New! Short video series features built environment policy advocates winning in Los Angeles County

Today, we are proud to elevate six LA-based collaboratives that exemplify the advocacy capacity, courage, and community leadership it will take to ensure real progress towards healthy, equitable built environments. Last year, President Biden signed the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act into law. As federal resources flow to states and then locales, this work answers the question: how do we ensure that this new infrastructure law advances racial equity and improves conditions in disinvested and disadvantaged communities?
 
With primary funding from First 5 LA, Prevention Institute led and managed the Built Environment Policy Advocacy Fund (BEPAF), which supported six community-based collaboratives over two years to advance health equity and racial justice by advocating for policies and systems that impact neighborhood conditions—including parks, transportation, and healthy food access—for children and their families in LA’s Black and brown communities.

“This work is even more critical now as the region is grappling with two pandemics—COVID-19 and systemic racism. Advocating for infrastructure investments that strengthen communities is urgent because we know that both pandemics are impacting Black and brown Angelenos with an intensity that threatens to further erode many families’ economic position and their access to opportunities.” BEPAF partner

Thanks to support of funders like First 5 LA and The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation, and assistance from our evaluation partner Ersoylu Consulting, we learned what it takes to better support local groups to advocate for health equity and racial justice in the built environment. The $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure bill is just a down payment on what is needed to rectify injustices in our nation’s public infrastructure. Efforts like the BEPAF—capacity building, technical support, and sustained investment—are essential in supporting local groups to achieve policy wins, demand accountability, and get results.