A new Request for Proposals (RFP) is now available to build a Crisis Training Academy through the Crisis Care Centers Initiative.
The King County Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS) seeks a Behavioral Health Agency (BHA), Community Based Organization (CBO), and/or other training organizations to develop and operate a new crisis training program for the local behavioral health workforce. Available funding includes up to $1.5 million in 2026 and $1.5 million in 2027.
This RFP will launch a new program specifically designed to support and train a crisis workforce to work at Crisis Care Centers, on future post-crisis care teams, and to partner and manage care coordination within the crisis system that also includes 988, mobile crisis teams for adults and youth, outpatient treatment programs, and more. It is a much-needed resource as King County opens a network of five Crisis Care Centers and expands crisis services that are available to everyone in King County.
Crisis services are unique clinical services that require specialized skills in de-escalation, risk assessment, triage decision-making, and motivational interviewing. Training resources will aim to build behavioral health workers’ knowledge and skill of how to assess, triage, and provide behavioral health crisis stabilization and treatment services for clients by using evidence-based and promising practices, culturally and linguistically appropriate approaches, trauma-informed care, and care coordination best practices.
These training resources are intended to support behavioral health workers who work in specialty crisis settings as well as behavioral health workers who work in other settings, such as outpatient settings, who may benefit from developing their skills related to supporting a person experiencing a behavioral health crisis.
Applications are due by 2:00 p.m. on September 30, 2025.
As we add more crisis centers, crisis teams and crisis services, we need more people to join the local crisis workforce, and we need to support their career path and wellbeing too. As a result, the Crisis Care Centers Initiative – guided by the Crisis Care Centers Levy Implementation Plan – is investing in activities to strengthen the community behavioral health workforce in King County, including the crisis workforce. The initiative will invest more than $160 million over its nine-year span in the behavioral health workforce.
DCHS has invested more than $16 million in the behavioral health workforce so far, since implementation began in June 2024. This includes distributing $12 million across 37 agencies to support worker training, clinical supervision, career development, and worker wellbeing, and $4.8 million for apprenticeships and training programs to help more people enter the workforce.
Today in King County there are many opportunities to join the behavioral health workforce—at Crisis Care Centers or other treatment facilities, on crisis teams, community outreach teams, post-crisis teams or as a Designated Crisis Responder, and it is getting easier to start your path and advance in this meaningful career.
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