Social Policy & Analysis

The San Joaquin Valley (SJV), located in central California, known for its rich agricultural history, faces significant challenges due to climate change. The effects on this region are becoming more pronounced, with rising temperatures, prolonged droughts, and increased air pollution impacting both the environment and the health of the community. 

According to the Climate Change in the San Joaquin Valley Report, community members in the SJV  are primarily concerned with climate change matters involving water quality, water supply, flooding, economy, and air quality. As we collaborate with communities to learn of their concerns and improve climate change policy, CVHPI With our climate work we aims to raise awareness about the importance of taking action to mitigate the effects of climate change to move towards a healthier, more sustainable future for the San Joaquin Valley and beyond.

The four-part webinar series A Decade of Power Building, held throughout November 2023. This series is focused on the work of Fresno Building Healthy Communities and Building Healthy Communities Merced, both of which share a history as sites in the The California Endowment’s Building Healthy Communities Initiative. These webinars consist of four case study presentations that look at leadership development and power building leading up to and throughout the 2010-2020 place-based initiative, and how this work impacted leaders, built power, and even shaped the development of Fresno County’s pandemic response.

Please see the tabs below for presentation dates, details and event information.

Housing is related to many other social issues facing our Central Valley region. In 2017, Fresno State hosted a conference where community members working on housing prioritized the need for a place to find local data and a way to help them interpret it to help tell their stories and make change. If we can understand the pressure levers and solutions to housing issues, this will help us understand many other issues. For example: preterm birth focus groups revealed that people were most concerned with housing on many levels: from neighbors smoking around pregnant women, being afraid of complaining about health hazards to landlords, stress of rising costs, to neighborhood walkability.

The goal of the Central Valley Housing Data Repository is to build a centralized way to engage community that helps facilitate research and learning.

We do this through three strategies:

• Partner with Community Organizations engaged in Fair Housing Action
• Provide Active Learning Experiences for Students through Partnerships
• Draw on Repository for High-Impact Teaching Practices

This is a 5-year funded project with the support of Chan Zuckerberg Initiative with funding from The California Endowment.

To access the Central Valley Housing Data Repository, please click here. 

November 2023

Merced is ranked among the poorest in many regards, poor air quality, lack of employment, poor health, low education and poverty. Decades of policies and neglect have created these conditions, but not for all. While some neighborhoods experienced neglect, other neighborhoods had opportunities created for them through forward-thinking vision and policies.

Click here to view project

August 2018

While Fresno is ranked among the poorest in many regards, many have perceived this be the overall plagues of the city: low air quality, little green space, poor health, low education and poverty. Decades of policies and neglect have created these conditions, but not for all. While some neighborhoods experienced neglect, other neighborhoods had opportunities created for them through forward-thinking vision and policies.

Click here to view the project.