AROUND 100 REPRESENTATIVES from local community organizations, nonprofits and city governments convened this week in San Francisco at a conference aimed at initiating regional collaboration and partnerships.
The governor’s Office of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communications, or OCPSC, kicked off its “California Connects: Regional Convenings” conference, a statewide gathering held on eight different days in multiple cities across the state.
OCPSC is a body of the state government that focuses on ensuring that public information campaigns are reaching historically underserved populations. It is part of the governor’s Office of Service and Community Engagement, or “GO-Serve,” which was established in 2024 to boost paid service and volunteer work in the state and promote public engagement in tackling the state’s most pressing issues.
One of the goals of the conference is to provide a space where different organizations dedicated to helping underserved communities can congregate to network and help foster collaboration. It also aims to give local organizations access to funding resources and tools to help better serve their audiences.
“We really wanted to bring together a diverse set of partners together to understand what they bring to the region, from their organization, get to know each other, and find new avenues to collaborate, partner and network,” said OCPSC acting executive director Aubrie Fong in an interview.
Several organizations and state agencies discussed the benefits they have seen through working together.
Adolfo Rivera is the Director of National Service Programs at Bay Area Community Resources, a regional nonprofit that provides a range of services, such as afterschool and mental health programs, to underserved populations. His organization has been able to expand its work to smaller communities that often get overlooked.
“What this partnership has done is, it’s brought our services to communities big and small throughout the state of California,” he said during a panel discussion.
Speakers and participants noted how collaboration between stage agencies and community-based organizations is especially important given the federal government’s reduction in spending in areas such as health care, food assistance and housing programs, medical and scientific research, environmental protection and climate change, and national service programs like AmeriCorps.
“While federal resources are being stripped away, California is doing the opposite — investing in communities, opening doors to information, and ensuring every Californian has access to the tools they need,” said GO-Serve Director and California Chief Service Officer Josh Fryday in a statement. “Division is leaving families behind while California is leading with action and bringing people together to foster civic engagement, build resilience, and spark solutions that will last well beyond these events.”
While federal resources are being stripped away, California is doing the opposite — investing in communities, opening doors to information, and ensuring every Californian has access to the tools they need.
Josh Fryday, GO-Serve director and California Chief Service Officer
Quynh Nguyen is a program manager at Asian Health Services, a nonprofit that provides medical, dental and behavioral health services in 15 different languages in Alameda County.
She said that changes in health advice from the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, regarding COVID-19 have impacted Asian Health Services’ scope of outreach in giving vaccinations.
“The work that our team does is around providing free COVID-19 vaccines for the underserved, under-resourced communities in the East Bay,” she said in an interview. “Within the last three to six months, there have been so many changes in the CDC. There have been a lot of changes to eligibility and who can get the vaccines.”
She explained that Asian Health Services’ partnership and grants from the Alameda County Department of Public Health has supported the organization’s ongoing work. However, uncertainty around federal healthcare funding has prompted the organization to try and strengthen ties with other local nonprofits and seek additional funding opportunities.
“We have been continuing to seek additional resources, additional grants and opportunities to prepare for when that COVID-19 vaccine grant is ending next year,” Nguyen said.
The next California Connects conference will be held in Los Angeles on October 15. Then it will head to Sacramento, Fresno, and other parts of southern California.
