Blog Post #3

My community partner is Potrero Nuevo Farm. The major component about this organization is giving back. One of their main relationships are through the Half Moon Bay Catholic Workers which is an organization that helps bring peace, food, care to people in need. At Potrero Nuevo majority of the harvest that is grown is dedicated towards low income and homeless families that are involved through the Half Moon Bay Catholic Workers. They also have a service called U-Pick Club, which is more geared to middle class families since there is a fee but it allows a person to come pick their own produced by hand in bulk. This process allows residents to know exactly where their food is being distributed from.  This makes their interaction on a business and personal side.

Citizen participation can affect my community partner by the high demand. Since they are so connected through organizations as well as business stand point this allows for a high demand of customers to supply for.

Blog Post #2

There is tension between state and local government for many reasons. One of the main reasons is with authority of power. Authority is different depending on the state and how they want to disrupt power with the local government. This leads to something called the " State-Local Tug of War", meaning shifting of power between state and local government. State government has the ability to regulate finances, structure, service structure, personnel, functions and processes. Few states allow local governments to have any type of authority when it comes to those restrictions. The second main reason is regarding money. A lot of local governments depend on states for some form of income. About 40% of all funding from state governments is given to local government. With much of the income from state governments attended for social welfare, education, hospitals, public safety and many more for the state the local governments has very little power on deciding where to spend money. In many aspects state and local government remind me of a child getting allowance from their parents. While their parents give them money for them to spend it on things it is very limited on what exactly those things are. This builds tension on not having flexibility in what they can they spend their money on. This is what I believe is happening with state and local government. Is not having the flexibility to spend their money from state governments.

This tension might be healthy due to stability. Due to a relationship between state and local governments they are able to have funding for communities. Since tax payers are the ones providing that financial stability the reason for such restrictions on money allow people to know exactly where their money is intended for.

Blog Post #1

My first choice that I chose was Maple Street Shelter. They aroused to proved shelter for people around the Silicon Valley and San Francisco. It was started by two non-profit organizations such as InnVision the Way Home (founded 1973) and Shelter Network (founded 1987). This was a decision to help the local community in need by asking for donations and volunteer workers. 

I believe that local governments did not fulfill this because of financial cost. To be able to house multiple people, feed them and give them guidelines is very costly. They feel that they help by having opportunities like welfare and free health care, which none of these results in a rood over their heads. When doing research on how they are funded I came across "IVSN is funded through a combination of foundations, corporations, individuals, federal, state, and city grants. Approximately 60% of our annual budget is publicly funded, and 40% is privately funded." This shows how much control is given through community perspectives. When it comes to federal policies much of it comes from the privacy and security of the families. They are referred to the shelter by hospital, police departments and agencies that are fund ended federally. This controls the types of families that are allowed to know about this wonderful opportunity.