Policy informs the answers to questions, who benefits, who pays, and who decides. Our work with partners identifies and advances much-needed policies in neighborhoods, cities, and states.
We are in partnership with MIG, Inc., to create a health policy element for the City of Richmond, California. This project—the first attempt by a California municipal government to use a General Plan element to explicitly examine community factors affecting residents’ health—involves analyzing existing conditions and assessing policy options for the city’s future development.
Advocacy is essential for anyone working with communities who do not fully share the benefits of our nation’s resources. The struggle may be for good housing available to people at all income levels, secure jobs and accessible transportation to reach them, or healthy communities with clean air, parks, and close-by neighborhood supermarkets that offer quality food and produce. Whatever it may be, all residents have the right to take action when their rights are threatened or denied.
Our health experts have trained hundreds of community advocates in how to get involved in the policy process. Many have gone on to push for needed changes in their neighborhoods, cities, and states.
For the last four years, we have strengthened the advocacy capacity of Community Action to Fight Asthma (CAFA)—a network of 12 local coalitions from around the state—to move forward policies that reduce environmental triggers of childhood asthma. Their community engagement and advocacy efforts have contributed to the passage of several important pieces of legislation, including:
With California’s recent passage of Proposition 1B—an infrastructure bond measure that includes $1 billion for air pollution emission reduction—the coalition will follow up to ensure that these funds are allocated to significantly reduce environmental triggers for asthma.
It will also strive to increase the frequency of evaluating indoor air quality, particularly in school facilities that have been and are still in extremely poor condition. These data will provide vital information for future advocacy efforts to improve indoor air quality in California schools.
We will continue to partner with organizations, such as the California Center for Public Health Advocacy and the California Pan Ethnic Health Network, to advocate for a state investment pool to establish or revitalize grocery stores, markets, and farmers’ markets in low income communities. Our previously mentioned report, Healthy Food, Healthy Communities: Improving Access and Opportunities Through Food Retailing, is the basis for legislation, SB 48, to create a fund to support sustainable models for access to healthy food in California’s underserved communities. We are co-sponsoring this legislation and leading a coalition seeking its passage during the 2007 legislative session.