Our Long Range Plan and Vision for the Future
Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County is embarking on a five-year strategic initiative, Footsteps: Pathways to Self- Sufficiency, to more effectively lead families out of poverty long-term by harnessing the agency’s united expertise and experience.
The initiative will engage and connect through Catholic Charities existing programs and expand our staff and community partnerships.
Started in Gilroy in early 2022, Footsteps is a highly strategic, hyper-local approach that will change the trajectory not only of the lives of families, but also empower entire communities and upend the model for Catholic Charities operations and expansion into the future.
The Footsteps initiative emerged from an intensive assessment of current poverty levels in Santa Clara County; and based on this data, we are developing a strategic approach to what tools families need to overcome barriers to self-sufficiency.
“The challenges facing someone in poverty are not onedimensional— it’s not just about food or housing or a job or education or healthcare. It’s a combination of all those things and the approach to addressing it is often unique to each individual or family.
“Hence we need to take a client-centric approach where we optimize on helping to achieve the client’s success rather than the service-centric approach that dominates our industry,” said Catholic Charities Board President Paul Sanchirico, who led the agency’s Strategic Long-Range Plan for 2021–2024.
The strategic plan informed and provided the foundation for Catholic Charities’ Footsteps initiative. Through Footsteps, we will scale the impact of the model through data-informed advocacy, an integrated technology platform to support clients, expanded sites, and operational efficacy improvement. Over the next five years, we plan to reach 9,250 families in 18 neighborhoods starting with 250 in each neighborhood each year.
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