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Central Valley Health Policy Institute

Evaluation

Highlights & Features

The Sweet Potato Project

The Sweet Potato Project aims to improve livelihood outcomes of at-risk youth living in southwest Fresno. 

What the FAX

The “What the FAX” campaign was a youth-driven and adult-ally-supported data collection and organizing effort around public transportation in the City of Fresno.

Invest in Southwest

Through a collective effort, residents and advocates working under Invest in Southwest worked to shape land use plans and policies meant to correct harms resulting from racially discriminatory policies in Fresno.

sweet potato

Sweet Potato Project 2 Full Report 

Sweet Potato Project 2 Executive Summary

CRDP Sweet Potato Year 1 Evaluation Data Report

CRDP Sweet Potato Year 2 Evaluation Data Report

 

March 2022

The Sweet Potato Project is a part of the California Reducing Disparities Project (CRDP), a first kind Prevention and Early Intervention initiative funded by the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA, OR Proposition 63). The Sweet Potato Project is implemented as a Pilot program at the West Fresno Family Resource Center to identify and model the effectiveness of a culturally relevant approach that
addresses mental health disparities among African American youth ages 12-15 in West Fresno. The program goals include: developing self-esteem, socioemotional wellbeing, leadership, agribusiness, and entrepreneurial skills, while also fostering improvement to social and environmental stressors among southwest Fresno’s at-risk youth by increasing academic success, hope for the future, and collective efficacy. CVHPI conducted the evaluation through a mixed methods approach from 2018-2021

 


Read more about the What the FAX Campaign

What the FAX
September 2021

The Fresno Area Express, also known as the FAX, is Fresno’s regional public transportation system and the largest mass transportation provider in the San Joaquin Valley. Fresno Building Healthy Communities (BHC) has been working to empower residents to use their voice and promote change to systems that should effectively serve community needs since 2010. BHC and partner organizations started the “What the FAX” campaign as a result of community frustration that led to youth-driven and adult ally supported data collection and organizing efforts, and their collective push for improved public transportation infrastructure throughout the city of Fresno.


Invest in Southwest

Invest in SouthWest
September 4, 2021

In order to build long-lasting change, resident and advocate-driven work has needed to address and correct Fresno’s legacy of discriminatory neighborhood, housing, land use, and planning policies, including ongoing battles to reverse the impacts of redlining and ongoing community-level disinvestment. The results of this legacy have resulted in southwest Fresno being one of the most pollution-burdened locations in the state. Through vibrant community engagement, community organizing, advocacy, litigation, and large-scale voter education, the Fresno BHC Coalition emerged as a key player that helped the community to design southwest Fresno’s future.