Silicon Valley is one of the most affluent areas in the United States, yet poverty runs deeper than one may think. In Santa Clara County, nearly 22% of our population cannot afford basic necessities each month without financial assistance. With the current economic recession, that number is quickly growing as more middle-class families are forced into poverty. Too many residents of Santa Clara struggle with the high costs of housing, transportation, and health care. Our community has a clear need for more jobs paying livable wages that enable people to build assets and savings for their children’s education, home ownership, and retirement. Children of families in poverty struggle in school, with many dropping out. Those who persist through high school often never make it through college. This is how the seeds are planted for the next generation of poverty.
In response to the growing social and moral crisis of poverty, Catholic Charities USA launched a national campaign in January 2007 to reduce poverty in the U.S. by 50% by the year 2020. Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County launched the local chapter of this campaign by convening a meeting of representatives of local Santa Clara non-profits, social service agencies, businesses, faith-based organizations, and government to discuss how to cut local poverty in half by 2020. As a result, we created Step Up Silicon Valley; a Campaign to Cut Poverty in Santa Clara County.