Santa Clara County Board President Susan Ellenberg to Present “State of the County”
January 31, 2023 at 12:00 PM
SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CALIF.—Santa Clara Board of Supervisors President Susan Ellenberg will present her ‘State of the County’ address in Council Chambers at 70 West Hedding Street this evening at 5:15pm.
The theme of the State of the County address is ‘Building Together’ and recognizing the need for the State, the County, and all towns and cities – as well as nonprofits and businesses - to collaborate with one another to make big, necessary changes that will act in the greater good of the community.
Among the changes is to make childcare in the region more affordable and accessible.
“Childcare is not simply an individual parent’s challenge,” said President Ellenberg. “It is a community-wide concern and funding it as such will serve the public good. Early investments in childhood are anti-poverty, pro-employment, and transform the economic, social and communal wellbeing landscape. When affordable, high-quality childcare is unavailable, local economies are suppressed, there is less consumer spending, lower professional productivity, and greater poverty.”
The State of the County will share the progress Santa Clara County has made in critical areas, including the creation of affordable housing, addressing the root causes of homelessness, building out behavioral and mental health workforce and infrastructure and adding transparency to government.
Supervisor Ellenberg will also share that the County of Santa Clara, which began in-person Board meetings earlier this month with a hybrid component, will extend the hybrid meeting model to all five Board policy committee meetings. The address will share an update of the Heading Home campaign launched by Supervisors Ellenberg and Chavez in early 2022 (approved in October 2021) which, in its first year, has connected more than 500 families to housing and cut the time from referral to housing from 45 days to 11. As of October 2022, the program has housed 937 children and their families.
The State of the County will begin with a ceremonial swearing-in by Judge Erica Yew, a student from the College of Adaptive Arts will lead the Pledge of Allegiance and Corina Loera-Herrera and Gerardo Loera will perform a Land Acknowledgement ceremony. The Lincoln High School Orchestra will be performing, and a student art exhibit called ‘Stories of Hope and Healing’ - from the SCCOE Alternative Education Department, Silicon Valley Creates and ArtHouse Studio – is on display in the breezeway. Mosaic America will also perform a dance, and light food will be provided by Zanotto’s Markets.
The event begins at 5:15pm on January 31. Free in-person tickets can be found at Eventbrite and the State of the County will also be streaming live on the Santa Clara County YouTube channel.
ABOUT THE COUNTY OF SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA
The County of Santa Clara government serves a diverse, multi-cultural population of 1.9 million residents in Santa Clara County, California, making it more populous than 14 states in the U.S. The County provides essential services to its residents, including public health protection, environmental stewardship, medical services through the County of Santa Clara Health System, child and adult protection services, homelessness prevention and solutions, roads, park services, libraries, emergency response to disasters, protection of minority communities and those under threat, access to a fair criminal justice system, and many other public benefits.
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