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How climate risk data can help communities become more resilient: Insights from San Diego

December 4, 2023

Governments at all levels have a responsibility to help communities adapt to increasing climate risks. Local governments are on the front lines, as they regulate and incentivize the location of new housing and commercial development, develop and operate transportation and water infrastructure, and oversee emergency preparedness and response. The rapidly growing field of climate analytics can help local governments adopt a more proactive approach by identifying risks, developing climate action plans, and implementing strategies that limit the harms of both chronic and acute climate stresses, from intense storms to wildfires to extreme heat.The goal of this project is to illustrate how local governments can use geographically granular climate risk data to map local hazards and plan community-based adaptation strategies, while highlighting some of the challenges in working with this data. We also discuss areas where regional, state, and federal agencies can support their local colleagues in these efforts. This analysis is intended to be useful for local governments—including elected officials and career staff—as well as utilities, regional planning agencies, private sector firms, and civic organizations engaged with built environment planning.To illustrate the potential uses and challenges of geographically granular climate risk information, we analyze data created by First Street Foundation that measures heat, wildfire, and flood risk. Focusing on the city of San Diego, we create risk maps at several levels of geography—city, neighborhood, and parcel—to illustrate how risk varies across geography, over time, and by climate risk category. These metrics primarily capture physical risk; when possible, we look at overlaps with social and economic characteristics that affect community vulnerability. Case studies of three neighborhoods with particularly high risks show the usefulness—and some cautions—of parcel-level analysis.

From Surviving to Thriving: A Quality-of-Life Study with Transgender, Gender Nonconforming, and Intersex (TGI) Adults in the City of Los Angeles

November 6, 2023

Transgender people in California experience discrimination and harassment in employment, housing, health care, schools, and other public places. More limited research has also documented that intersex people face employment discrimination and have poorer health compared to the general population. This study embraced a quality-of-life framework to gather first-person accounts from 55 transgender, non-binary, and intersex (TGI) adults to better understand the needs of TGI people who live, work, or receive services in the City of Los Angeles. Focus group topics included housing, employment, health care, and access to local services and resources. Overall, we found that while the TGI community continues to face many acute challenges, it has also developed expertise, relationships, and resources that will be critical to addressing these challenges in partnership with the City.

Race Counts 2023 Annual Report

October 1, 2023

RACE COUNTS is a groundbreaking initiative that shines a spotlight on the harsh realities faced by communities of color in California, across critical areas such as housing, education, economic opportunities, and incarceration. The 2023 annual report unveils the data, the challenges, and most importantly, the opportunities for change. In addition, the report also uplifts stories of organizations working on the ground to advance racial equity and offers policy recommendations for reducing racial disparities.The data reveals that not all counties are created equal. Mono County tops the list as the most racially disparate county in California, with Plumas County closely following. Surprisingly, Marin County, which used to be second, now ranks third in disparities. The Northern/Sierra region counties grapple with worse outcomes and higher disparities compared to other counties. In the Bay Area, despite its prosperity, communities of color do not share in this success. On the bright side, San Diego and Orange County are among the five counties with the lowest disparities, while Placer and El Dorado in the Sacramento area rank among the highest in outcomes. The San Joaquin Valley stands out as the only region where all counties within the region have lower-than-average overall outcomes. In Los Angeles, the largest county in California, disparities exist but are not as pronounced, with notable exceptions like chronic absenteeism rates for Black students.

Oakland, California, The Cost of Gun Violence: The Direct Cost to Tax Payers

September 28, 2023

The National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (NICJR) has conducted this detailed analysis that documents the government expenses accompanying every fatal and non-fatal shooting in Oakland. In tracking the direct costs per shooting incident, NICJR has deliberately used the low end of the range for each expense. This study does not include the loss-of-production costs when the victim or suspect were working at the time of the incident. Nationally, those costs have been estimated at an additional $1–2 million for each shooting incident. This means that the calculated cost of $3,191,722 for a fatal shooting in Oakland is a conservative estimate; the real cost is likely even higher.

Trans Power & Resilience: The Impact of COVID-19 In Trans, Gender Nonconforming, and Intersex (TGI) Communities in Los Angeles County

September 20, 2023

In this study, The TransLatin@ Coalition engaged Transgender, Gender Nonconforming, and Intersex (TGI) People Of Color (POC) across Los Angeles County to better understand how COVID-19 impacted them. Los Angeles County is home to over 10 million people, with an estimated 28,890 adults identifying as TGI (Williams Institute and the US Census). Given the racial/ethnic make-up of the county, we estimate that over 21,000 identify as TGI people of color (Latinx, Black/African-American, Asian/Pacific Islander, Native American, and/or Arab/Middle Eastern). TGI people of color share many of the same needs and characteristics as their cisgender women counterparts – they face challenges related to sexism, racism, xenophobia, and homophobia that limit their opportunities to thrive economically. TGI people also face family rejection, which can lead to developmental trauma disorder or complex post-traumatic stress disorder. TGI people aside from family rejection also experience transphobia, which impedes their advancement and makes day-to-day survival much more tenuous.Funding from the California Commission on Women and Girls was utilized to specifically support the engagement of TGI POC in identifying and documenting the economic impact of COVID-19 on them and their communities. With this research, we present community-based solutions related to COVID-19 recovery and resilience for TGI communities in Los Angeles County.  

Environmental Dataset Re-Mix Recommendations for the California State Water Resources Control Board

September 13, 2023

On March 23, 2023, the Open Environmental Data Project and the California State Water Resources Control Board co-hosted a Dataset Re-Mix Workshop. We explored and discussed potential improvements to the state's water quality datasets, and their uses in understanding and achieving Human Right to Water and Safe and Affordable Funding for Equity and Resilience (SAFER) program goals. This report contains recommendations synthesized from these conversations.

