Washington Business Spring 2019 | Washington Business | Page 21

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that we have an aging workforce. We’re going to need to turn over a big chunk
of our workforce in the next five or 10 years. Our workforce development
programs are targeted at making sure we are preparing our youth to take
good, family-wage jobs. We’ve got a Pierce County skills center, which has
been expanding its programs. And, we’re continuing to challenge it to find
innovative ways to deliver good jobs to folks, get them prepared and make
sure that we have folks to fill them.
One of our challenges is we’re behind King County’s number in terms of the
percent of our population with a two-year degree or higher. And we’re behind
Snohomish, Kitsap and Thurston counties. I consider those our peer counties.
We are having serious conversations as to ways we can change that number.
A great example of that is the nursing program offered through the Puyallup
schools. They’ve created a Healthcare Pathway Program, such that a student
can get their clinical time at the local Puyallup Nursing and Rehabilitation
Center. They’ve got their first cohort going through now. So, you’ve got high
school students getting hands-on work serving their community. Those
students can graduate high school with a Nursing Assistant certificate, and
then they can matriculate directly to Clover Park Technical College, and in
two years they can graduate with their Registered Nurse license. That means
the kids who do that will have their RN by the time they’re 20. That means
two years’ less debt, and they are in the market, where we have a big shortage
of nurses. They’re paying taxes and buying things in our community. It’s just
a win-win-win.
Can you explain what you mean by doing things “The Pierce
County Way?”
There are three ingredients to “The Pierce County Way.” First, you need
visionary leadership. You’ve got to have somebody who says, “This is what
needs to happen.” And then it requires a kind of collaboration — a partnership.
In all cases, you can’t do this on your own, so you’ve got to bring in other
people. You’ve got to get other people around you. In the case of the high
school nursing program, (Superintendent of Puyallup School District) Tim
Yeomans brought together MultiCare, the Puyallup Nursing and Rehabilitation
Center and Clover Park Technical College. And, the
last component is you find ways to get things done.
This is what we’re trying to do: Set a different tone
and get stuff done.
out on drugs. It was a powerful experience. The challenge here
is these are folks that have generally been homeless for a long
period of time — two plus years and many of them more than
a decade. Most of them don’t have any interest in services right
now. And that’s a challenge. Anybody who wants services, we
can generally get them services.
We have a lot of challenges, but there are many things that
I’m really proud of. Certainly, the work we do with youth is
critically important. It’s unacceptable for any youth to sleep
outside or on the street, so we’ve got a lot of efforts focused
on that. We also have a lot of efforts focused on veterans. We
opened a new shelter that specifically supports homeless
women veterans out at the Orting Soldiers’ Home.
We’ve been pretty effective in diversion [efforts]. Where
you take folks and you get them out of the healthcare system,
and out of the legal system, in many cases, and divert them to
services where they can help get their lives turned around. I’m
really proud of our team and what we do.
Pierce County just got some exciting news. Can you
share it with our readers?
We are excited to welcome the women’s professional soccer
team down here, the Reign, and the new, rebranded Sounders
S2 team, now called the Tacoma Defiance. That’s a great name,
right? It hearkens to our history with Point Defiance and it
connects to our maritime heritage. Featured in the logo is
the destroyer, the USS Defiance. And, it really speaks to our
attitude. We’re a little bit defiant. We want to get stuff done.
You’ll see some billboards right now that talk about “Defiantly
Tacoma.” It’s kind of a play on being defiantly Tacoma, that
we’re finding ways to get things done. We’re collaborating
in ways that haven’t been done before. And the thing that’s
exciting about this momentum is that it builds off itself.
bruce dammeier at a glance
Washington state is not alone in facing
a growing homelessness crisis. How is
homelessness challenging your community,
and what kind of resources or efforts are you
putting toward it to curb its growth?
I recently went out with the Point-in-Time team
during the graveyard shift of 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. to reach
the chronic homeless. We had about seven different
teams walking into the encampments in the dead of
night, talking with folks, some of whom were strung
A Pierce County native, Bruce Dammeier attended Curtis High School before
going on to graduate from the University of Washington and with distinction
from the U.S. Naval Academy, where he served eight years as a civil engineer
corps officer. While on active duty, he was deployed on humanitarian relief
missions in the United States and across the world. Following his military
service, he returned to Washington state and served both as a member of the
Puyallup School District PTA and as a representative and senator in the state
Legislature. Bruce and Lauren, his wife of more than 35 years, live in Puyallup.
They have three grown sons.
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