CONTRA COSTA TOGETHER
Contra Costa Together aims to create a place where all people belong and thrive. We are united in our collective power to respond to the present and reimagine the future.
Contra Costa Together is a growing network of residents, community-based organizations, systems partners, and funders coming together to help build a county where all people belong and thrive. In a time that calls for both courage and imagination, we are strengthening relationships, growing shared power, and reimagining what becomes possible when we move together.
2026 SUMMIT
Reimagining What's Possible Together
Building on the momentum of last year’s gathering—and the shared work that has unfolded since—the Contra Costa Together network has continued to gather to listen, plan, and act.
The Contra Costa Together 2026 Summit will gather community-based organizations, residents, and systems to strengthen relationships and our collective ability to engage, collaborate, and take action to advance the Vital Conditions that allow ALL people and communities to flourish.
We believe in the wisdom of our region. We believe that our communities know what they need – and are demonstrating resilience every day. We believe we are stronger together. When we listen to and learn from each other, we can do more than we ever could alone.
“No matter what our skin color is, what our economic background is, or any of that, right? Let’s start bridging that and building people together and saying, ‘I see your struggle, and I’m also going to be right there with you.'”
-Marivel Mendoza
“We all have the same intention, but we have different outlooks. We have different experiences. We have different learning styles. We have different leadership styles. And so being able to be in a space even at a table where we could really just sit and listen and co-create—just magic, it was beautiful.”
-Claunesha Williams
Reimagining How Contra Costa Supports Children and Families
Families in Contra Costa are navigating fragmented systems, falling through structural gaps, and facing conditions that were never designed with them in mind. Too often, support is hard to find, hard to trust, and hard to piece together across systems.
A cross-sector planning team has launched Phase Zero, a human-centered design process focused on strengthening the systems of care that shape children’s earliest years.
Now is the time to come together to bridge, heal, and build a better future!
Featured Resources
Communities Rising: Thriving Together in a Divided World
Who Belongs? EP 36 – Developing a Shared Vocabulary: Introduction to Othering, Bridging, and Belonging
Facilitating Social Transformation Through Self and Collective Healing: A Collection of Insights, Resources, and Practices
MOMENTUM
Contra Costa Funders Forum
Presented to the Contra Costa Funders Forum, this slide deck provides an overview of Contra Costa Together and the work underway to build greater connection, alignment, and shared action across Contra Costa County. It reflects the momentum toward a more collaborative approach to helping all people and places thrive.
Download the Slides
“These times can be paralyzing, or they can spark innovation and new partnerships. We are seeing some of that in this community, of communities rising to the occasion to really think about some new ways of working together. And that’s what we’re starting to see here, in Contra Costa, with Contra Costa Together, in a relatively short period of time, and with modest resources. We see an enormous appetite for doing this work in some new ways.”
These organizations and teams have played a key role in stewarding Contra Costa Together,
offering backbone support that helps connect partners, coordinate efforts, and grow this emerging network.
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