Hosts: Nicole Young & Nicole Lezin
Co-hosted by: Human Care Alliance and Nonprofit Connection Santa Cruz County
Featuring: Marcus Pimentel, Santa Cruz County Budget Manager, and Sven Stafford, Principal Administrative Analyst
Interpreter: Stella Lauerman
Bilingual meeting support: Gisella Carrasco
Language: English, with simultaneous Spanish interpretation
In our CORE training and technical assistance, we often talk about budgets as stories that happen to use numbers instead of words to convey our vision, values, and priorities. Whether they’re budgets for a small grant or an entire County or nation, the stories they tell are important, yet often created in a way that makes sense to accountants but may leave the rest of us wondering:
What story does our County’s budget tell?
How does it align with the County’s strategic and operational plans?
What’s the process and timeline for how the budget is crafted?
Where are the opportunities for community input?
What tools and resources are available to learn more about the budget contents and process?
How can we be effective advocates and partners alongside local government throughout the budget cycle?
If you want to explore these and other questions, attend this CORE Coffee Chat to hear an overview of the County budget process, its relationship to the strategic and operational plans, opportunities for community input, and the County’s new online budget tool. Participants will have a chance to ask questions, provide feedback on the County’s budget tool, and engage in small group discussions.
By the end of the session, we hope everyone (including us!) will identify at least one action to take to continue learning about this important process, share information with others, and engage in the County’s budget cycle in new ways in the future.
Missed the Event?
See the recap videos and materials in our resources!