Team Profile Summary

The Alameda County Team was initiated by the Alameda County Public Health Department. Original partners include: the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, the Oakland Unified School District, and Urban Habitat. Through community-centered and outcomes driven policy activities, we work with valued stakeholders and partners across many sectors to achieve our goals.

For additional information, please contact Alexandra Desautels at (510) 208-1235 or alexandra.desautels@acgov.org.

Team Profile Details

Problem Statement:

While significant health disparities can be found that afflict almost every racial and ethnic group, the magnitude of racial health disparities in Alameda County are most profound for African-Americans, Latinos, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders. Among Alameda County’s specific race/ethnic population groups, African Americans fare the poorest on most key measures of morbidity and mortality. While health disparities directly impact communities of color, they are of concern to all of Alameda County because their presence in the midst of affluence is a contradiction of our communities’ progressive values. Furthermore, health disparities are an economic drain on our community.

Team Objectives:

• Affordable Housing: An adequate supply of housing is constructed and preserved in proportion to demand, maintaining cultural, racial, and class diversity of the community. All housing is safe, habitable, and supports good health. No household resides in overcrowded conditions, is homeless, or spends more than 30 percent of monthly income on housing.
• Education: All school-aged youth have access to a quality education that prepares them to be productive members of the community, provides a safe and stimulating learning environment, and prepares them to achieve their goals. Schools expect and ensure that all students graduate. Life-long learning opportunities are accessible to all residents.
• Economic Development: All residents have access to high quality, living wage, local employment opportunities that provide healthy, safe, and meaningful work, so as to increase income and wealth equity.
• Incarceration: Institutional racism is addressed by all aspects of the criminal justice system. Alternatives to incarceration and evidence-based models are in place to address the underlying causes of crime and reduce the incidence of incarceration as a solution to social problems.
• Land Use: All residents live in communities where the air, soil, and water are clean and provide the conditions for good health. All residents have access to health promoting goods and services. Communities are designed to encourage social cohesion, through central meeting places and celebrate neighborhood identity. Jobs, affordable housing and transit are collocated when possible and healthy. Communities are designed to promote and support safe walking and biking, to provide access to quality affordable food, and to avoid disproportionate concentration of businesses that influence health negatively.
• Transportation: Citizens are easily able to go about their daily lives utilizing transportation systems that are accessible from their home and work and that are affordable. All public transit systems run on-time with well maintained vehicles and shelters.

Community Partners:

• Alameda County Public Health Department
• Alameda County Board of Supervisors– Supervisor Keith Caron’s Office
• Oakland Unified School District – Board of Education Director Gregory Hodge

To learn more about our initiative, the policies we are currently working on, the stages of policy agenda process, and the many ways we endeavor to keep the work community-centered, please contact:

Alexandra Desautels, MSW
Policy Analyst
Alameda County Public Health Department
1000 Broadway, Suite 500
Oakland, Ca 94607
Tel: (510)208-1235
Fax:(510) 268-7012
alexandra.desautels@acgov.org