A coalition of social-impact organizations told the Saratoga County Health and Human Services Committee on July 1 that 23 member groups collaborate across the county and that 19 provided data showing broad reach and economic impact.

Ellen Sachs, a Town of Malta resident who helped coordinate the collaboration, told supervisors the 19 organizations reporting data collectively served 126,281 people, brought more than $178,000,000 into the county from private, state and federal sources, and employ about 3,471 people. Sachs said volunteer time is valued at roughly $3,000,000 and that the network distributed about 2,900,000 pounds of food and 1,100,000 prepared meals, with an estimated value near $10,000,000.

Carrie Cushing, executive director of Franklin Community Center, opened the coalition's presentation with a client story demonstrating cross-organization collaboration; several other local nonprofit leaders then introduced themselves, including Michelle Larkin of Rebuilding Together Saratoga County, Brooke McConnell of Pitney Meadows Community Farm, Sybil Newell of Rise Housing and Support Services, Natasha Pernico of the Food Pantries for the Capital District, Amy McBride of the Prevention Council of Saratoga County, Maggie Smith of Wellspring, and Vodice Fermero of The Legal Project.

Sachs asked whether an executive from the collaborative could participate on the Health and Human Services Committee as a resource and requested that each executive be permitted to present to future committee meetings. Committee chair responded that the committee is formed of supervisors and membership rotates yearly but encouraged collaborative outreach to incoming chairs so the group can continue the information flow between the nonprofit sector and the committee.

Speakers said the coalition's data is intended to illustrate the social-impact sector's economic and service footprint and to encourage ongoing dialogue between providers and county supervisors.