March 2021 Grant Announcement: Foundation targets root causes to improve health equity and end domestic violence
To achieve health equity and end domestic violence in California, Blue Shield of California Foundation is focusing on the areas where it can have the greatest impact: increasing economic security and mobility for families, healing from and preventing domestic violence, helping governmental and other systems better serve communities and their needs. At its March 5 board meeting, the Foundation’s trustees approved $5 million in grants to 19 organizations, whose high-impact programs are positioned to make a significant difference in the lives of low-income and historically underserved Californians.
“We are extremely proud to support these partners who are addressing the underlying root causes of poor health and domestic violence, and who are shifting our society toward greater justice and health for all,” said Debbie I. Chang, MPH, President & CEO of the Foundation.
Among the many transformational projects supported this quarter are the expansion of programs that ensure safe and secure housing for survivors of domestic violence in rural counties and research that will offer insight into the role of domestic violence in driving homelessness. These projects build upon the Foundation’s work to ensure that survivors have housing and supports that make leaving an abusive relationship more possible.
"By deepening our understanding of the association between domestic violence and homelessness, we can better inform the policies and programs that will help improve housing security for domestic violence survivors," said Margot Kushel, MD, Director,of the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations, which received a research grant.
We will build on the Foundation’s strategy to strengthen protections for care workers by enabling local affiliates of the California Domestic Workers Coalition to organize and mobilize support for improved wages, benefits, and job conditions. These care workers do the vital work of caring for others, which is fundamental to the health of families as well as a post-pandemic economic recovery.
Altogether, the Foundation’s grants this quarter support community power-building around redistricting ($800,000), the work of collaborations to end health inequities and domestic violence ($2.2 million), policy and norms change to prevent domestic violence ($575,000), and projects to increase family economic security and mobility ($1.5 million).
Learn more about these grantees below and in our grants database here.
To support new research on the interconnections between domestic violence and homelessness, uncover which interventions are most effective in supporting individuals, and inform the development of state-level policy and program interventions.
To support the Housing Opportunities Means Everything (HOME) Cohort to advocate for sustainable housing policy and funding solutions at the county level that will improve housing security for domestic violence survivors.
To strengthen the work of the California Hmong Advocates Network and Building Our Future Collaborative through strategic sustainability planning and testing community developed culture change strategies to end domestic violence.
To build hospital executives' capacity to support population health strategies and reduce health disparities in Southern California communities.
To explore sustainability pathways for the HEALing Roots Collaborative and strategically add new multisector partnerships while expanding community developed norms and policy change interventions that prevent domestic violence.
To support the work of the Contra Costa Alliance to End Abuse’s Family Violence Prevention Task Force to add new multisector partnerships, while implementing prevention strategies developed in partnership with those with lived experience in Contra Costa.
To lead a listening tour with past BUILD Health Challenge grantees and other community stakeholders that will inform the program design for BUILD 4.0 and identify how collaborative structures can focus on equity.
To support the work of the Northern California Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Collaborative to add new multisector partnerships and implement the Self-Healing Communities Framework as a regional systems change strategy to prevent and address domestic violence
To engage healthcare leadership in supporting three multisector collaboratives to address health inequities, increase investment in prevention, and create shared ownership for health.
To explore sustainability pathways for the San Ysidro Domestic Violence Prevention Collaboration and strategically add new multisector partnerships while expanding norms and culture change interventions that prevent domestic violence.
To support the work of the Healthy Black Families Collaborative to add new multisector partnerships, while identifying and testing culturally responsive, community developed domestic violence prevention strategies in South Sacramento.
To train student parents in participatory research to identify policy barriers and develop solutions that will support their success in community college and advance long-term economic mobility and health for them and their children.
To support local affiliates of the California Domestic Workers Coalition in building the leadership of organizers and domestic workers to advance campaigns focused on better wages, benefits, and job quality for domestic workers across the state.
To support the engagement of communities of color in local redistricting processes in order to build community power to address inequities in resource allocation for critical supports to health such as education, healthcare services, housing, and social services.
To engage Latino community members in California’s statewide legislative redistricting process to build community power to address inequities in resource allocation for critical supports to health such as education, healthcare services, housing, and social services.
To support a pooled fund that will provide resources for engaging regional organizations representing communities of color in the state redistricting process in order to build community power to address inequities in resource allocation for critical supports to health such as education, healthcare services, housing, and social services.
To enable community partnerships created for 2020 Census outreach to leverage their Census work to build community power and voice for addressing regional health inequities.
To support the development and syndication of culturally-appropriate coverage of domestic violence prevention information to Latinx Spanish-, English-, and Zapotec-language speakers through ethnic media and the CalMatters platforms.
To provide general operating support to California Partnership to End Domestic Violence, California’s statewide domestic violence coalition, to support its work with member organizations to advance domestic violence prevention through policy change, practice innovation, and strategic communications.
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