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.
On April 16, 2026, more than 240 residents, community leaders, nonprofit staff, health system representatives, government officials, youth advocates, and funders gathered at Centre Concord for a day-long working summit.
The day was intentionally designed not as a conference but as a working gathering, mixing people across roles and sectors, centering lived experience, and creating the conditions for honest dialogue and emerging action.
Supported by the Contra Costa Regional Health Foundation and convened by the CCT Stewardship Team. With special thanks to Roots & Wings and the Lesher Foundation.
Five Takeaways from the Summit
Center resident voice — for real
Residents are not just beneficiaries; they are experts, co-designers, and leaders. Solutions shaped by those most impacted are stronger, more durable, and more trusted.
Participants returned again and again to this truth: residents are not just beneficiaries or storytellers — they are experts, co-designers, researchers, and leaders. Examples throughout the day showed that solutions become stronger, more durable, and more trusted when those most impacted shape them directly. This is not a new idea; it is an unmet standard.
Move from dialogue to action
The appetite is real. Participants want clear pathways, practical next steps, and sustained follow-through — not just more conversation.
A repeated thread across every session: what are we going to do when we leave this room? Participants valued the space to connect, reflect, and build relationships and clearer pathways to practical next steps, sustained follow-through, and collective advocacy. The appetite for action is real and ready to be channeled.
Build a different way of being together
Safety, humility, grace, joy, language justice, willingness to have hard conversations. This is a culture shift, not just a project list.
Participants named a desired culture as much as a set of projects: safety, humility, accountability, grace, joy, language justice, accessibility, and willingness to have the hard conversations. Many named the need for spaces where difficult truths — about anti-Blackness, fear within immigrant communities, exclusion from systems — can be spoken and received without people being pushed away.
Trust is fragile — and foundational
Fear is real. Immigrant families are afraid. Communities of color still face exclusion. Trust-building must be intentional, visible, and sustained — not assumed.
There is real momentum in Contra Costa, and there is real fear. Immigrant families are afraid to access services. Communities of color describe systems that still shut them out. Youth are showing up with insight and energy and finding few structures ready to receive them. The day made clear: trust-building and power-sharing must be intentional, sustained, and visible — not assumed.
Shared priorities are already emerging
Resident leadership, youth power, democratized data, clean communities, civic engagement — connected threads, not isolated issues.
Several focus areas rose above the rest as ripe for collective action: resident leadership and civic engagement, youth power, democratizing data and community-led research, and building clean and healthy communities. These are not isolated topics — participants consistently connected them as parts of a larger, integrated effort.
Voices from the Room
“I arrived at the summit a little frazzled. Running late. Walking in rushed. Mind still moving too fast. And instead of entering into that energy, I walked straight into a mindfulness exercise with ocean sounds filling a room with 200+ human beings. Immediate nervous system reset. There was so much intentionality woven into the design: mixed seating across nonprofits, communities, systems, philanthropy, and business — and an emphasis on what David Gibbs called heart-working instead of networking, meaning relating human being to human being, not profession to profession.”
— Malena Data Ernani, Strategic Partnerships, El Tímpano
“What stood out wasn’t just the conversations — it was the voices leading them. Youth advocates showed up with clarity, confidence, and honesty. They weren’t waiting to be invited into the conversation — they were shaping it. And it shifted the entire room. We talk a lot about engagement, but this was something different. This is what it looks like when people are not just included — but truly heard and empowered.”
— Nicola Ifill-Fraser, Ed.D, MPH, Program Director, Full Circle of Choices
What Participants Are Calling For
Strengthen Resident Leadership and Civic Engagement
From teaching basic civic engagement to showing up at city council and town halls, from supporting county lobbying efforts to creating safe spaces for dialogue — participants want to build the civic infrastructure that connects people to power, not just services.
Support Youth Leadership Now
Youth brought clarity, honesty, and energy to the summit — and they are ready for more. Participants called for sustained investment in youth programs, more structured opportunities for young people to engage civic life, and pathways that connect youth insight directly to action.
Democratize Data and Reduce Extractive Practices
Community members are done being surveyed without follow-up. They want to help shape the questions, collect information, interpret findings, and receive results back in forms they can use. They also want stronger collaboration across organizations to share data in service of shared goals — not siloed missions.
Build Shared Infrastructure for Connection and Coordination
Participants called for practical connective tissue: ecosystem mapping, warm hand-offs between providers, resource fairs, days of service, and shared platforms. The relationships are there. The infrastructure to make them navigable and durable is still being built.
Advance Clean, Healthy, Resilient Communities
From clean parks and safe sidewalks to tree planting, cooling centers, air purifiers, mold remediation, and emergency preparedness — a wide range of tangible priorities. Participants also called for stronger accountability for environmental harms from corporations and refineries, especially in East and West County.
What Comes Next
The summit was a beginning, not a conclusion. The CCT Stewardship Team, a cross-sector group of leaders stewarding this network, is moving forward on five immediate priorities:
- Designing follow-on convenings and working sessions that translate the summit’s themes and energy into ongoing, coordinated action
- Amplifying participation in the Community Health Assessment to ensure diverse resident voices shape county-wide priorities
- Refining the CCT Charter and proposing an actionable path forward for the network’s next phase
- Updating this Contra Costa Together platform to include the resources, themes, and connections generated at the summit
- Reimagining Early Childhood in Contra Costa: Phase Zero: Designing the Foundation for Contra Costa’s Prenatal to 5 Initiative, a cross-sector effort aligned with Contra Costa Together
Materials from the Day
