REPORT TO COUNCIL
SUBJECT
Title
Accept the Community Equity Assessment and Findings on Community Access, Belonging, and Equity Gaps
Report
REPORT IN BRIEF
The Community Equity Assessment (CEA) is the City's first assessment of how residents experience City services, programs, amenities, and community life. The assessment establishes a baseline for understanding where the City is serving residents well and where opportunities exist to improve equitable access, inclusion, and belonging. The assessment examined barriers to accessing City services, residents' sense of connection and belonging, and differences in how residents experience City programs and services across neighborhoods and demographic groups. The findings are intended to help inform future planning, service delivery, and community engagement.
To complete the assessment, staff engaged 540 residents and community stakeholders through a statistically representative survey, demographic and geographic analysis, informational interviews, focus groups, community conversations, and public forums. The engagement process included residents who are often underrepresented in traditional public participation, including youth, older adults, people with disabilities, immigrants, lower-income residents, and residents whose primary language is not English.
Overall, the response was overwhelmingly positive. Residents described Sunnyvale as a safe, diverse, and welcoming community with high-quality parks, libraries, public safety services, and responsive local government. At the same time, the assessment identified opportunities to improve equitable access to City services and strengthen community connection for some residents, particularly residents living in ZIP codes 94085 and 94089, Latine residents, people with disabilities, immigrants, lower-income households, and residents without a bachelor's degree.
Based on these findings, the assessment identifies opportunities to improve access to City services, stren...
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