Stories of Philanthropic Leadership in Advancing Regional and ...

Clinica de la Raza identify this critical need and usethe maps to garner funding to open a new healthclinic. Now over 12,000 community members havetransit or pedestrian access to a full-service clinic.In early 2005, TALC launched a comprehensiveeffort to ensure that low-income and minoritycommunities have a strong voice in transportationdecisions through the distribution to more than1,500 community groups of a new guide in Spanishand English entitled, Access Now!. With a grant fromThe San Francisco Foundation, TALC is offering freetraining and technical assistance to help thesecommunities prepare effective local efforts.Recognizing that transportation is an issue, theSocial Equity Caucus created a TransportationJustice Working Group (TJWG) to document theunequal benefits andburdens of theWith many formerlyregion’sdisinvested communitiestransportationundergoing revitalization system and to workand gentrification, deliberate towards buildingstrategies are needed to capacity withinensure that low-income minorityresidents participate in communities toand benefit from the defend their transiteconomic resurgence in their rights. For example,TJWG helped tocommunities.mobilize a broad,committed grassrootscoalition to reduce toxic emissions from dieselexhaust in low-income communities and to stop a$20 million cut in Alameda-Contra Costa Transit.Transportation is but one of many factors to beaddressed to ensure that regional developmentbenefits all Bay Area residents, including low-incomecommunities. With many formerly disinvestedcommunities undergoing revitalization andgentrification, deliberate strategies are needed toensure that low-income residents participate in andbenefit from the economic resurgence in theircommunities. The SEC is seeking to makedevelopment in the Bay Area region more equitableby encouraging socially responsible economicinvestment in impoverished Bay Area communities.The SEC has collaborated with other Bay Areapartners on the Community Capital InvestmentInitiative (CCII), an effort to raise private sectorfunds to address issues in impoverished communities.To date, CCII has raised more than $150 million fordouble bottom line investments in businesses,brownfield cleanup, and smart growth. The SEC,working with two other Bay Area groups, PolicyLinkand the National Economic Development and LawCenter, seeks to ensure that the investments in thethree areas not only produce returns for the investorsbut also benefits for the communities. The SEC isalso working with a Ford Foundation-fundedinitiative in Richmond, Calif., to apply the principlesof equitable development in a community setting. 27The hope is for all neighborhoods in the Bay Area tobe stable, healthy, and livable. Unfortunately, manylow-income people reside or go to schools where theyare exposed to the environmental triggers that cancause asthma. Big steps forward have been madethrough the advocacy efforts of RAMP. In the fall of2002, RAMP decided to place a greater emphasis onadvocacy, creating two active work groups, theRAMP Environment Committee and the RAMPSchools Committee.The Schools Committee has developed a frameworkto reach its goal of creating asthma-friendly schoolsin the Bay Area. The Committee has hosted tworegional roundtable discussions on addressing asthmain schools, bringing together school nurses,administrators, parents, and asthma advocates. Theroundtables exchanged strategies and resources toimprove staff and student education, establishmanagement and support systems for students withasthma, and promote healthy indoor air quality. TheCommittee has also been involved in state-leveladvocacy for policies to improve indoor air qualityand for access to asthma medications in schools.The Environment Committee broke new ground byfocusing on not only education and capacitybuilding,but also increasing involvement inadvocacy and by moving towards the development ofa political movement. In the fall of 2002, RAMPhosted a “Diesel and Asthma” conference, which setinto motion RAMP’s extensive involvement in thisissue. A series of planning meetings, led by RAMP,SEC, SEC’s Transportation Justice Working Group,the Pacific Institute, and the West OaklandEnvironmental Indicators Project, resulted in a majorconvening in the fall of 2003. Over 100 participants27This specific effort is the subject of another profile in this report thatbegins on page 32.EQUITABLE PUBLIC INVESTMENTPart III: Section 1: Promoting Equitable Public Investment 60