Community foundation, Joint Venture to partner on key regional report

Silicon Valley Community Foundation will team up with Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network to expand and enhance the Silicon Valley Index, a nationally recognized report that measures the strength of the economy and the health of our community.

The community foundation also will become lead sponsor of the State of the Valley conference, the town hall-style meeting that brings together leaders from across the region and included a keynote this year by former Vice President Al Gore.

The community foundation and Joint Venture – which share a mission to enhance the health and vitality of the region – announced the partnership Monday, following approval by their boards of directors last week.

“Identifying smart solutions to meet pressing needs was a key goal underlying the creation of Silicon Valley Community Foundation this year,” said Greg Avis, board chair of the community foundation.  “Teaming up with Joint Venture and the Silicon Valley Index will help add a crucial new element to the community foundation’s work to identify challenges and solutions to the challenges facing our region.”

The partnership will enhance the Index and heighten its impact considerably by broadening the scope of analysis, increasing the number of indicators and enlarging the size of the document; enabling comparisons to other regions, nationally and internationally; creating a sophisticated web presence; enabling on-line users to access the underlying data and link to the sources; and presenting additional forums throughout the region to engage additional audiences in the findings.

 “The Silicon Valley Index and State of the Valley Conference mesh nicely with the community foundation’s commitment to serve as an information resource and strengthen civic engagement,” said community foundation CEO and President Emmett D. Carson, Ph.D.  “The Index and conference are unequaled in the knowledge and opportunities they provide for our region, and we’re excited to team up with Joint Venture to take these resources to an even greater level of influence and illumination.”