Key Strategies

• Community organizing, civic engagement and public policy advocacy to promote environmental justice in underserved communities.
• Efforts to increase access to healthy food in underserved communities by encouraging corner stores in underserved communities to sell fresh, healthy food; helping to establish new grocery stores, farmers markets and community gardens; supporting healthy food incentive programs at farmers markets and grocery stores for low-income individuals; and promoting comprehensive nutrition and healthy food education for adults.
• Creation of new or improved parks and recreational space in underserved communities through community engagement and public policy efforts to address inequities in park access and to improve social connectedness.
• Using healthy land use planning tools to make progress on the issues of environmental justice, healthy food access, and equitable park access.

Target Populations

• Low-income communities of color

Please Note: The grants descriptions below are for reference only and offer examples of what Cal Wellness commonly funds under this grantmaking area. They should not be considered the only efforts that the Foundation will support.

Example of a grant for environmental justice and healthy land use planning:

• Core operating support to provide outreach and education to residents about the health impacts of pollution from industrial sources in their communities; leadership development to prepare residents to participate in local government proceedings; and public policy efforts to develop and implement community-driven land use plans that separate sources of pollution from homes and schools and bring positive assets into the community.

Example of a grant for increasing equitable access to healthy food:

• Funding to increase the number of corner stores, grocery stores, produce stands and farmers markets providing healthy food in underserved areas of Oakland, and to educate residents about the importance of consuming healthy food.

Example of a grant to increase park equity:

• Core operating support to provide training and technical assistance to community residents and local governments to increase funding for new or improved parks located in low-income communities.

• Health Policy Resources
• Featured Research & News

Key Strategies

• Research and public policy analysis on gun violence — as well as education and outreach that is based on research — to effect policy changes at all levels of government.
• Community organizing and policy advocacy efforts to reform the juvenile and adult criminal justice system.
• Gang prevention and intervention activities, such as: exposing youth and adults to positive alternatives; support services for individuals re-entering their communities after incarceration; preventing retaliation; and counseling services for trauma-exposed youth and adults.
• Leadership programs for youth and adults, including incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals, victims of violence, leaders of violence prevention programs, and concerned citizens working to establish a culture of nonviolence.
• Communications strategies that use the arts, documentary film or social media to highlight effective violence prevention programs and strategies.

Target Populations

• Boys and men of color
• Women and girls of color
• Formerly and currently incarcerated youth and adults
• Formerly gang-involved youth and adults

Please Note: The grants descriptions below are for reference only and offer examples of what Cal Wellness commonly funds under this grantmaking area. They should not be considered the only efforts that the Foundation will support.

• Core operating support to a policy research center to inform policymakers about public policies affecting incarcerated youth, as a violence prevention and re-entry strategy, and to monitor the implementation of current laws related to juvenile and adult criminal justice, such as Proposition 47.
• Funding for the research, analysis and dissemination of information on gang-involved young women in California, including recommendations for improving outcomes as a violence prevention strategy.
• Core operating support to a community-based youth services organization for after-school and mental health programs, and a hospital-based gun violence intervention program, which offers case management, counseling and mentoring services.
• Core operating support to educate and train violence prevention leaders to engage in visual storytelling and documentary film projects, as well as regrant funds for their projects.

• Health Policy Resources
• Featured Research & News