September 2020 Grant Announcement: Advancing our strategies to prevent domestic violence, support child care workers, and strengthen community efforts for health equity
$10.6 Million in grants support mission to be the healthiest state and end domestic violence
“Taken together, these inspiring and impactful grants support our mission to make California the healthiest state and end domestic violence,” said Debbie I. Chang, MPH, president and CEO of the Foundation. “Prevention, equity, and changing systems so that they support the needs of individuals and families are key elements of health. We are proud to contribute to collaborations and organizations across the state that are addressing critical issues today while also building a better tomorrow.”
The funds include significant investments in domestic violence prevention with $3.74 million dedicated to breaking the cycle of domestic violence. The Foundation is a long-standing leader in this area and continues to deepen its support for two-generation approaches that take into account the needs of adults involved in domestic violence, as well as children exposed to violence –- including programs for parents to support other parents and strengthen parenting skills to ensure good outcomes for children.
Additional grants focus on engaging girls and women of color in healing and safety, while proactively addressing cultural and gender norms that can be harmful. Policy change is another essential element of this work, and the funding also includes support for PolicyLink and the Healing Together Campaign to drive policy change throughout the state and strengthen a network of men and boys of color working to end gender-based violence.
“We’re thankful to the Blue Shield of California Foundation for investing in the transformative work required to prevent violence and end cycles of harm,” said Dr. Michael McAfee, president and CEO of PolicyLink. “As our society reflects on the urgent need to address the systemic racism and violence embedded in our institutions, this investment will help to bring forth community-based approaches to ending partner violence that do not rely on systems of punishment. By bringing together the wisdom and experience of the gender justice and racial justice movements, Healing Together is advancing policy solutions and approaches that are rooted in community, healing, equity, and accountability.”
Foundation-supported research has demonstrated that financial stress and uncertainty can increase domestic violence and drive poor health. To this end, $2.1 million will go toward the economic stability and mobility of child care workers and providers as critical enablers of family stability and safety. Grants aim to stabilize and grow the child care sector by testing provider-led service models, incubating family child care businesses, and by conducting new research on the connection between investments in child care and the well-being of children, families, and communities.
Economic stability is essential for all phases of family life, and the Foundation is making several grants to push progress forward. Caring Across Generations, a project of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, is advocating for universal family care to cover child care, family leave, and elder care.
“Caregivers, both professional and unpaid, are the backbone of our health system,” said Ai-jen Poo, director of Caring Across Generations. “Investing in our caregiving systems and infrastructure, and centering equity for Black and brown families, will help ensure that all Californians can take care of themselves and their loved ones at every stage of life, through COVID-19 and beyond. With Blue Shield of California Foundation’s investment, Caring Across Generations will work with community-based organizations, thought leaders, and key stakeholders to ensure all Californians can access and afford child care, paid leave and long-term services and supports."
To advance equity-focused multisector collaborations -- and help them build inclusive agendas for change at the local and state levels -- $2.7 million will support efforts to transform systems that impact the health of youth, address adverse childhood experiences with family violence, promote healthy housing, and engage food workers in driving equity-focused reforms in the food sector.
Additionally, to bolster equity in state efforts to fight COVID-19, the Foundation made a $1 million contribution, joining other foundations, to ensure that the state implements a culturally and linguistically competent contact-tracing program.
To view details on the full list of grants, see below:
To promote policies that ensure the long-term safety and resilience of girls and support the development of practices that increase access to services, build the capacity of organizations, and engage families and communities to reduce gender-based violence.
To support Parent Voices, a project of the California Child Care Resource and Referral Network, in designing and driving multigenerational prevention policies and practices that support the health and safety of children, parents, and caregivers.
To support statewide policy change and community capacity-building across the Alliance for Boys & Men of Color network to address gender-based violence.
To produce new data at critical points across the lifespan in California to inform new violence prevention research, practice, and policy.
To support an innovative and culturally-responsive Black parenting program to prevent intergenerational intimate partner violence by supporting the healthy development of Black families.
To deepen and strengthen the work of the California Hmong Advocates Network and Building Our Future Collaborative through a strategic planning and evaluation process that will sustain momentum in implementing community-specific prevention strategies that challenge and change harmful gender norms in the Sacramento, Merced, and Fresno Hmong community.
To support Bold Vision LA, a multi-sector initiative to develop community-driven policy priorities and strategies to change systems that impact vulnerable youth of color in Los Angeles.
To support a multisector, multiracial collaborative in building the capacity of member organizations and incorporating a worker’s rights agenda, as well as meaningfully mobilizing workers to advocate for positive health outcomes.
To deepen and strengthen the work of the Northern California Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Collaborative, a multicounty initiative, through a strategic planning and evaluation process that will sustain momentum in six far north counties and inform future systems change interventions to prevent domestic violence.
To support a network of collaboratives to work collectively on a statewide policy agenda that will improve housing conditions, increase landlord accountability for healthy housing, and reduce health disparities in California.
To support a community of practice that brings together practitioners, organizations, systems, and communities in California through peer learning circles to integrate policies and practices based on the science of adverse and positive childhood experiences.
To partner with family child care business owners in two counties in California to design and test a shared services model that can improve business viability, economic security, and overall health and well-being of family child care providers and the families they serve.
To test and explore pathways for expanded implementation of a successful business incubator pilot program for family child care providers.
To support the implementation and evaluation of a participatory budgeting pilot in Sacramento to equitably redistribute funds to community-defined priorities to advance health and safety.
To engage a statewide public health network to work in partnership with grassroots organizers to lead a coordinated strategy to promoting new solutions that reimagine safety and redistribute investment into the health of communities.
To train young Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in the San Francisco East Bay in futures thinking and practices to increase agency over their futures, transform multigenerational community health, and imagine a more inclusive, equitable, and anti-racist world.
To facilitate the development of a research, organizing, and advocacy strategy at the state and local levels for universal family care that includes child care, paid family and medical leave, and long-term services and supports to increase health and end domestic violence.
To discover the connection between the economic security, health, and well-being of early educators and the health and well-being of children and communities – particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic - and to generate actionable policy solutions that value the care and contributions of early educators to health and well-being of children, families, and society to improve health and end domestic violence.
To support an evaluation of the effectiveness of philanthropic funding and collaboration for ensuring an accurate count of all Californians in the 2020 Census that will inform future philanthropic efforts to strengthen immigrant communities and communities of color in California.
To support a multifunder collaboration in developing and expanding a culturally-competent contract tracer workforce across California’s public health agencies to reduce transmission of COVID-19 and improve the health of communities affected by the pandemic.
To support the dissemination and advancement of research on the complex social determinants of health, with the end goal of ending domestic violence and improving the health of all Californians.
To shift domestic violence media coverage in the five English and one Spanish McClatchy newspaper(s) that serve the San Joaquin Valley toward solutions journalism, with a special focus on intersecting issues, especially housing.
To support two lines of coverage of high importance to the Foundation's strategy, domestic violence and racial equity, and to connect community stories to policy.
To build the capacity of Foundation grantees and California nonprofits to advocate for policies that improve health and prevent domestic violence through workshops, tailored technical assistance, and written resources (in Spanish and English) on regulations and laws on lobbying and advocacy.
To support advocacy and outreach efforts advancing paid family leave policies in the state.
To grow the capacity of the Culturally Responsive Domestic Violence Network to prevent domestic violence in underserved communities in California through policy and systems change.
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