Sustaining a Healthy Community in a Time of Need

The Health, Housing & Human Services Council (HHHS) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization governed by a board of citizen volunteers, officially empowered by the City to act on all matters pertaining to the implementation of the goals and policies of the Human Services Element.

Mission

The Health, Housing and Human Services Council (HHHS) is charged by the City of Bainbridge Island to implement the Human Services Element of the City's Comprehensive Plan. This element paints a picture of our community, both as it is and as we hope it will become… The primary purpose of the HHHS board is to help the community of Bainbridge Island realize this vision.

Human Services Element

The purpose of HHHS (COBI Ordinance 93-44) is to support services and foster improvements in the range and delivery of health, housing and human services programs provided on Bainbridge Island and to ensure access to all in need.  HHHS

• Focuses on the big picture and provides long-range planning.
• Develops holistic strategies fundamental to maintaining a healthy diverse community.
• Serves as an umbrella organization, linking BI human service non-profit agencies.

HHHS provides advocacy, cross-agency planning, needs assessment, data collection, community education, cross-agency training, and development and oversight of contract services with direct service agencies. 

Agency Funding

HHHS oversees the agency funding process for the City of BI.  HHHS

• Utilizes the Agency Funding Policy to fairly evaluate requests from community agencies providing direct client services resulting in a fair, transparent funding process.
• Acts as an advocate for human services providers.
• Aligns the City’s human services funding with community needs and service delivery trends.
• Administers the contracts and allocates the available funds on behalf of the City. 
• Ensures that City dollars are invested effectively.

Agency Coordination

To foster the coordination of services across the agencies, HHHS

• Sponsors the Community Connections Project.
• Implements the services database to track service delivery trends across the agencies.
• Facilitates the monthly Community Connections Directors Forum to provide a platform for cross-agency planning and collaborative projects. 
• Provides ongoing training to agencies on governance, capacity, fund-raising and community education. 

Needs Assessment / Healthy Community Checkup

• Connected with over 600 people through outreach efforts such as focus groups, a public online survey, and meeting with the members of many of BI’s various organizations, non-profit boards and neighborhood groups.
• Updated our Bainbridge Island demographic profile.
• Surveyed service providers and key contacts to identify service gap areas.
• Took a positive assets-based approach to assessing community health.
• Created the Healthy Community Indicators Task Force to identify ways to measure community health over time.

The HHHS Council's Role is to:

• implement the Human Services Element;
• provide a public forum for issues;
• promote long range planning;
• make recommendations for City allocation of health, housing and human service funds;
• seat a Community Advisory Board to make recommendations for allocations from the City's Housing Trust Fund;
• improve coordination of services for non-profit organizations engaged in the delivery of health, housing and human services for the Bainbridge Island community.

The City of Bainbridge Island established the Health, Housing and Human Services Council per Ordinance 93-44 on December 16, 1993, to promote and facilitate the

development and delivery of health, housing and human services within the City.

In 2000, when the Human Services Element was adopted as part of the City’s Comprehensive Plan, HHHS was charged with its implementation.