Building Healthy Communities
Building Healthy Communities (BHC) successfully built community power across the state with the goal of working towards a California where all people have the opportunity to thrive.
As a signature program of The California Endowment, BHC combined 10 years of continuous funding in 14 historically disinvested communities with state-level and regional policy campaigns and coalition building.
During this time, we learned it begins and ends with people power. This is the most important lesson we’ve learned in and over a decade of BHC evaluation, and is the guiding north star from which we continue to do our work.
This wasn’t our initial hypothesis. Yet 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.
BHC shifted the narrative 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 lessons learned help us be more provocative in our questions, and more confident in our assumptions about how change happens.
All in all, BHC was a novel approach to health improvement that encompassed the social determinants of health and led to our focus on power building to promote systems change and advance racial equity.
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14
Communities Transformed -
1,526
Policy, System & Physical Wins -
$1B
Invested Over 10 Years
“Racial injustice, structural inequality are made by the human hand. Which means that they can be dismantled by the human hand. Dismantled by human leadership, human action, human voice, human advocacy, human activism.”
DR. ROBERT K. ROSS President & CEO, The California Endowment
Browse Other Changes Planted by Dr. Ross
Health4All 38.6 million lives impacted
Youth Awards 37 total awards given
Schools Not Prisons & BMOC Millions reached since 2016
Farmworker Health $50M initiative
TCE Grant Making 2023 $381M awarded
Parks for All Hundreds of millions leveraged for parks investments in CA
Youth on the Board 1st of large foundations in US to have youth on the board
Childhood Obesity & Freshworks $272M to expand access to fresh and healthy foods in low-income communities
CHIS 20,000 households interviewed annually to find health gaps in CA
Kids Health Coverage Campaign $4M to help enroll children in health programs
Cultural Competency/Health Workforce/PRIME $78.2M to CA organizations working to boost the size and diversity of the state's healthcare workforce
TCE Headquarters 125,000+ use our facilities every year
Wishing Wall
Dr. Ross,
Best wishes on your journey. Thank you for everything!
-SAJE
Thank you Dr. Ross for impacting so many people and our community.
- Vida Mobile Clinic
Bob,
Fortunate to have such a powerful voice & thought leader at TCE.
- Sherry
Mil gracias from planned parenthood! We love you!
Dang Bob! You really leaving? You really reading all this good stuff?! Ok man! Among so many of the things I already said, you baaaad, Dude. Much love!
Congratulations on a wonderful 24 years of impact! May God bless you and keep you!
Dr. Ross,
Deep gratitude for your leadership and commitment to equity and justice.
Dr. Ross! Congrats on your transition. I am grateful for the opportunity to have grown up with your support. You inspired me to chase my dreams.
- Corleone (BMoC)
Dr. Ross!
You are fantastic!
Bob,
Thank you for all the good trouble you made and extending a hand to join you.
With love,
- Hanh Cao Yu
Wishing you a happy and blessed retirement.
Love,
- David & Pei
Bob,
We wish you good health, adventure, and lots of love in your life’s journey.
- Julie & Pete Brown
We wish you well wishes.
- Brotherhood Crusade
Bob -
We’ll miss you so much. You’ve been a force of nature and a force of beauty.
Love you,
- Jim Mangia
Dear Bob,
I have learned and grown so much during my time at TCE and with you. Thank you for everything.
- Karthik
Happiest wishes for a joyous and peaceful retirement after an amazing and productive career! Come back to visit TCE!
- Diana Yang
Blessings upon blessings! Looking forward to all your journey takes you!
Bob!
Rest. Relax. Renew. Have fun…
- Kisha Grove
I wish you all the best. Hopefully I will see you around the bowl more!
- Virginia Mosqueda
Dr. Ross,
You rock.
Celebrating 30 Years
The future of California won’t be built for our communities. It will be built by our communities.
Learn More