Align systems with community priorities

In order to create lasting and equitable change, the people and communities who are most impacted by health inequities and domestic violence must have a central role in crafting their own solutions. Communities have direct knowledge of the historical factors, local resources, and issues created by or through the systems that do not meet their needs. Conversely, public systems need support to respond to and meet the changing needs of the communities that they exist to serve.

We advocate for and support solutions such as community-led processes, strategic policy shift, narrative change, and collaborative efforts that bring multiple sectors together to prioritize health and well-being. By supporting stronger and more responsive relationships between communities and systems, we support greater resilience in both.

Empowering communities to achieve health equity

Our work to align systems with community priorities involves working with grantee partners across the state both at the community level and systems level to better serve communities in achieving health equity.

“The chorus of voices calling out racial and economic inequality is growing louder and public systems are responding. Positive change has begun. And, if we support communities as they assert their priorities and needs, more will come."
—Richard Vezina, Senior Program Officer

Creating impact through systems change

View of a whiteboard, highlighting text that reads "Community Involved, NOT community informed"

Meaningful change is possible when community priorities are supported and enabled by systems. To achieve that, we support:

Community-led efforts to create more responsive, inclusive, and equitable health systems and domestic violence systems
Policy and practice change in systems to institutionalize racial and gender equity, and fulfill the priorities of communities
Multisector collaborations as a powerful vehicle for systems change
The development of data to better understand the root causes of health inequities and domestic violence across our state
Policy wins and resource allocations for community-led initiatives
Narrative projects that expand community power

Grantees

Grantee	Year	Grant Amount	Region
Vose River Charitable Fund	2022	$1,000,000	Statewide
Advancement Project California	2022	$800,000	Statewide
Sierra Health Foundation Center for Health Program Management	2022	$750,000	Central
Liberty Hill Foundation	2022	$500,000	Los Angeles
Sierra Health Foundation Center for Health Program Management	2022	$400,000	Statewide
Asian Resources Inc	2022	$300,000	Statewide
CivicPulse	2022	$300,000	Statewide
Tides Center	2022	$200,000	Statewide
Human Impact Partners	2022	$500,000	Statewide
Prevention Institute	2022	$300,000	Statewide
Public Health Institute	2022	$200,000	Statewide
Regents of the University of California at San Diego	2022	$150,000	South
Communities Lifting Communities	2022	$110,000	South
TSNE MissionWorks	2022	$100,000	Statewide
Southern California Grantmakers	2022	$75,000	Los Angeles
Regents of the University of California at Berkeley	2022	$650,000	South
PICO California	2022	$600,000	Statewide
Urban Habitat	2022	$425,000	San Francisco Bay Area
ChangeLab Solutions	2022	$350,000	Statewide
California Pan-Ethnic Health Network	2022	$300,000	Statewide