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Guide to the Community Link, Capital Region (Sacramento, Calif.) records
MS0041
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Table of contents
Title: Community Link, Capital Region (Sacramento, Calif.) records
Dates: 1939-2006
Collection number: MS0041
Creator:
Community Services Planning Council (Sacramento, Calif.)
Collection Size:
16.5 linear feet
(17 boxes)
Repository:
Center for Sacramento History
Sacramento, California 95811-0229
Abstract: The Community Link, Capital Region (Sacramento, Calif.) records document the efforts of local agencies to make information
and community resources accessible to citizens of the Greater Sacramento area. Over decades, the organization and its coalition
members have worked to improve the area through planning, services coordination, program development and coalition building.
Community Link, Capital Region seeks to educate the community and heighten the level of public dialog and decision-making
by providing factual information and reports to allow for informed policy decisions.
Physical location: 2K2-2K4, 2L4, 2J4
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection:
English
Collection is open for research use.
All requests to publish or quote from private collections held by the Center for Sacramento History (CSH) must be submitted
in writing to csh@cityofsacramento.org. Permission for publication is given on behalf of CSH as the owner of the physical
items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the patron.
No permission is necessary to publish or quote from public records.
[Identification of item and/or item number], [box and folder number], Community Link, Capital Region (Sacramento, Calif.)
records, MS0041, Center for Sacramento History.
Collection donated by Community Link, Capital Region, to the Center for Sacramento History 2007 (accession #2007/049), October
15, 2012 (accession #2012/037) and 2017 (accession #2017/024).
Processed and finding aid prepared by Erin Bostwick, Tristan Evans, Jason Sarmiento, Ethan Tratner, and Matt Walker, 2013.
Biography / Administrative History
Established in 1939, the Community Link, Capital Region was organized as an independent community-based research and planning
agency. The idea was to create a council of agencies to coordinate both public and private services in Sacramento and the
greater region. The early board was made up of members that represented government, private service agencies, and prominent
community figures like A.J. Affleck, Clarence Breuner, Dr. Joseph Dillon, Charles Deterding and Marcus Gunn. Early reports
done by the council were housed with the Community Chest and its first budget was a meager $1,815. In 1941, the council published
its first printed Directory with a grant from the Junior League and help from an early booster, Jeannette Von Gelder.
In 1945, the council was given some part time staff members from the Community Chest. In 1946 the council was officially incorporated
as an independent agency with the purposes of promoting cooperation among service agencies, advancing higher standards of
social work, suggesting future services fields and advising in the formation of new agencies. Robert Fenley served as the
council’s first professional full-time director from 1950-1954.
Fenley left the council in 1954 and Robert Elkin took over as director. The council had a variety of achievements throughout
the 1950’s. Some of these highlights include studies that led to the unification of county and city health departments, the
establishment of the County Parks and Recreation Department, establishment of a Tuberculosis Control Unit in the Health Department,
a children’s protective services in the Welfare Department and private adoption services from the Children’s Home Society.
In addition, the California State Senate asked the Community Welfare Council to provide information about the extent of emergency
relief provided in the Sacramento region by private agencies.
The Community Welfare Council continued to grow and have a lasting impact with its studies during the 1960’s. More studies
in the 1960’s led to the establishment of city and county recreation programs for the handicapped, the county’s first halfway
house for alcoholics, the establishment of six neighborhood councils to control and establish improvement projects, the creation
of year-round assistance for unemployed single men, and the development by the Housing Authority of well-designed housing
for seniors. In addition, studies done by the Community Welfare Council helped led to the creation of the Alta California
Regional Center, a non-government agency created to handle state funds for services to the developmentally disabled.
In 1969 the Welfare Council changed their name to the Community Services Planning Council (CSPC). The CSPC worked with the
Hospital Planning Council, the Medical Society and the County Health Department on the creation of an eight county comprehensive
health planning council, now called the Golden Empire Health Systems Agency. This agency also acted in an advisory role to
various county agencies including the County Health Council and the County Commission on Aging.
In the 1980’s the Community Link, Capital Region created various youth and teen organizations that addressed such issues as
child support, pregnancies, and education. This is when the council began publishing Connections, a quarterly newsletter
about educational concerns. They also began publishing the Community Services Directory which provides information about
teen, elderly, hospice, emergency management, and other social services within Sacramento.
The organization changed its name to Community Link, Capital Region in 2011.
Scope and Content of Collection
Community Link, Capital Region (Sacramento, Calif.) records primarily documents the activities of local community-based organizations
under the umbrella of the Community Link, Capital Region, previously known as Community Welfare Council of Greater Sacramento
(1939-1969) / Community Services Planning Council (1969-2011), with the collective goal of improving access to health and
human services and community resources. These services are aimed at a variety of under-served demographic groups in the Sacramento
area. The original order of Series 1, Board Meeting Packets, was essentially chronological. In Series 1, original order was
maintained. Series 2 and 3, Studies and Reports and Guides and Directories was not discernible, and an artificial series hierarchy
was created based on creating agency. Within each agency, records were arranged by subject, then chronologically.
The collection is comprised solely of textual records, which include board meeting minutes/packets, internal organization
records, studies and reports, guides and directories, community studies. The geographic focus of the material is the Greater
Sacramento area – specifically El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, and Yolo counties – and it dates from the 1930s through 2000s.
Topics and subjects included in the collection are housing, health and welfare, recreation, family and youth, voluntarism,
and services for the homeless, people with disabilities, minorities, the poor, and the elderly.
The following series scope and content notes only offers selected highlights, please see the container list for a full listing
of the series contents.
Series 1 – Board Meeting Packets contains board meeting agendas, minutes, correspondence, memorandums, policies, bylaws, rosters,
financial and budget reports, and manuals. The bulk of the board meeting minutes are from the Community Welfare Council and
the Community Service Planning Council. Board meeting packets from other organizations are also present, but to a much lesser
extent.
Series 2 – Administrative reports and community studies contains studies and reports from the Community Welfare Council and
Community Services Planning Council. The reports include studies on childcare, demographics, financial services, education,
elderly, employment services, housing, health and welfare, the homeless, poverty, recreation, and youth and family services
in the Greater Sacramento area.
Series 3 – Guides and Directories includes guides to community resources aimed at specific demographics. Services include
elderly assistance, churches, employment services, financial services, public and private schools, recreation facilities and
youth and adult services. The elderly resource guide encompasses the year of 1997 to 2006, the physically handicapped resource
guide dates from 1969, neighborhood directories range from 1998 to 2003, and children and youth services directories range
from 1998 to 2003.
Series 4 – Newsletters Connections: community services planning council newsletters vol. 1 no. 1 (Summer 1985) - vol. 11 no.
2 (May 1995).
Series 5 – Scrapbook of newspaper clippings mostly documenting the activities of the United Crusade and the Welfare Council
in 1955.
Series 6 – Resolutions and proclamations honoring the Community Services Planning Council / Community Link, Capital Region
by the California Assembly and County of Sacramento Board of Supervisors, between 1989-2013.
Series 1. Board meeting packets
Series 2. Administrative reports and community studies
Series 3. Guides and directories
Series 4. Newsletters
Series 5. Scrapbook
Series 6. Resolutions and proclamations
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
Community Link, Capital Region (Sacramento, Calif.)
Sacramento (Calif.)--Politics and government
Materials related to those in the Community Link, Capital Region (Sacramento, Calif.) records may be found in the following
collections at the Center for Sacramento History: Sacramento County. Mental Health Department Records (1980/118), Sacramento
Woman’s Council Collection (1984/194, 2007/014), and the Interfaith Council of Greater Sacramento records (2002/081).