Evaluation

BUILDING HEALTHY COMMUNITIES IN THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY: DATA REPORT UPDATE

June 2024

The San Joaquin Valley region housed three of the California Endowment fourteen Building Healthy Communities Area. The report is an update to the “Building Healthy Communities in the San Joaquin Valley: Preliminary Baseline Data Report” written in 2010. The original report was intended to support the ongoing planning efforts of The California Endowment Building Healthy Communities (BHC) sites in the San Joaquin Valley by providing the foundation of currently available data and likely data sources to guide where there were opportunities for meaningful systems work that would change community health. The report aimed to develop a framework for evaluating the program. This updated report expands on the original “Big Four Results” outlined in 2010 to add data on how “North Star Goals,” a later framework of the BHC work, changed the San Joaquin Valley. Findings reveal that the San Joaquin Valley made both health and policy improvements that have made communities healthier. Three notable changes are the increase in median wages in Merced County, a more educated population, and fewer people reporting they are in poor or fair health, especially in Fresno County. Focusing on the North Star Goal framework which focuses on increased people power, important policy wins through the work of the BHC initiatives has resulted in more opportunities for leadership for people of color, increased access to care, and new spaces where youth and parents are making meaningful policy changes in the educational system and beyond. New challenges in the region are emerging every day, such as increased mental health issues and obesity rates. However, communities now have tools they did not have before to take on decision-making roles and provide resident-led solutions.  

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

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

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.