October 31, 2026
The S3C Foundation has signed the Public Letter of Support: Save Human Services in Washington State. We stand with the providers, coalitions, frontline staff, and residents who are asking Governor Bob Ferguson, the Washington State Legislature, and state agency leaders to fully fund the human services that Washington contracts to community organizations (Save Human Services, n.d.).
The letter endorses the recommendations of a June 2025 report submitted to the Washington State Department of Commerce, which found that providers receive, on average, 58 cents for every dollar it costs to deliver services under State and State-funded contracts. The report recommends two core reforms: restructuring contracts so that fees cover the full cost of mandated services, and budgeting for human services at least one year in advance so providers can plan, contract, and implement responsibly (Save Human Services).
Why This Matters to Our Community
The S3C Foundation is a Washington nonprofit serving survivors of complex trauma and people living with dissociation through psychoeducation, peer support groups, professional training, and research. The people we serve depend on Washington’s human service providers every day: crisis response, housing support, child and family services, domestic violence and sexual assault advocacy, behavioral health care, and the caseworkers who help people find their way through each of these systems.
For trauma survivors, recovery is built through relationships that stay steady over time. When programs close without warning, when waitlists grow, and when experienced staff leave because wages cannot keep pace with the cost of living, survivors lose the very continuity that makes healing possible. A revolving door of caseworkers can repeat the ruptures that brought people into care in the first place. Chronic underfunding is a clinical concern as much as a budget concern.
We also understand the strain from the inside. Small and community-rooted organizations across Washington are holding this work together through donor generosity, volunteer labor, and staff who absorb costs that should be covered. We agree with the letter that philanthropy cannot and should not be expected to fill the gap left by underfunded government contracts (Save Human Services, n.d.). Charitable giving is meant to extend care and spark innovation. It was never meant to subsidize services the State has already committed to provide.
What We Are Asking For
Together with the other signers, the S3C Foundation calls on Washington’s leaders to implement the report’s recommendations in full, including:
• Contracts that pay the real cost of mandated services, using cost-plus or fixed-price approaches in place of reimbursement-only models.
• Funding for actual indirect costs, along with training, clinical supervision, insurance, start-up, and shut-down costs.
• Freedom for providers to offer competitive wages and benefits so they can recruit and retain a skilled, trauma-informed workforce.
• Timely payment, an end to late disbursements, and corrections to existing contracts as well as future ones.
Training and clinical supervision deserve special mention. Trauma-informed care depends on a workforce that is trained, supported, and supervised well. When these costs go unfunded, the burden falls on the helpers, and secondary traumatic stress and burnout follow. A sustainable human services system protects the people who provide care so they can keep providing it.
Our Commitment
Human service providers carry out essential public responsibilities on behalf of all Washingtonians. Funding them fully is how the State keeps its promises to its most vulnerable residents. The S3C Foundation urges Washington’s elected officials and agency leaders to act on these recommendations now, in partnership with the providers who do this work. We will continue to lend our voice, our expertise in trauma and dissociation, and our community’s lived experience to this effort.
Emma Sunshaw, PhD
Executive Director, S3C Foundation
s3cfoundation.org
Reference
Save Human Services. Public letter of support: Save Human Services in Washington State. Retrieved October 31, 2026, from https://www.savehumanservices.org/letter-of-support