San Mateo County, CA

Championing Access in Emergency Response

California’s San Mateo County has grappled with a relentless series of climate and public safety emergencies in recent years.

The county’s significant linguistic diversity – one in three residents was born outside the U.S. and nearly half speak one of 100-plus languages other than English at home – has helped it hone a multilingual, inclusive approach to emergency response, part of its long-term commitment to welcoming.  

In August 2020, the CZU Lightening Complex fires, fueled by drought and high winds, burned through 86,500 acres of land across San Mateo and neighboring Santa Cruz counties, destroying more than 1,500 structures and prompting mandatory evacuations in several linguistically diverse communities. December 2022 and January 2023 brought large winter storms and unprecedented amounts of rain, prompting flooding and roadway wash-outs across the county, including vulnerable mobile home communities with many Latino residents. And in January 2023, an additional tragedy – the Half Moon Bay mass shooting at two farms– claimed the lives of seven people, many of whom were Chinese and Latino seasonal farmworkers.

“We’ve had it all, and back-to-back, and we’ve used the same methodology to respond – an inclusive approach based in grassroots communication,” said Emma Gonzalez,  Chief and Director of San Mateo County’s Executive Office of Community Affairs (OCA).  

Fortunately, the County has had a solid foundation on which to build an inclusive response to these emergency situations. The OCA, which serves as a liaison between County departments and community members to facilitate information sharing, community feedback, and access to services, launched a dedicated immigrant services program in 2017, including legal services, resource sharing and community engagement efforts.  

And in 2020, recognizing an ongoing need to support local newcomer communities, San Mateo County participated in Gateways for Growth (G4G), which provided research and technical assistance from Welcoming America and the American Immigration Council (formerly New American Economy) to facilitate long-term planning around immigrant inclusion across all levels of local government – including emergency management and more. 

The OCA has led efforts to advance community resilience by institutionalizing county-wide commitments to language access, welcoming newcomers, and promoting tolerance and belonging – all positioning San Mateo County to respond to future climate and demographic changes with capacity and resilience. 

“Previously impacted communities may be impacted again,” said Megan Gosch, management analyst with OCA. “Whether it's a storm, fire, or an earthquake – we want to make sure everyone is ready.” 

“Previously impacted communities may be impacted again. Whether it’s a storm, fire, or an earthquake – we want to make sure everyone is ready.”
— Megan Gosch, management analyst with OCA

Building Resilience & Preparation   

In winter 2023, a year after floods devastated the region, the Department of Emergency Management and OCA hosted winter storm preparation events in impacted communities. County and community partners collaborated to distribute emergency kits, including food, dried goods, flashlights, and blankets.

“We spent the entire day walking through the community, helping residents build emergency scenarios – like ‘this is where you’d go, this is where to get sandbags, this is the shelter place,’” said Gonzalez. “We’re setting expectations, so that impacted communities will understand the process.”

The OCA also provides ongoing case management in several communities impacted by recent emergencies. After flooding devastated a mobile home park in an unincorporated area, many Latino and newcomer residents lost possessions, food supplies, or their entire home. Research suggests that mobile homes are particularly vulnerable to flooding: 1 in 7 are located in high flood risk Census tracts, versus 1 in 10 for other types of housing.   

A bilingual staff member was assigned to support impacted residents, ensuring they had a single point of contact in navigating next steps.   

“The dedicated staff member helped residents fill out FEMA forms, and drove them to the FEMA office,” explained Gonzalez. “The result was $20,000 to $40,000 in relief funds for each resident, who otherwise may have not filed the paperwork because they didn’t understand the process or were reluctant to apply.”

County leaders maintain close relationships with local community organizations, including Rebuilding Together, a nonprofit that provides repair services for low-income homeowners in San Mateo County and other California communities. Via this partnership, qualified mobile homeowners were able to access no-cost repairs to windows, electrical connections, water lines and more, ensuring the ongoing safety of their homes – and resilience in future climate emergency scenarios.  

The County of San Mateo also participates in a local network called RISE (Resilience in Shared Emergencies), a coalition of area nonprofits, faith-based organizations, government agencies, and private sector actors coordinated through a Redwood City-based nonprofit called Thrive Alliance. RISE is committed to supporting San Mateo County through all phases of a disaster, including mitigation, preparation, response, and recovery. 

