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California Connects: Finding common ground
In a new statewide effort to strengthen partnerships between government agencies and grassroots organizations, the Office of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communications (OCPSC) launched the first of a series of networking events on October 8 in San Francisco. The day-long convening at The Hyatt Regency – the first of eight statewide – brought together community-based organizations, state agencies, local leaders, and philanthropic partners from across the Bay Area for hands-on workshops, skill-building, and direct connections to resources and funding opportunities.
The regional convenings, called California Connects, will also travel to Los Angeles, Anaheim, Sacramento, Riverside, Oxnard, San Diego, and end on November 18 in Fresno.
Over 100 people representing more than 90 local community organizations, nonprofits, and government agencies attended the event at the Hyatt Regency.
The convenings are spearheaded by GO-Serve – The Governor’s Office of Service and Community Engagement — an effort that began in 2024 to unify programs to promote paid and volunteer services, youth and community engagement, and to create awareness about outreach campaigns. GO-Serve includes the OCPSC, California Volunteers, and the Youth Empowerment Commission.
“This is the first time that the Office of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communications [OCPSC] is housed within the Governor’s Office of Service and Community Engagement [GO-Serve]. And this is the first time that we’re bringing all of our partners together,” Aubrie Fong, OCPSC acting executive director, said in an interview with India Currents. She said this was the first time that local partners of all three agencies – the OCPSC, California Volunteers, and the Youth Empowerment Commission – were convening together, creating an opportunity for state agencies to improve collaboration efforts.
“Resources are becoming more and more scarce for organizations…Today is about building relationships, regional collaboration, and hopefully connecting them with some great state resources,” Fong said.
Addressing the audience, Fong highlighted that members present at the convening serve a highly diverse and vulnerable population in the state; over 70 percent of attendee organizations serve the youth, services are offered in 50 languages, and over half the groups present serve households with limited English proficiency, immigrants, refugees, older adults, and LGBTQ+ communities.
Communities are disconnecting, isolating
“In a time when people can feel not just divided and polarized in our politics, but can feel disconnected in their communities… we have to think about how we connect civil society differently,” said Josh Fryday, GO-Serve director and California Chief Service Officer.
Extolling the value of grassroots organizations and their services, Fryday said the goal of GO-Serve was to get more state resources to communities into the hands of people. “You can’t engage people when you’re in silos, when we’re all in our own lane in our own little world in our own community… we have to acknowledge that we are living in a different moment right now,” he said.
He hoped the presentations and training at the convening would give attendees ways to access new resources for the organizations and communities they serve, help generate new ideas and solutions, and form new collaborations.
Acknowledging the collective grassroots “brain trust” in the audience, keynote speaker State Senator Scott Wiener (District 11) of San Francisco, and Chair of the Senate Budget Committee, said, “Ultimately, everything has to be organized and executed at the local level… that’s who people trust in their community…You’re the folks who are on the grounds who actually know the community best and what the community needs.”
He spotlighted the urgent need to rebuild the “social infrastructure” that he said has been eroding in recent years. “People…who don’t know their neighbors as well, aren’t as involved in local community organizations, or spend way too much time online, and that’s not just young people, that is older people as well. People become super disconnected, and sometimes can become propagandized and even brainwashed in some respects. And that is so deeply unhealthy for society,” he said.
Political science professor Amy Lerman is executive director of the Possibility Lab at UC Berkeley, a recent effort that aims to bridge the gap between communities and public policies. The lab also partners with the state government’s Youth Empowerment Commission. In an interview with India Currents, she urged people to look beyond the comfort of their communities to partner with “unusual allies.”
“It’s not enough anymore just to talk to the people in your own community or who look like you, think like you,” said Lerman. “We’ve become so siloed in terms of the communities that we talk to. Find somebody who is really an unlikely ally and find the things you have in common. There are so many things that we have in common, so many more than the things that we feel divide us,” she said.
Building youth resources
Nearly 70 percent of the attendee organizations at the convening serve the youth, many of whom, like Berkeley’s Possibility Lab, work in partnership with state agencies.
Besides the Youth Empowerment Commission, the convening also highlighted the California Men’s Service Challenge, a state-funded GO-Serve initiative that helps young men and boys serve as community mentors, coaches, and tutors through the California Service Corps. The $5 million state investment follows Governor Gavin Newsom’s recent executive order to address rising mental health challenges among young men and boys– including high suicide rates, declining college admissions, and social isolation.
For state resources, volunteer and paid service opportunities, and funding opportunities, visit:
California Grants Portal ( California State Library project)
GO-Serve (Governor’s Office of Service and Community Engagement)
OCPSC (The Office of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communications)
California Men’s Service Challenge
Youth Empowerment Commission
California Volunteers
This article was produced as part of the American Community Media (ACoM) California Connects – San Francisco Regional Fellowship.
