San Jose and Santa Clara County officials announced steps to scale a coordinated Children and Youth Master Plan, describing neighborhood pilots, shared funding and a newly approved referral to expand demonstration sites.

Councilmember Peter Ortiz, chair of the City of San Jose committee, opened the joint session by urging interagency coordination: “When government works together, our children are allowed to thrive,” he said. The meeting brought city staff, county supervisors and community partners to review implementation of a “no wrong door” model that routes families to coordinated services.

Israel Kanhura, recreation superintendent leading implementation, outlined the master plan’s seven priority areas — including early learning, health, housing access, youth intervention and pathways to work — and identified two demonstration site pairs: Mayfair/Pokeway and Santee/7 Trees. He told the joint body that the city and county each provided $1,000,000 to begin the pilots.

Community partners described neighborhood-level operations. Veronica Gohi, executive director of Guerrilla Family Services, and Saul Ramos of Somos Mayfair said the Mayfair/Pokeway pilot will use trusted local partners, navigators and co‑located caseworkers to test intake, referrals and case management intended to reach roughly 100 families in the first phase. Presenters said the city‑owned Capitol Park Neighborhood Center is planned as a colocation hub and that contract negotiations are underway with a target move‑in in early March.

Speakers emphasized evaluation and shared data systems. Presenters and staff described a measurement approach that tracks “warm handoffs” from referral to successful outcomes and uses Salesforce and the city’s referral platform to align partner reporting. City deputy director Olympia Williams said the evaluation plan is being finalized and philanthropic partners have offered to fund evaluation infrastructure.

After staff and partner presentations, Supervisor Sylvia Arenas moved a referral directing staff to expand pilot site options, develop standardized applications for sites, provide bimonthly verbal reports to committees and produce jurisdiction‑level Latino health action plans. The motion was seconded and approved on a verbal roll call (Campos: yes; Candelas: yes; Cohen: aye; Duan: aye; Ortiz: aye).

The joint committees asked staff to prioritize resolving data‑sharing and confidentiality hurdles before scaling the model citywide, to align city and county outcome frameworks, and to pursue sustainable funding (including Medi‑Cal eligibility where feasible and private philanthropic support). Councilmember Pamela Campos amended her memo to include an annual joint City–County meeting and alignment of data and evaluation outcomes.

The committees directed staff to return with implementation options, updated work plans and timeline recommendations; no legislative ordinance or binding contract was adopted during the meeting.