California Alliance Awards New Community Action Fund Grants

The California Alliance of Academics and Communities for Public Health Equity Invests $131,000 through its new Community Action Fund to strengthen the Capacity of Community Based Organizations Statewide

Oakland, CA, August 16, 2023 – The California Alliance of Academics and Communities for Public Health Equity (The Alliance), a program of the Public Health Institute, is pleased to announce the selection of seven organizations that will receive grants totaling more than $130,000 from the Fund. The Community Action Fund is a new flagship funding program of The Alliance, whose mission is to advance health equity by growing the collective power of California’s academic public health programs in partnership with community based organizations.

“In the past twenty years there has been discussion in the field about the importance of directly supporting the work of communities most impacted by health inequities, but little has improved,” says Alliance Director Michael Rodriguez. “With the Community Action Fund (CAF) The Alliance aims to catalyze a social movement by investing in those organizations that know what works best for their communities.”

The seven CAF funded organizations use a health equity lens to impact change in one of the following three key areas: health workforce development, environment and health and violence prevention. Each project is a collaboration between a supported community organization and a California based School or Program of Public Health.

Grantees were chosen from a pool of 50 applicants in a competitive, open process managed by The Alliance. Selected projects cover a variety of regions throughout California and have a strong focus on historically excluded or marginalized communities and authentic community engagement.

Community Action Fund grant recipients include: 

• La Clínica de La Raza
• Little Manila Rising
• Local Clean Energy Alliance
• Mixteco Indigena Community Organizing Project
• Raizes Collective
• San Diego Youth Services
• Youth Leadership Institute

Participating academic partner institutions include California State University, East Bay; California State University, Bakersfield; California State University, Fresno; University of California, Berkeley; University of California, Los Angeles; University of San Francisco; and State Diego State University.

All applicants, as well as grantees, are invited to join The Alliance’s Action Groups on related themes to develop the organization’s symbiotic potential statewide.

About The Alliance:

The California Alliance of Academics and Communities for Public Health Equity is a new statewide policy, training, and research collaboration whose goal is to amplify the voice of schools and programs of public health in partnership with communities disproportionately impacted by health disparities. The Alliance aims to build a common agenda, to grow a workforce dedicated to advancing health equity and to catalyze substantive policy change on health equity.

The Alliance is funded by The California Endowment, California Health Care Foundation, Blue Shield of California Foundation, and The California Wellness Foundation.

For more information, contact: info-alliance@phi.org.