Westside Baby

WestSide Baby exists to provide children’s basic needs for families who are unsupported by the systemic inequities in our community and nationwide. We work with our community to examine where the greatest need is in our region, and redistribute resources so that caregivers do not have to choose between paying rent, keeping healthy food on the table, or diapering their baby in a clean, dry diaper. Through examining the systems that create these inequities, and creating sustainable and responsive distribution models, WestSide Baby has grown from distributing 500,000 diapers in 2011, to over 2.37 million diapers in 2020.

WestSide Baby believes providing basic needs is a crucial way to decrease the negative health outcomes associated with poverty and racism in our community. When any child’s potential is stunted by the inequities that limit them, from education to health-care, to their employment as adults and overall lifespan, our entire community suffers. The health of our children is a key indicator of our health as a society. WestSide Baby bridges a gap in human services by helping to ensure that all the children in our region have clothing that fits, a safe sleep option and clean diapers to keep them safe from infection.

The impact of our work is far-reaching, and affects the community on three core levels:
1. Children's basic needs for warmth, safety and security are met
2. Caregivers Meet Their Children’s Basic Needs
3. Direct Service Providers Build Trust with Clients & Connect Caregivers to Other Resources

WestSide Baby provides low-income, homeless and refugee families in western King County with the essential material goods they need to properly care for their children. WestSide Baby is the only organization in Western King County with a sole focus on the large-scale distribution of free diapers and pre-owned children’s goods to caregivers so that they can meet a child’s basic physical needs for warmth and safety. By depending on our community and implementing streamlined systems and volunteers in our warehouses, we collect gently-used children’s clothing, car seats and cribs, along with donated diapers and hygiene products, and then distribute them, free of charge, to families in need. We also leverage large-scale corporate partnerships to receive bulk donations of new items such as car seats, diapers and strollers for distribution to the families we serve.

WestSide Baby doesn’t provide direct service. We don’t sell children’s goods or interface directly with the public. Our nationally recognized service model aligns us with a broad range of 114 social welfare agencies and human services providers such as shelters, food banks, public health departments, clinics and early learning/preschool programs. The case managers, social workers and staff place orders online with WestSide Baby for the specific items their clients need. Each order is fulfilled at our warehouses, then picked up and personally delivered to an individual family by their caseworker.

WestSide Baby is the only organization in Western King County with a sole focus on the large-scale distribution of free diapers and pre-owned children’s goods to families in need. WestSide Baby was created in 2001 and based on a national diaper bank model that had already taken root in eastern King County at Eastside Baby Corner. In 2014, WestSide Baby acquired St. Joseph’s Baby Corner through a merger and grew to serve all of western King County. We continue to partner closely with Eastside Baby Corner to ensure our work is aligned to best support and empower families across King County.

WestSide Baby doesn’t provide direct service. We don’t sell children’s goods or interface directly with the public and caseworkers do not refer their clients to WestSide Baby. Our nationally recognized service model aligns us with a broad range of 114 social welfare agencies and human services providers such as shelters, food banks, public health departments, clinics and early learning/preschool programs. The case managers, social workers and staff place orders online with WestSide Baby for the specific items their clients need. Each order is fulfilled at our warehouses, then picked up and personally delivered to an individual family by their caseworker. Our unique model allows us to meet people where they are – in their neighborhoods; even at home. WestSide Baby responds individually to each and every family, delivering exactly what a family tells us they need to care for their children- - not what we or anyone else might think they need.

The power of our work is rooted in the partnerships we create with frontline service providers; they are the key to our program’s effectiveness and efficiency. Our partners turn a simple car seat or delivery of diapers into a catalyst for caregivers to become more capable and confident parents to their children and for families to move towards self-sufficiency.

In 2021, WestSide Baby was faced with the difficult challenge of keeping volunteers and staff safe, while at the same time running a warehouse and filling a tidal wave of requests for children’s supplies. Human service providers experienced a significant increase in requests for diapers and children’s basics from their clients in 2020 and 2021.
WestSide Baby put protocols in place for on-site work which followed COVID-safe guidelines. Despite the constraints on our service last year, our distribution of most-requested items (diapers and car seats) continued at record high levels in 2021.
The following strategies helped us meet the increased demand for these goods:
• WestSide Baby partnered with several highly visible, family-friendly agencies that were already reducing barriers for families. New partnerships with Seattle School District, Seattle Housing Authority’s low-income housing facilities and Boys and Girls Club locations helped WestSide Baby make children’s goods available to large numbers of families.
• Strategic partnerships were formed with providers that have deep ties to their communities and were well positioned to reach families that were experiencing serious hardship. Rainier Valley Midwives, Southeast Youth & Family Services and East African Community Services are a few of WestSide Baby’s new community-based, non-profit partners.
• WestSide Baby expanded corporate partnerships with Huggies and Dorel Industries that allow us to procure bulk donations of critical items like diapers and car seats.
• In Q4, WestSide Baby outreached to over 50 new agencies that are not currently WSB partners to supply roughly 500,000 diapers to underserved communities. This was instrumental in meeting our goal of distributing over 2.4 million diapers in 2021. Not only that, but this effort resulted in establishing new relationships with community based organizations, providing resources to families that have not previously had access to a diaper bank.