OUR GOALS

ELIMINATE HOMELESSNESS

Ensure the availability of diverse and affordable housing, health, and supportive services for all low-income residents with the goal of preventing and eliminating homelessness throughout Alameda County in partnership with local jurisdictions.

Housing Affordability and Accessibility

STRATEGY 1. Support provision of affordable housing to prevent and end homelessness.

• Objective 1: Produce quality housing that is affordable and accessible to all low-income residents.
• Objective 2: Preserve existing affordable rental housing, interim housing, and emergency shelter inventory.
• Objective 3: Protect homeownership and other programs that help residents avoid displacement.

Supportive Services

STRATEGY 2. Increase the availability and accessibility of health and supportive services to meet the needs of residents at risk of or experiencing homelessness.

• Objective 1: Expand and maintain a “no wrong door” homelessness response system, developed in consultation with people with lived experience, to ensure equitable access to Housing First programs and services.
• Objective 2: Develop a continuum of deeply affordable and scattered site housing and subsidies – including services-enriched housing – that meets the health, behavioral health, and mobility needs of low-income residents, including seniors and people with disabilities.
• Objective 3: Ensure the availability of dignified, low-barrier crisis response resources and interim housing to reduce unsheltered homelessness.

Land Use

STRATEGY 3. Maximize efficient land use through progressive policies and programs.

• Objective 1: Remove unnecessary regulatory barriers that inhibit housing development.
• Objective 2: Promote affordable housing development, including on publicly-owned properties.
• Objective 3: Promote higher-density, mixed-use and infill development, including in transit corridors, and ensure an appropriate range of densities to maximize utilization of residentially zoned land.

Prevention

STRATEGY 4. Effectively and efficiently prevent homelessness for residents most at-risk across Alameda County.

• Objective 1: Address racial disparities in mainstream/upstream systems to prevent racially disproportionate inflow into homelessness.
• Objective 2: Focus resources for prevention on people most likely to lose their homes.
• Objective 3: Create a policy environment supporting homelessness prevention.

HEALTH FOR ALL

Assure health for all Alameda County residents with a focus on equitable access to preventive and supportive services for low-income residents.

Healthy Community

STRATEGY 1. Ensure that all Alameda County residents live in healthy communities.

• Objective 1: Promote practices, policies and collective advocacy to systematically promote health.
• Objective 2: Expand community-based health services for older adults and people with disabilities consistent with the World Health Organization (WHO) age-friendly community framework.
• Objective 3: Advance place-based approaches to health improvement that align with community need in the geographic areas of the County that have historically experienced the greatest disparities and health impacts.

Environmental Health

STRATEGY 2. Assure public health through effective environmental protection.

• Objective 1: Enhance programs that assure food safety for the public.
• Objective 2: Mitigate and eliminate the presence of environmental contaminants in communities.
• Objective 3: Assure compliance with health and safety standards in housing and businesses.

Integrated Health Care Safety Net

STRATEGY 3. Strengthen physical and behavioral health safety net services and supports for low-income and underserved populations.

• Objective 1: Assure access – including geographic, linguistic, and cultural access – to medical, dental, and behavioral health care and prevention services. 
• Objective 2: Promote housing and other connections to broader social safety net systems to improve health outcomes.
• Objective 3: Enhance the capacity and essential infrastructure of the health safety net system to sustainably support integrated services.

Community Readiness and Resilience

STRATEGY 4. Support community capacity, readiness, and resilience through rapid and effective incident response.

• Objective 1: Ensure effective communicable disease surveillance, control and prevention.
• Objective 2: Ensure appropriate, equitable, and high-quality emergency medical response throughout the County.
• Objective 3:  Prepare communities for emerging climate health impacts.

Data Sharing and Analytics

STRATEGY 5. Make data-informed decisions in the planning for health services and supports.

• Objective 1: Facilitate privacy-preserving cross-sector data exchange.
• Objective 2: Support the collection and use of disaggregated demographic data.
• Objective 3: Engage communities in developing priorities.

EMPLOYMENT FOR ALL

Deliver County services through a highly skilled, agile and responsive workforce and support full employment for Alameda County residents facing employment challenges.

Model Excellence

STRATEGY 1. Be a great place to work with a commitment to meeting the changing needs and interests of employees and the County.

• Objective 1: Create and implement best practices for recruitment, development, and retention.
• Objective 2: Promote employment policies, practices, and benefits that are responsive to changing conditions and needs.
• Objective 3: Create universal branding that promotes the County as an employer of choice.
• Objective 4: Advance diversity, equity, and inclusion as critical drivers for success.

Expand Opportunity

STRATEGY 2. Generate meaningful job opportunities for Alameda County residents facing employment challenges.

• Objective 1: Create and implement best practices for recruitment, development, and retention.
• Objective 2: Promote employment policies, practices and benefits that are responsive to changing conditions and needs.
• Objective 3: Advance diversity, equity and inclusion as critical drivers for success.
• Objective 4: Coordinate with Alameda County agencies/departments that provide workforce programming.

Prepare for the Future

STRATEGY 3. Foster entrepreneurship and innovation that leads to sustainable economic growth.

