History of ALL IN

In January 2014, on the 50th Anniversary of President Johnson’s War on Poverty, Alameda County Supervisor Wilma Chan launched the New War on Poverty. The Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution in support, creating ALL IN Alameda County (ALL IN) to lead this effort. In 2018, ALL IN merged with the Interagency Children’s Policy Council and transitioned from a community collaborative within the Board of Supervisors, District 3 office to a business unit within the County Administrator’s Office. In 2022, the Board of Supervisors relocated ALL IN to the Social Services Agency, Government and Community Relations Department.

ALL IN has worked tirelessly to build close relationships with community organizations and residents throughout Alameda County. We have actively engaged community organizations and leaders to inform our work. We are seen countywide as neutral conveners and actively sought by collaboratives to support and participate in convenings and build consensus around challenging issues affecting low-income communities of color. We seek to build power and self-sufficiency in the communities we work with through capacity building strategies such as connecting organizations to each other and to resources and information throughout the County. Since 2019, ALL IN’s work has applied an intersectional lens to anti-poverty strategies, exploring upstream and mid-stream approaches to develop programs in our three focus areas.  We have successfully established time-bound initiatives with sustainability in mind, transitioning those programs to internal and external partners as appropriate.  We recognize that ALL IN is not positioned to implement programs in perpetuity due to our small staff and limited budget.  With that we have learned to be nimble problem solvers that leverage existing resources and flexible funding to launch innovative programming. Our experience in working with community and across a variety of programmatic areas have afforded us the opportunity to inform policy and systems change efforts at the local, state, and Federal levels of government.

Governance Structure

ALL IN Alameda County (ALL IN) is governed by a steering committee chaired by two Supervisors. The Steering Committee includes residents, government agencies, nonprofits, and business organizations. Members of the Steering Committee are appointed by the Alameda County Board of Supervisors. The Steering Committee is a space to generate ideas, share best practices, build consensus, and work across sectors to address issues of poverty and provide direction for community partners. ALL IN’s staff receives guidance from the members and direction from the chair and member of the Steering Committee. The Steering Committee chairman may take policy issues to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors for consideration.

ALL IN is administratively located in the Alameda County Social Services Agency, Government and Community Relations Department.

Strategies and Partnerships

In keeping with ALL IN’s mission to lead, innovate, and collaborate across public, private, and community sectors to catalyze equitable policy and systems change, we have prioritized the following work for the next three years. ALL IN’s ultimate goal, seen at the top of the 2021-2024 Strategic Priorities pyramid, is to catalyze the systems change required to address the root causes of poverty. We do this through innovative programming. However, ALL IN will not be able to achieve these higher-order priorities unless we have clarity on our roles and work from a strong, sustainable foundation.

ALL IN works in close collaborations with County agencies, departments, the Board of Supervisors and community organizations to execute its programming from issue identification through sustainability and systems change. Through our Programming Pathways model, there is always room for iteration and always a plan for sustainability and continuity of the work.

ALL IN’s Advisory Board Members

We would like to particularly thank ALL IN’s Advisory Board members, who helped launch our initiative and shape its work in 2014:

• James Paxson, General Manager, Hacienda Business Park
• Janis Burger, Former CEO, First 5 Alameda County
• Josie Camacho, Former Executive Secretary-Treasurer, Alameda Labor Council
• Kai Mander, Former Principal Analyst, Alameda County Administrator’s Office
• Lori Cox, Director, Alameda County Social Services Agency
• Lorne Needle, Former Chief Community Investment Officer, United Way of the Bay Area
• Mark Friedman, Former CEO, Thomas J. Long Foundation*
• Mauricio Lim Miller, President and CEO, Family Independence Initiative
• Dr. Muntu Davis, Former Director, Alameda County Public Health Department
• Sean Reardon, Professor, Stanford University School of Education
• Susan True, Former Director of Education Strategy and Ventures, Rainin Foundation
• Suzan Bateson, Executive Director, Alameda County Community Food Bank

*The Thomas J. Long Foundation allocated its final funds in 2018