New Team Assembled To Help The 1 In 5 Bay Area Families In Poverty

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)— Statistics show that one in five Bay Area families are living in poverty, but a new region-wide effort was launched Wednesday to work on bringing those numbers down.

United Way of the Bay Area Chief Community Involvement Officer, Lorne Needle, called the gathering to announce the "Bay Area Roadmap to Cut Poverty", an important moment and the first time this many leaders came together to addresses this key issue.

"If you're talking about cutting poverty it's an enormous task and no one organization can do it alone, no matter how good we are at what we do. It takes a collective approach and we're thinking about critical mass; if we get enough of the right leaders and we're all working together in the same direction, that's what gets the job done," said Needle.

First 5 Solano Executive Director Christina Arrostuto is on the steering committee and said the road map lays out exactly what needs to be done on a region-wide level.

"We're looking to build the workforce and the economy. We're looking to ensure that people get a good education, and we're looking to make sure that people's basic needs are met. Those are the springboards to moving out of poverty," she said.

Now that the roadmap group is assembled, it plans to begin by identifying and working on three public policies needed to help the estimated 440,000 Bay Area families currently living in poverty.

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