On September 29, ACF hosted a virtual “Insights & Impact” event to share highlights from its community assessment efforts this past year. Thanks to our Event Sponsor, Disneyland Resort and Evaluation Sponsor, Samueli Foundation.

The event led with a video celebrating a year of community impact.

ACF Executive Director, John Guastaferro and ACF Board Chair, Kim Chips shared an overview of its community impact, and results of surveys with community organizations, clients/individuals, and stakeholder focus groups.

ACF also shared results from its Rapid Response & Recovery Grant Program. Thanks to $4 million from the City of Anaheim, ACF partnered with 76 nonprofit organizations to provide over 3.4 million meals, 22,000 support and consulting services, and numerous other vital services.

Beyond pandemic efforts, ACF shared data from its comprehensive assessment surveys with 100 community organizations and over 2,000 clients receiving services. 

You can read through the highlights in the slide deck here.

What are some of the key takeaways?  

  1. We learned that community-based organizations in Anaheim were incredibly nimble and agile in adapting their service models to meet the new challenges presented by the pandemic, to address what their clients needed the most at that point in time;
  2. We saw collaborations across sectors and organizations like we had never seen before in Anaheim—and it was highly effective.  In fact, one of the positive things that came out of this very trying time was finding a way for us all to work better together for the well-being of our community;
  3. Community-based organizations would not have been able to do all the good they were able to do during this timeframe without additional sources of funding, from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors;
  4. There is a real concern about what will happen when these additional sources of funding go away.  Organizations are worried that they may have to scale back the services they have been providing to their clients, despite the ongoing need.

What’s next?

Moving forward, it will be crucial that we ALL continue to collaborate – not in response to crisis – but in a proactive intentional way. To foster continued dialogue and cross-sector collaboration throughout Anaheim, ACF will be announcing Action Planning Groups in the coming months. We look forward to your involvement.

Download Slide Deck