The San Mateo County Community Collaboration for Children’s Success (CCCS) initiative is a multi-agency effort that includes the County’s Health System, Human Services Agency, Juvenile Probation, District Attorney, Public Defender, Office of Education, First 5 Commission, and nonprofit organizations that with countywide. The initiative works to ensure that all children and youth in San Mateo County are happy, healthy, and successful by focusing on children and youth who are seen as “falling through the cracks” of existing support networks and resources. CCCS focuses on four neighborhoods (specific areas within North Fair Oaks/Redwood City, South San Francisco, East Palo Alto, and Daly City) identified by the high levels of need and “planning readiness” (identified by the County based on existing youth-serving organizations). 

Raimi + Associates (in partnership with ChangeLab Solutions) was chosen to facilitate this comprehensive participatory, trauma-informed, and place-based needs assessment and community planning process. We used a participatory process to develop the neighborhood-specific actions plans. In each of the four neighborhoods, we 1) hired, trained, and supported 10-16 CCCS Champions in using data collection tools and 2) designed and facilitated 5 Neighborhood Leadership Group meetings (with 45-90 individuals representing 20-40 organizations or agencies participating in each). We successfully gathered input from approximately 1,150 youth, parents, and caregivers through online and paper community surveys, Tell Us sessions (small group conversations), and Dream Walls (interactive posters with prompts). Tell Us sessions were conducted in both English and Spanish. All surveys and Dream Walls used the most common languages for each neighborhood (English and Spanish for all neighborhoods with Tagalog and Chinese included for South San Francisco and Daly City). We also designed and facilitated 4 Countywide Steering Committee meetings with representatives of 26 County agencies and nonprofit organizations. Community members and stakeholders reviewed local secondary data and primary data findings, identified key issues, goals, priority strategies, and outcomes. Neighborhood-specific data and community input were used to identify data- and community-supported strategies that align with and build on existing efforts and community strengths and that address barriers, gaps, and opportunities for children and youth. At the end of the planning process, each neighborhood developed an action plan that outlines prioritized policy, programmatic, and systems changes that will make opportunities and experiences more equitable for the children, youth, and families in each of the neighborhoods.