Spectrum Community Services

Created by Sotera Brown in September of 1971 as a volunteer-run organization called Family Tutorial Services. This small organization started when a group of volunteers working with Head Start in Hayward saw a need for family-wide services, beyond what Head Start was offering to low-income children. The Family Tutorial Services reached out to the neglected, Spanish-speaking enclaves of Hayward, helping them connect to the rest of the community by offering them English Language tutorials – a stopgap method to teach English to busy, low-income adults.

The Family Tutorial Services expanded its programs into areas where they saw a need arising where other organizations could not meet it. Our Low-Income Weatherization and Senior Nutrition Programs launched in the late 1970s to offer the help the Older Americans Act and US Health and Human Services knew were important to people across the country.

The organization changed its name to Spectrum Community Services in 1986 to reflect its expanding services, and we have stayed true to our 50 year-long mission to help the most vulnerable populations in Alameda County. Our long history of family supportive services and community work has advanced our mission of promoting our clients’ financial sustainability and improving the overall quality of their lives.