FOREWORD

The Northern California Community Services Council is pleased to present this Profile, together with its companion volumes for Alameda, San Francisco, Contra Costa and Marin, as one of the first major new publications of the Council.

A few words of background, acknowledgement and expected uses are in order at the outset.

Background:  The Profiles represent the product of a significant transition period, which began with two significant decisions by the United Way in the early months of 1993.

First, the United Way Board of Directors placed the United Way's Needs Assessment capacity in a new and separate organization.  In April, the Board adopted a strategic Plan revision that called for the creation of a separate organization to offer Needs Assessment, Priority Setting, Information and Referral and Community Problem-Solving information and assistance to the United Way and to the community at large.  

Second, the County Leadership Division determined it would devote its Three-Year review of the Needs Assessment and Funding Emphases decisions  made in 1990 to an updating rather than a complete  "redo" of the earlier process.   The division asked that the 1990 Census information, and other readily available regional data used to update the County Profiles, Field of Service and Population information and that any significant divergences and shifts be identified.  The explicit hope was that the volunteer leadership in each county would then be able to focus on the most important tasks of identifying critical funding priorities, program, strategies and measurable outcomes for the use of Community Fund resources.

Acknowledgements:  

The Northern California Community Services Council (NCCSC) would like to acknowledge the vital and energetic efforts of San Mateo County Volunteers and Staff who provided information and names of persons and organizations to contact for updated data related to the various service and population indicators reflected in this profile.

Special and particular acknowledgements must be extended to the following members and staff of the Needs Assessment Funding Emphases (NAFE) Task Force who not only provided sources of data but reviewed and critique each section of this report as it evolved:   NAFE members:  Allason Clark,  Carol Kratochvil,   Melissa Platte,  Becky Thurston, J.  Donald Cameron,  Elizabeth Gheleta, Maria Elena Rivera-Pena; and NAFE staff:  Brian Kelly and Richard Navarro.

Finally, we would like to thank Dave White for his professional and thorough work on researching and writing this document and to Reggie Valmores for his support in the production of this report.

Uses of this Data:   It is expected that this information can and will have a wide use.  Primarily designed for the United Way Needs Assessment and Priority Setting work, we expect that planners, funders, service providers, policy-makers and others will, as they have in the past, find this data interesting and useful.  As the reader will note in comparing this volume to the summary of the 1990 Needs Assessment Reports there are gaps for local data collection.  United Way volunteers are currently collecting and adding local information to their store of knowledge.  The Council is currently providing tools by which local decision makers can analyze this information to make better funding and program planning decisions for the future.

In conclusion, the Council is very pleased to offer this first set of documents to the community and.  looks forward to strengthening the entire community's capacity to make effective decisions about solving the problems that confront us.

Lydia Cameron
Chair
Northern California Community Services Council, Inc.

Ed Schoenberger
President
Northern California Community Services Council, Inc.