December 2021 grant announcement: Renewing commitments to health equity and ending domestic violence
Deepening our commitment to partners across California who are tackling the root causes of health inequity and domestic violence, Blue Shield of California Foundation is announcing a slate of grant renewals for the fourth quarter of 2021. Combined with some new investments approved by our Board of Trustees on Dec. 14, 2021, this package of 25 grants represents nearly $7.7 million toward making California the healthiest state and ending domestic violence.
“To grow our impact in California, we are supporting many grantees whose solutions we believe can be spread and scaled to more communities of color with low incomes,” said Debbie I. Chang, MPH, president and CEO of the Foundation. “Our neighbors are facing continued hardship in the pandemic and demanding change in the face of gender, racial, and economic inequities, so we are renewing partnerships that serve and build on the strengths of these populations.”
Strengthen economic security and mobility: $1.2 million
To strengthen economic security and mobility in the populations we serve, the Foundation focuses on income and benefits, care workers, and survivors of domestic violence. One way that the Foundation is helping improve care workers’ wages, benefits, and job quality is through continued support of Children’s Council of San Francisco. With a $300,000 grant this quarter, the council can grow its successful entrepreneurship program for child care providers. The Foundation’s first grant to the council supported early-stage testing of the business incubator; with this renewal, the program will expand to include an online learning center and development of further training so that other communities may adopt a similar model.
The Foundation also supports in-depth journalism on economic security and mobility in California’s communities of color with low incomes. This quarter, we are renewing grants to CalMatters and The Fuller Project, with $900,000 altogether, to cover topics such as paid sick leave, innovations that help domestic violence survivors, and policies that shape the future of work in California.
“The focus of our California Divide project on issues of inequality prompted legislation to protect farmworkers, halted evictions during the pandemic and helped people gain assistance from benefit programs,” said David Lesher, editor at CalMatters. “This big and wonderful state faces many challenges with inequity, poverty and people left behind. This kind of journalism, reflecting the policy discussions at the highest levels and human experiences around the state, does make a difference.”
Break the cycle of domestic violence: $2.3 million
Grants to break the cycle of domestic violence also include journalism support (California Health Report, $265,000) and an evaluation of restorative justice as an alternative response to domestic violence ($320,000 to Collective Healing and Transformation Project or CHAT).
The bulk of our renewal grants this quarter, however, goes to a dozen organizations working to keep domestic violence from recurring across generations in California families. With $1.67 million from the Foundation, this cohort of 12 will continue evaluating community-based programs that take a multigenerational approach to domestic violence prevention.
Align systems with community priorities: $4 million
The Foundation works to ensure that systems, including public health, are more responsive to the needs of California’s communities of color with low incomes where the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 is only the latest example of racism and other structural inequities driving poor health outcomes.
To do this we invest in regional associations that help local public health agencies advance health equity (a combined $1.4 million this quarter for Southern California, the San Joaquin Valley, and the Bay Area) and in organizations that collaborate with one another to promote equity ($300,000 to Well-being and Equity in the World).
To reinforce the urgency of health equity in the distribution of new federal funding for California, the Foundation also is renewing support for California Alliance for Prevention Funding ($300,000) and Public Health Advocates ($550,000).
“What we are beginning to talk about more candidly is that the structures in place –- and the inability of government systems to align with the grassroots advocates and nonprofit infrastructure on the front lines of this pandemic –- have propagated, once again, negative health outcomes in communities of color,” said April Jean, policy director for the California Covid Justice project at Public Health Advocates.
“We see so much opportunity for positive change in California, for the families and communities most affected by domestic violence and racial, gender, and economic inequity,” said Chang. “Our partners are challenging public and private systems to better serve Californians, and with these grants we are proud to support them.”
This quarter's grantees are listed in full below, and more information about the Foundation’s grantmaking can be found in our grants database.
To fund CalMatters to produce the California Divide project, with a focus on stories reporting on the future of work in California, including stories about improving wages, benefits and job quality for care workers, and income and benefit supports for low-income workers, such as paid sick time, paid family leave, and portable benefits.
To expand implementation of a culturally responsive business incubator program for family child care providers across California.
To fund the Fuller Project to report on economic security and mobility issues facing women of color with low incomes in California.
To continue evaluation of Black Masculinity Reimagined, a violence prevention program, that develops strategies and skills to interrupt cycles of intergenerational violence and create a community network of Black men and gender-nonconforming people that supports two-generation domestic violence prevention outcomes.
