Safety is essential to the physical, mental, and social-emotional well-being of children and families. But domestic violence (DV) is increasing in King County with emergency department visits rising 48 percent from 2020 to 2024. When families need DV services, Best Starts partners provide support and referrals, but families often get lost in the referral process and do not get connected to the comprehensive services they need.
That’s why we launched the Best Starts for Kids’ Domestic Violence Emergency Response Pilot. Since January 2025 through the end of 2027, Best Starts is partnering with Atlantic Street Center’s (ASC) Gender-Based Violence program to build a warm-referral pathway that connects families experiencing DV to timely services, concrete resources, and wraparound supports. In 2025, the pilot successfully completed 100 percent of DV referral requests.
Early pilot evaluation results show that referral and service systems can be redesigned to better support families experiencing DV. We need systems that nurture provider relationships, offer reliable follow-up, and provide flexible financial resources to effectively close referral gaps and ensure coordinated, survivor-centered support.
What we’re learning from the DV Emergency Response Pilot
Twelve early childhood provider organizations are in the pilot as referral partners, referring participants seeking DV assistance directly to ASC. During the pilot, we collect data to evaluate its success and impact on families. Here’s what we’ve learned from our early evaluation results:
- We successfully completed 100% of referral requests and 52 families received 576 total services. Services include case management, therapy, financial assistance, safety planning, support groups, housing support services, bilingual services, and more.
- Monthly partner meetings and detailed follow up strengthen trust, clarify referral pathways, and create space for shared case consultation. These connections allow partners to intervene earlier and prevent families from retelling traumatic experiences.
- We met 100% of financial assistance requests. Flexible financial assistance addresses urgent needs affecting safety and stability, such as access to housing, food, transportation, child care, and immediate health needs.
- Families value in-language advocacy and culturally responsive mental health activities. Requests for bilingual services increased from five in the first half of 2025 to 49 in the second half.
- 100% of families reported progress toward their service goals.
“One mother was living in her car with her two young children after leaving an abusive relationship. She was working and had a steady income, but she couldn’t meet the usual requirement of earning three to four times the rent. Her advocate looked at every housing program available and… found a landlord who was willing to work with her. About a month after her referral, she was approved for an apartment, and ASC covered her move-in costs. Today the family is still in that apartment, safe and stable.”
– Atlantic Street Center staff member
Download our DV Emergency Response Pilot one-pager to learn more.
Looking ahead
Families’ needs rarely fit into one service. In 2025, each family received an average of 11 services across case management, therapy, financial assistance, housing, and more. Thriving families depends on both direct services and the coordination behind them: regular partner meetings, follow-up, and flexible funds that can move quickly.
The pilot will continue to nurture existing provider relationships, expand partnerships with basic-needs providers, and plan staffing and resources around predictable increases in demand, which are typically around holidays and sporting events.
Continued participant feedback and shared learning will guide these efforts so services remain responsive to what families need. A full evaluation report will available after the pilot concludes.
Thank you
Thank you to Atlantic Street Center and Best Starts partners and community members for shaping this work through shared learning and ongoing collaboration. Your contributions inform a more connected approach to family support and safety.
If you have any questions about the pilot, please email Chloe Leipzig at cleipzig@kingcounty.gov.
