The Evidence: California’s Prosperity Depends on Our Health. Our Health Depends on Where We Live.
Where we live, work and play directly impacts our health.
The evidence shows that for California to thrive, our communities must have more than available health care. Affordable housing, good jobs, safe schools, clean air, parks and playgrounds, walkable streets, markets with fresh fruits and vegetables, and strong social networks are also crucial to a healthy California.
The Challenge: Too Many of California’s Communities Lack the Basic Ingredients for Health.
When schools are not built within a safe walking distance of where families live, children get less daily exercise. More driving to school and work means more air pollution and fewer opportunities for exercise. More air pollution means more asthmatic attacks. More asthma means even less physical activity, more days absent from school and work, and a higher cost of health care for everyone.
This is just one example of how the sometimes random planning of our surroundings can negatively affect the health and well-being of children and families, stifle the life of a community and drain the collective promise of our state. These challenges take many forms – obesity and diabetes, unemployment, neighborhood and family violence – threatening economically disadvantaged communities more than others.
The Strategy: A 10-Year, Multimillion-Dollar Statewide Commitment to Advance Policies and Forge Partnerships to Build Healthy Communities and a Healthy California.
The inequities are unacceptable, but the opportunities for change are undeniable. The California Endowment is embarking on a new 10-year statewide initiative, creating places where children and youth are healthy, safe and ready to learn.
We will support the vision of parents and local leaders who can imagine a healthy community. We will forge new partnerships and tap the local wisdom of community organizers, school principals, city planners, business CEOs, people who work in hospitals and clinics, parents and youth to deliver the essentials of a healthy place to live:
Secure health coverage;
Family-centered schools and doctors and nurses who promote preventive health;
More clean air days;
More places to buy fresh carrots and tomatoes, apples and strawberries;
More days spent in classrooms;
Healthy alternatives to gangs; and
Neighborhoods with more room to walk, run, and play without fear of violence
Between 2010 and 2020, our Board of Directors is prepared to do what it takes and invest hundreds of millions of dollars at the local, regional and state levels so that everyone, no matter where they live, can grow up healthy and contribute to the state’s prosperity. Our plan includes building 14 healthy communities where there is both a need and an opportunity for healthy surroundings:
South Kern County; Boyle Heights; City Heights; Coachella; Del Norte County and Adjacent Tribal Lands; Central/West Fresno City; Central Long Beach; South Figueroa Corridor/Vermont-Manchester; Southwest Merced/East Merced County; East Oakland; Richmond; East Salinas; Central Santa Ana; and South Sacramento.
The Change: Statewide Advocacy Will Lift Up Improvements in Communities to Promote Policies that Support Change Now and Sustain Hope in the Future.
While we are helping community residents to beat the odds locally, we are also engaging them in our broader strategy to change the odds. Ultimately we are aiming for a shift in thinking, and a change in statewide policies away from those that ignore the root causes of ill health and toward policies that prioritize prevention and value the health of all our communities as essential to the common good. Through advocacy and strategic media, we plan to emphasize our shared interest and elevate local experience to influence and shape policy at the regional, state and even national level.
Join Us to Make Change Happen.
The California Endowment cannot build healthy communities alone. That is why connecting local leaders and movements already underway are at the heart of this 10-year journey. To join with us please visit www.calendow.org/healthycommunities.
CalConnect Social Networking Site
As part of this initiative, The California Endowment launched CalConnect, a social networking site created specifically on the premise of sharing the experiences and information with the 14 communities selected for this initiative, policymakers and health experts throughout the state. Click here for more information.
