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 and face coverings, as it was becoming clear that widespread adoption of masks could effectively reduce disease spread. We have taken what we have learned and extended our modeling and behavioral change work to other COVID-19 prevention and mitigation strategies to help communities stay healthy while helping businesses operate safely and build resilience over the course of the pandemic.