LEARNING AND EVALUATION

It begins and ends with people power.

This is the most important lesson we’ve learned in and over a decade of Building Healthy Communities (BHC) evaluation, and the guiding north star from which we continue to do our work. Yet, this wasn’t our initial hypothesis. 10 years of listening and responding to our partners, questioning and testing our assumptions, and being flexible as we learned is what ultimately brought us here. As we move into our next phase and continue to embody health and racial equity in our way of work, The California Endowment is committed to progressing by practicing trust-based philanthropyemergent learning  and equitable evaluation in our work, learning and pivoting, and promoting that shared learning among all of our partners.

TCE’s Learning and Evaluation team exists to center equity as we build knowledge for and sharpen our strategic grantmaking. The lessons learned help us be more provocative in our questions, and more sure in our assumptions about how change happens. In turn, we share our evaluations so that philanthropic and public funding partners can rethink how they work and invest.

Webinars

Our Learning, Equity, andPower (LEaP) series highlights learnings from BHC.

Play Play

“Watch the second session of @CtrSocialPolicy Learning, Equity, and Power (LEaP) series. The series features learnings from BHC, and this session is focused on advancing racial justice and health equity, and the role funders can play
in the power building ecosystem"

Play Play

"Watch the third session of @CtrSocialPolicy Learning, Equity, and Power(LEaP) series. The series features learnings from BHC, and this session shows a conversation between @dr_tonyiton and Cathy Chaa from @HaasJrFund where they discuss the broad approach funders need to take to address"

Play Play

"Watch the fourth session of @CtrSocialPolicy Learning, Equity, and Power (LEaP) series. The series features learnings from BHC, and this session is on authentic youth engagement. Watch to see a conversation with TCE CEO, Dr. Ross, and two of our President’s Youth Council members"

Play Play

"Watch the final session of @CtrSocialPolicy Learning, Equity, and Power (LEaP) series. The series features learnings from BHC, and this session is on authentic community engagement. Watch to see a conversation with two members of BHC’s East Oakland community"

Our Progress & Learnings

What we’ve learned so far

Building Healthy Communities (BHC) is a signature program of The California Endowment (TCE) combining 10 years of continuous funding in 14 historically disinvested communities with state-level and regional policy campaigns and coalition building. A novel approach to health improvement that encompasses the social determinants of health, BHC focuses on power building to promote systems change and advance racial equity. The narrative shift is toward a deeper understanding of systemic inequities and the potential of people power to transform them.

As we worked in local communities, we gathered data to evaluate in real time, and sought feedback on our role as a funder and change-maker in order to become a more effective leader. The learnings that we have are applicable across communities, from the local, to regional, to national. We share our learnings here so that our community and state partners, philanthropies, and the broader social justice field can evaluate and adapt.

The following are learnings to date:

2010-2020 BHC Dashboard

Ten Years of Building Healthy Community Power to Achieve Health Equity

BHC's Decade of Accomplishments consists of three linked components. First, a slideshow report with a concise narrative highlighting key grantee partner milestones. This is coupled with a digital map that describes the local impact of people power in fourteen communities, as well as a digital timeline that lays out the context of statewide policy changes.

View our Accomplishments