ASSEMBLY SELECT COMMITTEE ON THE STATUS OF BOYS &

MEN OF COLOR IN CALIFORNIA

Karen L. Smith, MD, MPH - Director & State Health OfficerWm. Jahmal Miller, MHA – Deputy Director

California Department of Public Health | Office of Health EquityMonday, August 24, 2015

“What is also true is that the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination, in almost every institution of our lives, that casts a long shadow, and that’s

still part of our DNA that’s passed on. We’re not cured of it.”President Barack Obama’s podcast interview on WTF with Marc Maron

June 22, 2015

Health is Shaped by Where We Live, Learn, Work, and Play

Strengthening Families & Communities

• At the California Department of Public Health, we are committed to deploying our people, programs and expertise to help strengthen families and communities.

• Consequently, we must prioritize and optimize the health, mental health and well-being of our boys and men of color.

CA Health and Safety Code 131019.5• The Office of Health Equity (OHE) was established in 2012 to align state

resources, decision making, and programs to accomplish all of the following:

• Achieve the highest level of health and mental health for all people, with special attention focused on those who have experienced socioeconomic disadvantage and historical injustice

• Work collaboratively with the Health in All Policies (HiAP) Task Force

• Advise and assist other state departments in their mission to increase access to, and the quality of, culturally and linguistically competent health and mental health care and services

• Improve the health status of all populations and places, with a priority on eliminating health and mental health disparities and inequities

“Health equity” means efforts to ensure that all people have full and equal access to opportunities that enable them to lead healthy lives.

Source: California Health and Safety Code Section 131019.5

Office of Health Equity Statewide Strategic Plan to Achieve Health & Mental Health Equity

Will the CDPH - Office of Health Equity Apply the Gender Lens?

• Stage 1 and Stage 2 Goals embedded in Portrait of Promise: • Promote the use of a gender

lens is used as appropriate when assessing the promotion of health and mental health equity models, to increase the likelihood of improving the often-distinct health needs of women and girls and men and boys, particularly those of color and/or low income

California Reducing Disparities Project• Prop. 63-funded $60m initiative to identify promising

practices and systems change recommendations to address persistent disparities in underserved populations.

• Target Populations: • African American; Asian and Pacific Islander; Latino; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,

Transgender, Queer, and Questioning; and Native American communities• Services defined by multicultural communities, for

multicultural communities• Solicitations being released August 2015

California Health in All Policies Task Force

• Promote health, equity, and sustainability

• Support inter-sectoral collaboration • Benefit and engage with multiple

partners and stakeholders• Create structural or procedural

change• What role can the State & HiAP

Task Force play moving forward?• Violence Prevention & Community

Safety• Access to healthy food• Community greening• Health equity learning series for State

employees

Sexual & Behavioral Health

• Ensuring equity remains constant value in CDPH Center for Infectious Disease efforts• Among males ages 15-19, the

African American gonorrhea rate(797.3) in 2010 was 32 times greater than the White rate(24.9)

• Recently participated in the White House’s Office of National AIDS Policy announcement on updated 2020 National HIV/AIDS Strategy

Childhood, Youth & Adolescent Development

• Partnering w/ California and U.S. Departments of Justice on the Defending Childhood State Policy Initiative• Addressing child trauma and exposure to violence

• California Essentials for Childhood Cooperative Agreement • Funded by the CDC to leverage and support sustainable,

multi-sectorial collaborative efforts that promote safe, stable nurturing relationships and environments

• Center for Youth Wellness ACES Policy Working Group• Promote a trauma-informed workforce, systems change and

increase awareness about the impacts of childhood adversity

Partnership with Board of State & Community Corrections – AB 1837

• Serving on the Executive Steering Committee for the $5m Social Innovation Financing Program focused on recidivism reduction efforts

Multi-sectoral Approach on All Levels: Strong Roots, Strong Boys & Men of Color

Executive, Legislative & Judicial BranchesCHHS Agency | Office of Health Equity | CDPH

National, State & Local Communities & Stakeholders

CA Adverse Childhood

Experiences Working Group

CA Reducing Disparities Project

OHE 25-Member Advisory Committee

Healthy Communities

Data & Indicator Project

Climate Action TeamSocial Innovation Fund Executive

Steering Committee (AB1837)Health In All

Policies Task Force

Examples of Partnership & Collaboration that support our boys & men of color

Defending Childhood State Policy

Initiative

CA Essentials for Childhood

Initiative

Assembly Select Committee on the Status of BMoC in CA

Boys & Men of Color Task Force

(AB80)

My Brother’s Keeper Initiative

Public Health Alliance of

Southern CA

Racial and Ethnic Mental Health

Disparities Coalition Bay Area

Regional Health Inequities Initiative

Federal Offices of Minority Health

CA Conference of Local Health

Officers

Alliance for BMoC

California Center for Research on

Women and Families

CA Pan-Ethnic Health Network

Sierra Health Foundation

PolicyLink

The California

Endowment

CDPH Open Portal

Let’s Get Healthy California

CA Wellness PlanCA Black

Health Network

Greenlining Institute

Kaiser Permanente