BASSC

The Bay Area Social Services Consortium (BASSC) is an agency-university-foundation partnership founded in 1987 that promotes social service research, training, and policy development to strengthen public sector social services in the San Francisco Bay Area.

BASSC is currently led by co-chairs Kari Beuerman, Director of the Marin County Social Services Agency, and Peter Lee, Director and Professor of the School of Social Work at San Jose State University.

Research

The BASSC Research Response Team responds to the needs of public sector social service agencies for evidence to inform services and build organizational capacity. We conduct practice research studies using multi-county surveys, case studies, and an array of qualitative methods, well as structured literature reviews, to develop knowledge to support practitioners. Studies and projects are carried out through close collaboration between our staff, the Mack Center and agency managers, supervisors, and line staff.

See Building a Comprehensive Agency-University Partnership: A Case Study in the Bay Area Social Services Consortium. 

Training

BASSC fosters the development of a professional and skilled public sector human service workforce through the year-long Executive Development Program (EDP), administered by UC Berkeley Extension. The invitational EDP was launched in 1994 to meet the management training needs of middle and senior managers in county public sector human service organizations. The EDP involves agency leaders, University faculty, and local experts as instructors, and includes an inter-agency project designed to facilitate sharing of promising practices.

Policy

BASSC invests in policy analysis and development through case studies aimed at capturing agency efforts to design and implement promising and innovative programs and practices in response to state and federal policy initiatives, as well as regular regional exchanges among agency leaders and senior managers.

BASSC policy groups bring together expert staff from each Bay Area county to further regional goals through a planning and policy framework.

BASSC policy groups include the Bay Area Human Resources Committee, Bay Area Welfare-to-Work Committee, Bay Area Adult Services Committee, Bay Area Regional Children's Services Committee, Bay Area Administration and Finance Committee, and the Bay Area Research, Planning and Evaluation Committee.