• Objective 1: Collaborate with public and private employers to identify best practices to prepare and develop employees.
• Objective 2: Support innovative incubators, promote small scale entrepreneurship efforts and support cooperatives to enhance job creation.
• Objective 3: Partner with educational programs or institutions of all types  to create an agile, job ready workforce.

ELIMINATE POVERTY & HUNGER

Apply an equity lens that is culturally and linguistically appropriate to reduce the impacts of poverty and hunger for all Alameda County residents.

Basic Needs

STRATEGY 1. Ensure eligible populations’ basic needs are met.

• Objective 1: Facilitate access to and retention of emergency shelters and safe stable housing.
• Objective 2: Expand enrollment, utilization, and retention of quality health care.
• Objective 3: Protect and secure the safety of foster youth, transition age youth, disabled and older adults.
• Objective 4: Provide support to the whole family to reduce intergenerational poverty.
• Objective 5: Support community readiness and resilience in response to and in preparation for natural disasters.

Access to Nutritional & Culturally Appropriate Food

STRATEGY 2. Provide access to equitable food systems.

• Objective 1: Expand access to public benefits for affordable nutritious food.
• Objective 2: Provide education for growing and sourcing food.
• Objective 3: Support food recovery programs in the community.
• Objective 4: Conduct regular assessments to understand the impact of interventions on food insecurity.

Underserved Populations

STRATEGY 3. Enhance the safety, well-being and resiliency of underserved populations including immigrants.

• Objective 1: Promote health, safety, and wellness with an emphasis on prevention and early access.
• Objective 2: Eliminate barriers and increase access to needed services and supports programs.
• Objective 3: Outreach and partner with community-based providers, advocates, policymakers and consumers.
• Objective 4: Advocate for polices that create gradual phase outs rather than sudden drops in public benefits.

Service Delivery

STRATEGY 4. Improve service delivery systems for the safety net.

• Objective 1: Invest in technology to be more efficient and agile in responding to ever-changing demands.
• Objective 2: Support a highly skilled workforce.
• Objective 3: Monitor the effectiveness of community-based organizations through the results-based accountability framework.
• Objective 4: Increase access to financial literacy programs and wealth-building strategies.
• Objective 5: Increase opportunities and access to secondary education.
• Objective 6: Support legislation to eliminate child poverty as it relates to the gig economy.

Workforce Development

STRATEGY 5. Increase access to employment opportunities and job training programs for displaced workers and underserved populations.

• Objective 1: Promote access to job training that leads to gainful employment and/or career advancement.
• Objective 2: Track the effectiveness of employment initiatives through job placement, retention and participant satisfaction.
• Objective 3: Partner with community colleges and vocational education schools to create pathways for on demand occupations.
• Objective 4: Provide rapid response and layoff aversion to assist employees impacted by layoff activities and companies undergoing downsizing.
• Objective 5: Encourage employers to adopt hiring practices that promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to afford equal access to job opportunities for underrepresented communities.

CRIME-FREE COUNTY

Implement equitable and transparent criminal justice strategies that eliminate racial disparities and lead to a crime free county through responsive and innovative community engagement.

Community Safety

STRATEGY 1. Provide equitable and effective crime reduction strategies.

• Objective 1: Promote strong and inclusive County-wide community engagement through safety education, awareness, and civic responsibility.
• Objective 2: Ensure a cross-jurisdictional and interagency approach to crime prevention programs.
• Objective 3: Ensure equity and data driven based access to the justice system services.
• Objective 4: Expand resources and services for prosecution and defense witnesses to encourage and support public participation in the criminal justice process.

Victim/Survivor Support

STRATEGY 2. Ensure victims/survivors of crime are treated with respect, dignity, empathy, and provided effective support.

• Objective 1: Uphold victims’/survivors’ rights and protections afforded by the criminal justice system.
• Objective 2: trauma-informed, culturally responsive, linguistically appropriate, and easily accessible.
• Objective 3: Implement public safety policies for victims/survivors that include options for a restorative justice process.
• Objective 4: Engage and build trust with the public on criminal justice issues and the community’s role in providing support and services.
• Objective 5: Leverage technology to strengthen support for victims/survivors.

Systems Impacted and Reentry Support

STRATEGY 3. Provide the systems impacted and reentry community with the opportunities to become contributing and productive members of the society, acknowledging that reentry begins on day-one.

• Objective 1: Eliminate re-entry barriers.
• Objective 2: Invest in wrap-around re-entry services that are trauma-informed, culturally responsive, linguistically appropriate, and easily accessible.
• Objective 3: Ensure a commitment to, among other things, housing, mentorship, family reunification, health and wellness, and employment.
• Objective 4: Leverage community partnerships, including public, private and nonprofit organizations, to support  the reentry community, centering those with lived experience, and leveraging county systems, such as Medi-Cal reform, to achieve optimal outcomes.
• Objective 5: Leverage technology to strengthen support for the systems impacted and reentry community.
• Objective 6: Ensure that system impacted individuals receive quality legal representation when they encounter the criminal legal system. 

