One Degree Launches Social Service Platform in Contra Costa County
Richmond, CA (February 26, 2016) — Low-income families throughout Contra Costa will now be able to quickly find life-saving social services, such as affordable housing, employment services, health clinics, and more with One Degree’s announcement of its expansion to the East Bay region. One Degree (www.1deg.org), a technology-driven nonprofit organization that helps low-income and at-risk people access social services, shared its plans to rapidly expand to the entire Bay Area, starting with Contra Costa County. Currently available in San Francisco and Alameda counties, One Degree has pledged to serve all 1.3 million families living in poverty in the Bay Area by 2017.
“We’ve demonstrated that the One Degree model works in San Francisco and Alameda counties. Now we’ll be supporting the diverse Contra Costa community and its more than 200,000 people in need,” said Rey Faustino, CEO and founder of One Degree. “We’ve built a scalable platform that thousands of people already rely on. Contra Costa residents also deserve easy access to their community resources, which is why we’ve worked to quickly expand there.”
Nearly one in five people live below the poverty line in Contra Costa County. Living in the third most populous county in the Bay Area, Contra Costa’s 1.1 million residents across three major metro areas of Richmond, Concord, and Antioch, struggle to find the right resources within the over 7,000 nonprofit and social services in the region.
“One Degree is very exciting and refreshing, and it’s something that is definitely lacking in Contra Costa County,” said Dr. Edwina Perez-Santiago, co-founder of Reach International Fellowship, a re-entry program for formerly incarcerated women. “The idea of a woman being able to find anything from housing to food and job training in one place is definitely something really needed in Contra Costa, where we have women from many diverse backgrounds that need all kinds of resources at any given time. One Degree gives people access to a broad spectrum of services in one place.”
“Our mission has always been to provide access to life-saving resources to anyone, anywhere, anytime,” said Rey Faustino. “Families have begun to rely on One Degree to find and access resources of all kinds in San Francisco and Alameda counties. But we believe everyone deserves this kind of easy access to critical services. Now is the time to expand our reach to the entire Bay Area and beyond.”
One Degree is an online access point for nonprofit and governmental services. Thousands of people rely on One Degree to get information about and access to a comprehensive range of services, including housing, health care, legal services, food, employment services, educational programs, and much more. One Degree is aggressively pursuing plans to grow its Bay Area presence, and will begin its expansion to the Peninsula and the South Bay in the coming months.
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About One Degree:
One Degree is a nonprofit technology-driven organization that is revolutionizing the way families striving to improve their lives — and the people who support them — access community resources. One Degree’s platform, available on Web and mobile devices, makes it easy for people to access, manage, and review nonprofit and government services. Thousands of people in the Bay Area rely on One Degree’s core product (www.1deg.org) to access health care, food banks, employment services, and much more. Through OneHomeBayArea.org, One Degree is working to ensure every family has a safe and stable home by making it easy to find and apply for affordable housing. One Degree is supported by Tipping Point Foundation, Y Combinator, and Google.org. Learn more at www.1deg.org.
CONTACT: Rey Faustino, CEO & Founder, One Degree, 888–799–7273
