Prevention Institute has deep roots in California, with offices in Oakland and Los Angeles. 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. In our experience, strategies that take root here often point the way towards effective approaches to advancing community health nationwide. By building a multi-sector network of prevention partners, we work to capture learnings from one community, health condition, or issue to ensure that successful methods and models for transformation are understood and implemented broadly. Our projects span from consultation with local collaboratives, foundations, and health departments to embed prevention into community initiatives to state-level research and advocacy to ensure health is central to California policy decisions.
PI works with a breadth of partners and communities to develop strategies and practices to keep people healthy and safe in the first place. Below is a selection of ongoing or recent projects.
Prevention Institute is excited to announce that we’re one of 10 Visualizing and Powering Healthy Lives projects that have been selected to analyze the impact of community determinants of health on life expectancy using local life expectancy data.
We have an opportunity to take transformational steps to improve our health system—from one that emphasizes sick care to one that focuses on keeping people healthy in the first place, and addresses inequities in health and safety.
We provide training, consultation, and strategy development to state and local health departments, public health professionals, community-based organizations, and community members to build capacity to change policies, systems, and environments.
HEALU was formed in response to structural barriers to equity in Los Angeles’ land use arena, and in an effort to strategically and collaboratively promote systems change. HEALU augments the role of health in the land use sphere through training, capacity building, convening and proactively advancing key strategies to ensure a healthier, more equitable land use system.
On behalf of the LA County Department of Public Health, PI developed recommendations for a proposed LA County Office of Violence Prevention. PI held listening sessions with community-based organizations and faith-based groups, and conducted interviews with subject matter experts, including service providers and survivors of multiple forms of violence. In November, PI assisted the Department of Public Health in crafting preliminary recommendations that were presented to the Board of Supervisors.
We research and write reports, white papers, fact sheets, opinion pieces, and journal articles, as well as produce videos and podcasts. Here are some of our latest offerings.
With the influx of $43 billion in flexible state and local recovery funds via the American Rescue Plan Act and a historic state surplus, it's time for California's leaders to “bake in” health equity and racial justice to public funding programs at every stage. By designing and implementing funding programs grounded in California’s commitment to equity, we can foster community health, safety, and wellbeing in our state’s racially and economically diverse communities. This brief recommends ways to operationalize equity in each phase of a public funding program.
Throughout California, community-based organizations have stepped up to address community needs during the pandemic. This report shares how local governments can better partner with community organizations to create a more equitable recovery from the social, economic, and health effects of the pandemic.
California’s state government can play a vital role in facilitating and supporting efforts to improve community-wide health, safety, and wellbeing, by reducing exposure to trauma, and increasing individual and community resilience. This report explores prevention and healing approaches that strengthen mental health and wellbeing, support communities to heal from trauma, and build community resilience.
In this policy brief, PI Deputy Executive Director Manal J. Aboelata describes the current, unprecedented opportunity Los Angeles County administrators have to help reverse the lasting impacts that racial segregation and racially unjust investment patterns have had on the health, safety, and wellbeing of LA’s African Americans, people of African descent, Latinos, and other communities of color. She makes recommendations for how funding generated from four recently passed ballot measures should be invested to create thriving and inclusive communities for all Angelenos. Manal wrote this policy brief during her Stanton Fellowship, funded by the Durfee Foundation.
This brief offers a framework for thinking about substance use prevention and describes critical components of successful youth-focused initiatives, highlighting successful community-based programs. It is intended to support and guide the California departments and agencies tasked with administering Prop 64 dollars allocated to the Youth Education, Prevention, Early Intervention, and Treatment Account.
Our approach to water equity connects a range of environmental and social issues whose challenges and solutions are interwoven, from drinking water quality and stormwater management to urban greening and fiscal equity. It also recognizes the full spectrum of disparate environmental conditions that negatively impact the health of low-income communities of color—including air, soil and water pollution and disparities in natural and recreational amenities—and considers how system-level solutions may address or compound inequities.
Prevention Institute developed a Safety in All Policies framework and actionable recommendations to advance community safety and violence prevention in California through a multi-sector public health approach. This work builds on the growing base of research and practice evidence and growing attention to Health in All Policies.
Advancing Community Prevention through the Champions for Change Peer-to-Peer Projects explores interwoven policy, systems and environmental change strategies to advance health and nutrition in Los Angeles County.
This brief outlines four key strategies to move Los Angeles to a healthier, more equitable land use system, and highlights a selection of policy examples and key opportunities.
We have a vision for a healthy, safe and equitable California. Watch this two-minute video to learn more about our policy platform, and how you can get involved.
These profiles, written by PI and our partners, show what community prevention looks like on the ground, all across the country.
Learn more about Los Angeles County's work to improve community safety, incorporate health into the city of Los Angeles' general plan, improve breastfeeding outcomes, adopt healthy food procurement standards, and partner with local restaurants to promote healthier food.
Watch our video chronicling our annual advocacy day in Sacramento where residents from across the state share a powerful message with legislators about why health, safety, and equity policy matters to their community.
In October 2015, PI conducted a workshop during Antelope Valley Partners for Health (AVPH) Fall Wellness Summit with approximately 270 representatives from local government, schools, community-based organizations, faith-based groups, and local businesses from the Antelope Valley.
