Each year, the Puget Sound Business Journal Corporate Citizenship Awards recognize companies that give back to their communities and inspire real change. This year, they honored Kaiser Permanente Washington as a top recipient for its contributions and community involvement in the health and wellness category.
“At Kaiser Permanente, our mission includes improving the health of our communities,” said Angela Dowling, president of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Washington. “The places where people live, work, and play have a big impact on overall health. It’s important to us to address not just physical health, but other factors that impact people’s lives like structural inequalities, access to educational opportunities, and food and housing security. That mission is what drew me to Kaiser Permanente, and it drives so much of what we do to support our communities.”
In 2023, Kaiser Permanente Washington invested more than $104 million into the community in core areas of thriving schools, mental and behavioral health, economic opportunity, food and nutritional security, access to care, structural racism, and homelessness and housing.
“We learned that 25% of teachers said they were somewhat likely or very likely to leave the profession following COVID-19,”1 Dowling said. “That kind of information really drives how we partner to support solutions. We knew we needed to leverage our workforce mental health and well-being experts along with our physicians to support the retention of our educational professionals.”
Kaiser Permanente is committed to partnering with schools and communities across the country to ensure that teachers, staff, and students have the support they need to thrive in learning and in health.
Roz Thompson, director of government relations and advocacy at the Association of Washington School Principals, joined Kaiser Permanente at the PSBJ Corporate Citizenship Awards to highlight our support for school programs.
“We are concerned about the mental health of our principals and assistant principals after the pandemic,” Thompson said. “These leaders are truly leading our learning environments and setting the culture, systems, and learning in our schools so everyone can be effective. Our partnership with Kaiser Permanente has provided resources and expertise from practitioners, along with information to allow our members to take care of themselves to be their best selves for our students and families.”
- Steiner, E.D., Woo, A. (2021) Job-Related Stress Threatens the Teacher Supply: Key Findings from the 2021 State of the U.S. Teacher Survey. Rand Corporation RR-A1108-1
