67
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
D. B. Abraham, S. D. Iyer (eds.), Promoting the Sustainable Development Goals in North American
Cities, Sustainable Development Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59173-1_6
How Local Communities Can Align
with United Nations’ Sustainable
Development Goals: A Santa Cruz
County Case Study
Susan Brutschy, Jennifer Anderson-Ochoa,
James Connery, and Donna R. Maurillo
6.1
Introduction
Now in its 25th year, Santa Cruz County has been
collecting data through the Community
Assessment Project (CAP) as part of its goal to
achieve wellbeing and equity for everyone. Prior
to the CAP, social data for the county were collected in a disaggregated way with little “crosspollination” across sectors and organizations.
When the CAP was formed and data began to be
collected and organized in a unified manner
throughout the county, it presented a significant
change to provide a more integrated snapshot of
local conditions. More recently, the County has
been moving the CAP toward local alignment
with the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable
Development Goals (SDG) established in
September 2015.
To help the County achieve wellbeing for all
its residents, the United Way of Santa Cruz
County (United Way) engaged Applied Survey
Research (ASR) as research partner. ASR, a
California-based social research organization,
has long recognized and shared the story of how
communities link their efforts to work collectively toward shared results. ASR has considered
the conditions required for communities to work
well in a participatory way, to better understand
disparities in outcomes, to determine the necessary steps to reduce achievement gaps, and to
increase equity in results.
In other words, what outcomes are being realized? What structures and commitments must be
in place? What capacity is required for continuous improvement of the ways to achieve desired
change? These questions help to position natural
integration with the SDGs, which in turn helps
communities achieve wellbeing for all.
In this chapter, we will explain the three conditions necessary for applying the international
goals of the SDGs locally: commitment to
wellbeing for all, population measures of
wellbeing, and ability to coordinate action
(Fig. 6.1). Then we will provide examples of
how Santa Cruz County is aligning those SDGs
to its goals by leveraging data from the
CAP. Finally, we will show how other communities can do the same.
When considering the three conditions necessary for localizing the SDGs, it is first essential to
commit to and work from a position of enabling
wellbeing and equity for all. Secondly, communities must link measures of individual and population wellbeing via social connectedness. The
third condition captures the ability to align and
coordinate action through results-based accountability (RBA) and collective impact models.
These approaches yield a great many choices that
communities can customize and connect to the
S. Brutschy (*) · J. Anderson-Ochoa · J. Connery
D. R. Maurillo
Applied Survey Research, Watsonville, CA, USA
e-mail: susan@appliedsurveyresearch.org
6
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
D. B. Abraham, S. D. Iyer (eds.), Promoting the Sustainable Development Goals in North American
Cities, Sustainable Development Goals Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59173-1_6
How Local Communities Can Align
with United Nations’ Sustainable
Development Goals: A Santa Cruz
County Case Study
Susan Brutschy, Jennifer Anderson-Ochoa,
James Connery, and Donna R. Maurillo
6.1
Introduction
Now in its 25th year, Santa Cruz County has been
collecting data through the Community
Assessment Project (CAP) as part of its goal to
achieve wellbeing and equity for everyone. Prior
to the CAP, social data for the county were collected in a disaggregated way with little “crosspollination” across sectors and organizations.
When the CAP was formed and data began to be
collected and organized in a unified manner
throughout the county, it presented a significant
change to provide a more integrated snapshot of
local conditions. More recently, the County has
been moving the CAP toward local alignment
with the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable
Development Goals (SDG) established in
September 2015.
To help the County achieve wellbeing for all
its residents, the United Way of Santa Cruz
County (United Way) engaged Applied Survey
Research (ASR) as research partner. ASR, a
California-based social research organization,
has long recognized and shared the story of how
communities link their efforts to work collectively toward shared results. ASR has considered
the conditions required for communities to work
well in a participatory way, to better understand
disparities in outcomes, to determine the necessary steps to reduce achievement gaps, and to
increase equity in results.
In other words, what outcomes are being realized? What structures and commitments must be
in place? What capacity is required for continuous improvement of the ways to achieve desired
change? These questions help to position natural
integration with the SDGs, which in turn helps
communities achieve wellbeing for all.
In this chapter, we will explain the three conditions necessary for applying the international
goals of the SDGs locally: commitment to
wellbeing for all, population measures of
wellbeing, and ability to coordinate action
(Fig. 6.1). Then we will provide examples of
how Santa Cruz County is aligning those SDGs
to its goals by leveraging data from the
CAP. Finally, we will show how other communities can do the same.
When considering the three conditions necessary for localizing the SDGs, it is first essential to
commit to and work from a position of enabling
wellbeing and equity for all. Secondly, communities must link measures of individual and population wellbeing via social connectedness. The
third condition captures the ability to align and
coordinate action through results-based accountability (RBA) and collective impact models.
These approaches yield a great many choices that
communities can customize and connect to the
S. Brutschy (*) · J. Anderson-Ochoa · J. Connery
D. R. Maurillo
Applied Survey Research, Watsonville, CA, USA
e-mail: susan@appliedsurveyresearch.org
6