Restart Partners began with an effort to assist Washington state leaders in planning for and procuring Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. We developed a free open-source data-driven model to help state and local leadership make important demand and purchasing decisions for PPE and other supplies. This work proved to be of great value to decision-makers early in the pandemic and our help was extended to other government agencies and communities across the country. 

It became clear to us early on that, while PPE procurement and distribution were critical, PPE and other mitigation strategies would not be effective unless they were broadly adopted. We shifted our focus to increasing adoption of masks, as it was becoming clear that widespread adoption of masks could effectively reduce disease spread. We then took what we have learned and extended our modeling and behavioral change work to vaccination campaigns and other COVID-19 prevention strategies to help communities stay healthy while helping businesses operate safely and build resilience over the course of the pandemic.

Restart Partners was awarded a $1.15 million federal US Economic Development Administration (EDA) Safe Start Grant to provide technical assistance to businesses in underrepresented and underserved communities. In partnership with Choiceflows and Tanjo AI, Restart developed the Smart WA Decision Dashboard. The free, AI powered online dashboard was designed to help businesses navigate COVID-19 reopening requirements, available resources for small business owners, as well as to aide their decision -making by providing real-time assessment and forecast of public health, economy, and community experience.

Simultaneously, Restart Partners was awarded $130,000 from the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries to develop and deliver a strategic awareness campaign designed primarily to reach users vis social media to help reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission in the workplace by promoting at least two of L&I’s Division Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) workplace COVID-19 prevention tools

As our communities rebuild from the COVID-19 pandemic, Restart believes an equitable recovery is critical for a thriving economy and the health of underserved communities.  Restart keenly understands rebuilding an equitable economy means addressing the unique needs of all communities with culturally, linguistically relevant and community-driven resources.  Our work today continues to support government via public-private-academic collaboration providing technical assistance including the pilot digital literacy project for Korean immigrant businesses (link to page) and evidence-based research including the WA State Department of Commerce Technical Assistance Report (link to page/report). 

We also develop innovative public-private funding partnerships to identify, prioritize and prepare for the development of key strategic funding partnerships with corporations, charitable foundations and high net worth investors that align with government’s strategic priorities to increase capacity and impact.