Focus Areas

Prevention Institute's Adverse Community Experiences and Resilience (ACE|R) Framework explains the need to understand trauma at the population level. It is the first framework of its kind to advance an understanding of community trauma and what to do about it.

We focus on how the structural drivers of health inequity—like racism and income inequality—impact communities, and seek to change the community conditions tied to those inequities.

Quality strategies that build thriving communities can help prevent and reduce the severity of some mental health conditions, as well as support treatment outcomes and foster wellbeing for all.

We work to change the underlying conditions that contribute to violence—in homes, schools, and neighborhoods—and to prevent violence from occurring in the first place.

We collaborate with partners up and down the state, weaving together our core organizational focus areas to advance a shared vision of a healthier, safer, and more equitable California.

Parks, trails, community gardens, and other urban green spaces serve as fundamental building blocks to create healthy, vibrant communities. In principle, public parks belong to everyone. In practice, access to parks and recreation areas is anything but equal.

Prevention Institute’s health systems transformation efforts focus on broadening out the definition of the health system to include all the organizations and sectors that contribute to people’s health.

We take a systems approach to improving access to healthy foods and opportunities for physical activity—working across a spectrum of issues, from education, land use and transportation, to economic development and industry regulation.

Health has a lot to do with where we live—and how the land where we live is used. Affordable housing, parks and green space, public transit, pedestrian safety, and other resources related to land use provide the foundations of community health. These are health-supporting resources that all communities deserve.