Since its inception in 1996, The California Endowment (TCE) has sought ever greater impact in improving the health and lives of all Californians, with an intense focus on the state’s populations and communities of color experiencing low income. The foundation’s approach has evolved from supporting programmatic efforts to a focus on communities, policy change, and systems reform, to now an expanded focus on power-building as a central strategy to advance health equity and racial justice. This evolution reflects the foundation’s increased understanding of the inextricable link between health and justice. And, this understanding informs the current moment in the foundation’s history, which builds upon the decade of experience with Building Healthy Communities (BHC).
Over the course of BHC, local leaders in 14 communities along with regional and state-level partners achieved hundreds of policy and systems changes as well as other tangible benefits for communities. Understanding the ecosystem of people and organizations that achieved those “wins,” and the many strategies that contributed to eventual successes as well as losses along the way, is critically important as the foundation moves forward with plans to advance health equity and racial justice through building grassroots power.
The power ecosystem is the focus of this evaluation report—the network of organizations, relationships, and infrastructure necessary to ensure that people who have been historically marginalized have voice and agency to create an inclusive democracy and close health equity gaps.
The evaluation uses a conceptual framework focused on power-building and a multi-case design that documented the collaborative work of community members and a range of local, state, and national organizations to achieve policy changes, system improvements, or electoral goals. (author abstract)
#P4HEwebinarFebruary2023