RISE is recognized as a COAD (Community Organizations Active in Disaster), a type of response network familiar to emergency management and resilience planning departments across the country. Across the country, various COAD networks  champion planning and education, as well as disaster response.  In San Mateo County, RISE meets monthly, offering multilingual community workshops on critical topics like inclement weather, flood insurance, earthquake mitigation, and access to health services in disaster.  

“As we navigate these diverse challenges, our commitment to inclusive emergency response remains unwavering,” said Dr. Shruti Dhapodkar, director of the Department of Emergency Management. “Understanding the unique needs of our linguistically diverse communities is at the heart of our strategy. We're not just disseminating information; we're building resilience together, ensuring everyone, regardless of language or background, is prepared for whatever may come our way.”   

Championing Access in Emergency Response  

To support community engagement in emergency preparation, management, and beyond, the OCA manages a robust language access program, including in-house translation services in Spanish and Chinese. The program also includes 24/7 access to a dedicated language access services phone line and web portal that offers interpretation and translation services in more than 200 languages.

Understanding that languages can vary on a block-by-block basis across the 20 cities and unincorporated areas in the county, the OCA utilizes GIS mapping technology to identify language needs and has built a GIS mapping system that allows staff to deliver highly tailored communications. Powered by U.S. Census data, as well as local language data from community partners, the mapping system informs multilingual communications strategies, ranging from in-language postcards mailed to certain blocks, to grassroots high-touch outreach, to linguistically appropriate messages on media platforms. Hyper-local data recently helped the team connect with a pocket of Arabic speakers who all reside in the same apartment building in Daly City.  

“Knowing those unique micro-targeted approaches is what advances our communication,” said Gonzalez.  “It’s not about sending one-size-fits-all messages, but rather, how do I get to the paletero, the farm workers – that’s the secret sauce.”  

The outreach team uses accessible, plain language – content is targeted to an eighth grade reading level – and creates in-language materials not as word-by-word translation, but as transcreation, ensuring the message resonates in the intended language.  

Working through “back-to-back” emergency scenarios, County officials have since reflected on successes and challenges, identifying communications gaps – such as areas that do not have reliable internet or cellular service – and fine-tuning emergency outreach plans. They’ve published an internal community engagement toolkit that ensures all County offices know how to access the OCA’s language access services.  

Leading the Way in Welcoming

Beyond supporting newcomer communities, the County of San Mateo is committed to fostering belonging amongst all residents. In November 2023, the County participated in #UnitedAgainstHateWeek, connecting County departments, local businesses, and community members with tools to stand in support of diversity, advance civil discourse, and build more equitable communities. The County issued a proclamation, organized a public art display, and created a multilingual social media toolkit with custom graphics for each of the County’s communities.  

“Being welcoming is more than being tolerant,” said Gonzalez. “It’s having a true respect and appreciation for our neighbors, and making sure that in our culture, and in our policies, everyone belongs.” 

And, most recently, San Mateo County was formally designated a Certified Welcoming community by Welcoming America, the first county in California to achieve the designation and the first in the nation to achieve 4-stars. This designation assesses local governments against the Welcoming Standard on their efforts to include and welcome immigrants in all areas of civic, social and economic life – and recognizes San Mateo County’s success in advancing inclusive emergency management, newcomers’ civic engagement, and economic mobility.  

San Mateo County’s Certified Welcoming designation coincided with the release of its Immigrant Inclusion Strategic Plan in March 2024, the culmination of a four-year process of soliciting community-wide feedback. Ensuring newcomer access in the five priority areas identified in the plan – affordable housing, healthcare coverage, food assistance, educational assistance, and legal assistance – will position San Mateo County to not only maintain its commitment to inclusion, but to also ensure that all residents are ready to navigate future climate and demographic change. 

“Being welcoming is more than being tolerant. It’s having a true respect and appreciation for our neighbors, and making sure that in our culture, and in our policies, everyone belongs.”
— Emma Gonzalez, Chief and Director of San Mateo County’s Executive Office of Community Affairs (OCA)

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