate our 2019 successes, we are holding an open house at the Seattle Upstream office on January 27, 2020. Contact us at waevents@upstream.org for more information.

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