Nonprofit Workforce Shortage Survey In California

September 5, 2023

In April 2023, more than 1,600 charitable nonprofit organizations throughout the United States completed the nonprofit workforce shortages survey designed to gauge whether job vacancies continue to be a problem for the missions of those organizations, how the vacancies impact communities, and what actions have been taken and are proposed for alleviating the challenges. Fifty-five California nonprofits shared insights that provide the substance of this report.

Review of Whale Conservation Technology

September 1, 2023

Whale populations have been impacted by anthropogenic activities since humans started whaling for oil hundreds of years ago. Today the threats facing whales are much different but can still be accredited to human interference in their habitat, with the two most pressing threats being whale entanglement in fishing gear and ship strikes. Effectively protecting whales from these threats requires understanding the situations and environments where whales and humans are likely to come into contact.

Community-driven learning: Contributions of multigenerational approaches for the prevention of domestic violence

August 23, 2023

this report is a summary of key findings from a three-year initiative to build evidence for multigenerational, culturally responsive, and trauma-informed practices that effectively support families in breaking the cycle of domestic violence. The Breaking the Cycle cohort is one of Blue Shield of California Foundation's key investments, comprised of 12 established community-based organizations funded to evaluate their multigenerational domestic violence prevention approaches. Breaking cycles of domestic violence requires working across generations because it is an issue that impacts adults, children, families, and communities. To prevent childhood exposure to domestic violence, we strengthen support systems for survivors through funding organizations that build resilience and heal across generations.

PledgeLA Venture Data Report 2023: An Analysis of Access to Capital in the Los Angeles Venture Capital and Tech Ecosystems

August 15, 2023

A new report from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs that tracks investments made by LA-based venture firms connected to the Annenberg Foundation's PledgeLA initiative found slight increases in funding to women and Black founders when compared with the previous year. However, there are still many gaps remaining, especially when it comes to check size and venture firms' comparative assets under management.

Building on CalAIM’s Housing Supports: Strengthening Medi-Cal for People Experiencing Homelessness

August 10, 2023

California's Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, is undergoing an ambitious transformation known as CalAIM (California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal).  A key focus of this transformation is removing barriers to care for populations who struggle to access services, including people experiencing homelessness. A critical goal of CalAIM is a more person-centered approach to publicly funded health care.This paper, from the Corporation for Supportive Housing, rests on a foundation of extensive research and examines the successes, challenges, and opportunities in providing person-centered care to people experiencing homelessness. In Part 1, the authors describe in detail how homelessness undermines a person's health. When people live outdoors or without reliable shelter, existing health issues are made worse, and people develop new ones. Californians experiencing homelessness die in large numbers from causes directly related to their lack of housing.The primary driver of homelessness is a lack of affordable housing. Part 2 describes opportunities in CalAIM, in the Providing Access and Transforming Health (PATH)  initiative, and in the Home and Community-Based Services Spending Plan to fund housing support services that connect people to housing and help keep people stably housed. This section also includes explanations of CalAIM's Enhanced Care Management benefit and Community Supports, seven of which specifically focus on people experiencing homelessness.Despite the promise of CalAIM and related programs, CalAIM's impact has been limited to date. Part 3 describes the challenges providers and managed care plans face in implementing CalAIM and the provision of housing support services. Health care and social service providers offering services under CalAIM must navigate differing reimbursement rates — which may not be enough — and differing requirements set by each managed care plan, even among plans operating in the same county. Managed care plans may not know how best to identify and reach people experiencing homelessness, and to connect people to housing and housing support services. Meanwhile, people who are unhoused must still find and access the care and services they need by navigating complex systems of care and fragmented provider networks.

Mapping Gun Homicides in California

August 10, 2023

Thanks to the meaningful investment and support from Kaiser Permanente, the California Gun Homicides 2014 - 2022 dashboard was built to visualize and conceptualize the available data of reported gun homicides; and is part of a larger effort by Hope and Heal Fund and RomoGIS Enterprises  to raise awareness about where and when gun-related homicides have occurred in California communities.The team harnessed the collective power of gun violence prevention community stakeholders, data-gathering processes, and technology to publicize near real-time and accurate gun-related homicide data, which is needed in order to create actionable change to improve the safety and quality of life throughout California's communities. This project is an example of the strategic approach of Hope and Heal Fund, and we are hopeful that this challenges our field and contributes to furthering efforts to reduce gun violence in our state and across the country.Our goal for this mapping project is to better contextualize and visualize current gun homicide data in California. Our efforts are intentionally aligned with the  Violence Policy Center 's recommendations "...to make current public databases more easily accessed and understood to increase their utility" (June 2019). We understand the available gun violence data is currently difficult for communities to utilize for actionable change. That is why we built both a filter by year and/or by county buttons along with an interactive chart in the dashboard, as well as made county-specific visualization tools, so that users of the dashboard can easily see and interact with available gun violence data for the state of California. With generous funding from Kaiser Permanente, Hope and Heal Fund and RomoGIS are able to do this work to better understand how to support California communities impacted by gun violence. This effort initially set out to counter inaccurate assumptions regarding urban centers being the primary drivers of gun homicides in California. The map clearly illustrates that non-urban settings are being impacted and contribute heavily to the total firearm homicides. Despite achieving our initial goal, this map has led to larger questions that we are currently investigating and attempting to map. Additionally, we hope communities, philanthropic organizations, the nonprofit sector, governmental stakeholders, and other key partners will utilize and benefit from this information. Specifically, we ask partners and stakeholders to consider the implications of this information and how it can be leveraged to develop opportunities that are strategic, focused, and surgical in reducing gun violence across the state.