One role of Tempe Community Council (TCC) is to administer the grant application process by which the City of Tempe awards human service funding.  For the current fiscal year (2010/2011), $1,019,006 in General Fund, Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), Tempe's Help to Others, and the Tempe Community Foundation, was allocated to 31 nonprofits that provide vital human services to Tempe residents.

In fiscal year 2009/2010 Tempe's investment was recommended by the community through the annual "Agency Review" process.  Forty members of the Tempe community reviewed, interviewed and convened to draft funding recommendations that were adopted by the Tempe City Council on March 5, 2009.  The chart below illustrates how the Human Service Investment sought to make an impact in a number of categories, especially those in homeless shelter & services and senior programs.

State of Human Services in East Valley
Assessment of Services and Clients 

On October 13, 2010, TCC convened the third annual "Executive Director's Roundtable". Leaders from the nonprofits funded by the City of Tempe Human Service for fiscal year 2010/2011 were invited to provide an informal assessment of the "state of human services" in the East Valley.  This face-to-face meeting is in addition to the quarterly reports collected to monitor and track the impact of service delivery of our human service partners.  The Executive Director Roundtable gives us an opportunity to hear directly from the agencies on the front line and provide information that cannot be captured on a form.  In addition, the roundtable creates opportunities for communication, support, and collaborative opportunities to more effectively and efficiently utilize resources to serve Tempe residents.

This fall, TCC distributed its second annual Human Services Survey to a wide and diverse audience that included businesses, nonprofits,  Tempe Police and Fire, community members.  In total, 229  plus City Council members responded to the survey; providing data that can be used as a tool for the community process to recommend funding in fiscal year 2011/2012.

This year's survey results represented a change in priorities, as compared to last year's results.

With a greater number of people responding, there was a shift in attitudes towards Youth Prevention and Programs from Homeless Shelter & Services.  While this does not necessarily mean the Tempe community is "less" supportive of Homeless services, rather this shift may reflect the community's need to more directly focus on care of more personal matters of home and family, beginning with our children.