To evaluate the efficacy of a leadership development and organizing model that emphasizes healing, economic security, and other measures of success to interrupt cycles of intergenerational trauma and promote two-generation domestic violence prevention outcomes for girls, women, and gendernonconforming people of color who were engaged in juvenile and criminal justice systems and street economies.
To support evaluation of an innovative Head Start program that increases protective factors and decreases domestic violence occurrence through social support, economic security, and mental health services to support two-generation prevention outcomes for Black and Latinx families with young children.
To evaluate the Community Healing and Transformation project and disseminate findings that build knowledge about the efficacy and experiences of participants, as well as identify promising practices and benefits to inform spread and scale of the model.
To support the implementation and evaluation of the Nurturing Parenting Program, a strengths-based intervention model that addresses risk factors, promotes healing, and builds community to support two-generation domestic violence prevention outcomes for Latinx immigrant families with children.
To expand the evaluation of LIFT’s financial coaching model, including a robust literature review to strengthen the evidence-base demonstrating that increases in economic security supports two-generation domestic violence prevention outcomes for low-income families in Los Angeles.
To continue evaluating Mujeres Unidas y Activas' Immigrant Survivor Leadership Development Program that combines multigenerational trauma recovery, leadership development, and community organizing to reduce violence and build protective factors that prevent domestic violence for Latina immigrant women and their children.
To continue evaluating the Teen Parent Support Program, a strength-based program, that helps teen and young adult Latinx parents heal from generational trauma and build family resilience to support two-generation domestic violence prevention outcomes in Santa Clara County.
To continue evaluating the impact and building the evidence base for the Integrated Children and Family Services Program to prevent family violence, child maltreatment, and multigenerational trauma by increasing protective factors for families.
To continue evaluation of Mi Escuelita Therapeutic Preschool program and expand qualitative data collection through interviews and photovoice to capture parent and child perspectives to assess two-generation domestic violence prevention outcomes for Latino children and parents that have been exposed to domestic violence in San Diego County.
To support in-depth, trauma-informed solutions journalism on domestic violence and its intersection with the social determinants of health, structural racism, and health equity, with a focus on healing, prevention and amplifying the voices of those with lived experience.
To continue evaluation of the Positive Family Futures and Reunification program that helps low-income women and their children reunify, heal from trauma, and build resilience to support two-generation domestic violence prevention outcomes for Black and Latina women and their children in San Bernardino County.
To continue the evaluation and implementation of the Family, Friend, and Neighbor caregiver training program and parent engagement workshops through increasing opportunities for parents to engage, introducing support group sessions for caregivers, and adding evaluation questions related to emotional intelligence to support two-generation domestic violence prevention outcomes for Latinx immigrant communities in Santa Barbara and Los Angeles Counties.
To support the evaluation and implementation of the Strengths Model, a relationships-based case management approach that focuses on healing, building resilience, and increasing protective factors to support two-generation domestic violence prevention outcomes for Black and Latinx parents and children.
To provide general operating support to the San Joaquin Valley Public Health Consortium, one of three regional consortia in the state, in service of advancing health equity and building enduring infrastructure in municipal public health agencies that ultimately leads to a reduction in health disparities among people of color in the region.
To support Safety Through Connection, an initiative to embed domestic violence prevention within established multisector collaboratives to develop community-driven policy priorities and strategies to change systems that impact domestic violence.
To provide general operating support to Public Health Advocates, California’s leading advocacy organization focused on promoting health equity, strengthening public health and prevention policy, and addressing issues with California’s public health systems.
To translate Blue Shield of California Foundation's Equity in Multisector Collaboration Toolkit onto an online platform.
To provide general operating support to the Public Health Alliance of Southern California, one of three regional consortia in the state, in service of advancing health equity and building enduring infrastructure in municipal public health agencies that ultimately leads to a reduction in health disparities among people of color in the region.
To provide general operating support to the California Alliance for Prevention Funding, which seeks to build a culture of health for all Californians and reduce disparities through education and advocacy for new and sustained funding to promote health equity, particularly through upstream primary prevention.
To provide general operating support to the Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative (BARHII), one of three regional consortia in the state, in service of advancing health equity and building enduring infrastructure in municipal public health agencies that ultimately leads to a reduction in health disparities among people of color in the region.
To contribute research and narrative on the lessons learned from income and benefits policies enacted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the health impacts of lifting people out of poverty.
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