Criminal Justice Strategies

STRATEGY 4. Eliminate mass incarceration through investment in evidenced-based community justice alternatives.

• Objective 1: Create early intervention opportunities through the development of and investment in a robust and comprehensive continuum of care system.
• Objective 2: Support criminal justice strategies that are rooted in research, best practices and support data-driven outcomes.
• Objective 3: Invest in promising prevention and intervention strategies for youth and young adults.
• Objective 4: Provide opportunities for successful reintegration of clients into the community.
• Objective 5: Incorporate progressive evidence based and quality assurance practices and protocols.
• Objective 6: Ensure compassionate accountability practices.

Juvenile Justice

STRATEGY 5. Break the inter-generational cycle of violence and incarceration.

• Objective 1: Actively engage and uplift youth to provide pathways to a safe, healthy and empowering future.
• Objective 2: Promote the rights of all young people to have a strong, inspired, transformational educational and/or vocational pathways.
• Objective 3: Develop intervention and prevention strategies that focus on reducing youth involvement in the juvenile justice system through robust and inclusive partnerships, including those with lived experience.
• Objective 4: Create and invest in diversion programs for youth who commit low level offenses, including first-time offenders, and those with special needs.
• Objective 5: Develop and invest in programs and services, including housing, specifically for the transition aged youth and young adult populations.
• Objective 6: Ensure juvenile facilities have therapeutic environments that support mental health, behavioral treatment, and provide educational and vocational opportunities.
• Objective 7: Prioritize families in the juvenile justice process by enhancing engagement, offering resources, and integrating their needs into decision making.
• Objective 8: Strengthen and expand the support network for youth involved in both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems to reduce recidivism and prevent deeper system involvement.
• Objective 9: Ensure high-quality reentry services and stable housing for youth transitioning from detention, with access to quality education, mental health care, employment, and family support to promote successful reintegration and reduce recidivism.

Emergency Management

STRATEGY 6. Deploy comprehensive and resilient emergency management system that strengthens the capacity to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from all types of emergencies.

• Objective 1: Promote a National Incident Management Systems (NIMS) compliant emergency management structure under the direction of Office of Emergency Services for all emergency responses.
• Objective 2: Promote interoperability and real-time data sharing across all platforms and systems for emergency responders, both day-to-day, as well as during large emergencies.
• Objective 3: Enhance the safety of emergency personnel and improve the overall response and recovery efforts through robust training in technical emergency management standards and operating procedures.
• Objective 4: Strengthen engagement and the coordination with the volunteer base of residents, community-based organizations, businesses, municipalities, state, and federal partners that can support response and recovery during major disasters and emergencies.
• Objective 5: Continue to identify and take advantage of technology to improve the emergency mass notification system to ensure it is accessible, inclusive, and reaches all community members.

ACCESSIBLE & INTEGRATED INFRASTRUCTURE

Implement smart, accessible and adaptive public infrastructure that enables the deployment of future technologies while optimizing the return on investments of existing infrastructure.

Accessibility & Mobility

STRATEGY 1. Provide accessible infrastructure that supports all modes of mobility.

• Objective 1: Encourage regional transit agencies to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of public transportation.
• Objective 2: Improve the accessibility of infrastructure for bicycle and pedestrian use.
• Objective 3: Develop infrastructure that supports access to county services from anywhere at anytime and on any device.
• Objective 4: Expand the accessibility of energy delivery infrastructure, including renewable energy, throughout the county.

Safety & Security

STRATEGY 2. Ensure infrastructure meets the highest safety and security standards.

• Objective 1: Provide ongoing safety and security improvements of infrastructure.
• Objective 2: Provide enhanced traffic and road safety enforcement programs.
• Objective 3: Implement security systems that ensure the safety of employees, customers and the community.
• Objective 4: Implement robust cybersecurity tools and measures to ensure the safety and security of information technology assets for all County entities.

Maintenance & Preservation

STRATEGY 3. Optimize the lifecycle of existing infrastructure through ongoing maintenance and preservation.

• Objective 1: Perform maintenance activities at levels that minimize deferred maintenance.
• Objective 2: Seek and implement new and effective maintenance tools and practices to maximize useful life.
• Objective 3: Preserve public infrastructure by eliminating vandalism and misuse.
• Objective 4: Ensure resilient IT infrastructure for continuous and reliable public services.

Smart Infrastructure

STRATEGY 4. Implement smart infrastructure.

• Objective 1: Implement cutting-edge technologies and innovative strategies to enhance and maximize operational efficiencies.
• Objective 2: Support remote access enabling technologies.
• Objective 3: Adopt intelligent building technologies that allow for efficient use resources.
• Objective 4: Support clean energy production and delivery strategies.

Adaptive Infrastructure

STRATEGY 5. Promote the development of infrastructure that enables future technology.

• Objective 1: Support infrastructure for the safe and rapid deployment of advanced technologies.
• Objective 2: Build infrastructures that are resilient and adaptable.
• Objective 3: Implement infrastructure for the deployment of advanced transportation systems.
• Objective 4:  Promote a dynamic organizational framework designed to seamlessly adapt to technological advancements.