The Community Roots Collaborative (CRC) has concluded its 2025 convenings, with the latest at Open San Jose in Downtown San Jose. Julie Quinn, Chief Program & Impact Officer at Housing Trust Silicon Valley guided the cohort on how to prepare for community development project funding. She outlined what to expect in the Community Development Funding Institution (CDFI) application process and HTSV’s funding standards. SV@Home also led a visioning and goal-setting session to help the cohort map goals for 2026 and beyond.

Julie’s session was the second in SV@Home’s two-part Fundraising Basics & Approaches series. Last month, Thai-An Ngo with California Housing Partnerships introduced the cohort to the development process and funding needs at each stage, with a focus on pre-development. Julie built on this by explaining how to position organizations for CDFI funding, including requirements, conditions, and strategies to strengthen readiness through experience, staffing, and financial relationships.

Cohort members actively engaged with thoughtful questions, and Julie presented complex concepts in accessible terms for participants with varying development experience. SV@Home is proud to support pre-emerging and emerging developers by connecting them to networks and expertise, and we look forward to continuing this work in 2026.

SV@Home staff set up an activity for the CRC to write and discuss:

• The purpose of the CRC
• What its long-term vision is; what success looks like
• What strategies/approaches we need to take to get to our shared vision
• Our goals/outcomes; what steps we need to take to get there
• Our process; what our convenings need to look like moving forward

SV@Home will gather the cohort’s input, present the results, and implement them in April 2026. We’re excited to take the CRC to the next level and continue to encourage, seed, and expand community development in Silicon Valley. 

A special thank you to CreaTV and Lead Filipino for hosting us.