Prevention Institute 2025 Accomplishments

2025 was a year unlike any other. Like our partners, the communities we serve, and our broader ecosystem, we navigated profound risk, uncertainty, and harm. In that context, our values were not aspirational—they were operational. They shaped how we made decisions, where we showed up and spoke up, and what we chose to protect:

Equity and justice: In late 2024, we reaffirmed our commitment to health equity and to racial justice. In 2025, we acted on that commitment by asserting an affirmative vision for what communities need to flourish—even as policy conditions moved in the opposite direction. We continued to center long-term, transformational change while responding to immediate threats, grounding our work in the belief that equity is not a principle to be stated but a responsibility to be carried forward, especially in hard moments.
Interdependence: We have long recognized that everyone’s health, safety, and wellbeing are mutually reliant on the health, safety, and wellbeing of others. In 2025, that understanding became a call to action. As systems, structures, protections, and funding were decimated, we acted in solidarity and stood with nonprofits, with the public health sector, and with communities that have been most marginalized. We doubled down on partnership, leaned into the ecosystem, and opted for collective action and protection.
Dignity: We have been horrified by the pervasive dehumanization and intentional harm inflicted on immigrant communities, communities of color, and communities dependent on accessible social services and public benefits—to name a few examples. As this harm was compounded by simultaneous attacks on federal employees and the nonprofit and public health sectors, we committed to showing up differently—meeting this moment with care, solidarity, and respect for human dignity. When we shared our 2024 accomplishments, we said that in 2025 we would act with love in partnership. We did so by meeting communities where they were, working with mutual respect, and supporting their ability to heal and claim their own power in the current climate. In turn, learning from communities strengthened not only our Community-Centered Practice, but all of our work.
Accountability: We remained accountable to the communities we partner with, our partners, our funders, and ourselves—sometimes by showing up in familiar ways, and sometimes by adapting. On the familiar side, we maintained strong fiscal stewardship, including another clean audit. We continued to prioritize transparency in our policy and advocacy work while recognizing that full visibility is not always safe in the current climate. We chose to be transparent about our boundaries as well as our actions, and we focused even more intentionally on our nonprofit hygiene amidst the growing threats to the sector. Finally, against the backdrop of sector-wide funding uncertainty, we decided to invest our unrestricted net assets in our own organizational stability so that we remain a steady, reliable force within the ecosystem when it is most needed.

The past year was difficult. We spent it leaning into our values and making strategic decisions to chart a path forward—showing up in the present even as we planned for what comes next, including shaping systems and narratives that serve communities that are most vulnerable. We know the year ahead will also be challenging. Our focus will be collective sustainability. For us that means standing in solidarity, showing up with community partners, staying grounded in impact for communities, and investing in a just and equitable ecosystem—now and in the future. None of this would be possible without the generous support of our funders to whom we are deeply grateful. We are equally grateful to our partners and the communities that we work with and learn from. To all of you, your partnership will remain essential as we navigate 2026. In solidarity, Rachel A. Davis Executive Director

Our 2025 accomplishments are organized by four interrelated strategies:

Community-Centered Practice: Partnering with communities in support of community-driven change.
Practitioner Knowledge & Skill Building: Strengthening practitioner capacity to advance equitable health, safety, and wellbeing.
Policy & Systems Transformation: Changing policies and systems to produce equitable health, safety, and wellbeing.
Momentum Building: Strengthening a prevention and health equity ecosystem while shifting fields, norms, and narratives.

Community-Centered Practice Accomplishments

Community-Centered Practice: Partnering with communities in support of community-driven change.

We work with local collaboratives and networks to coordinate communities of practice and learning communities; facilitate peer learning; provide coaching and mentoring; support community engagement, planning, and capacity building; build power with communities; and manage grants at the local, regional, state and national levels. At the beginning of 2025, we shared that we would uplift the Pillars of Wellbeing, and we did this with intention in our work with community collaboratives. Emerging out of our work with community partners, the Pillars of Wellbeing are the core stabilizing elements needed for people and  communities to flourish emotionally. They are belonging & connectedness, safety, trust, dignity, hope & aspiration, and control of destiny/self-determination. A key characteristic of the Pillars of Wellbeing is that they interact with one another in a way that compounds their strength and influence on wellbeing. Importantly, they are experienced both personally and in the broader community environment. The Pillars can activate resilience and contribute to healing for traumatized individuals and communities, helping them navigate adversity. Throughout 2025, our collaboratives were feeling the impacts of federal directives and policies. Themes of resistance, resilience, collective healing, and survival emerged in our shared work, and the essential and lasting need for community power loomed large. We hosted Alliance for Justice to provide a training on preparing for politically motivated attacks for all our community-based organization partners, an example of how we leaned into strengthening the capacity of our broader ecosystem to share knowledge and resources during this uncertain time. Image by Prevention Institute.

Launched an initiative for equitable funding and community power building.

PI launched Investing in an Equitable Future, a project supporting grassroots advocacy and power-building efforts to enact, design, and implement equitable public funding programs and infrastructure investments. The goal is to improve conditions for health, safety, and wellbeing in California communities that are racially diverse and have been historically excluded from investment. In June, we hosted our first convening with our three local partners at our Oakland headquarters. The convening served as a launchpad to identify the types of funding models each local partner may want to advance in pursuit of equitable public investment. As part of ongoing efforts, PI held learning sessions and capacity building trainings with local partners, engaging on topics like local budget advocacy, base building and power building, and political and campaign tactics. As a result, local partners began to identify equitable funding models they want to establish in their communities.

Funder: The California Endowment Image by Prevention Institute.

Convened social justice advocates and leaders to create a space for healing, connection, and resilience.

Through the AESOP’s (Activists Engaged in Sustaining Our Power/Potential) Network, we hosted two virtual learning sessions open to the network of over 40 advocates and leaders in Texas. These sessions included a transformative journaling workshop that guided participants through grounding exercises and restorative writing practices to cultivate abundant narratives and strengthen leadership resilience. We also convened a three-day in-person retreat in Houston, offering peer dialogue, nature walks, and an activity where participants designed individual patches to form a whole, collective quilt reflecting the network. Through peer discussions held with leaders, we’ve learned that opportunities for intentional rest and connection are rare, yet important in maintaining momentum for movements and personal wellbeing. By bridging cultural appreciation, spiritual wellbeing, and leadership development through AESOP’s offerings, leaders have started to implement individual and organizational practices that promote collective wellbeing and a culture of care. We have shared lessons learned from AESOP’s internally and externally, including at the 2025 Young Minds Matter Conference.

Funder: Hogg Foundation for Mental Health Image by Prevention Institute.

Championed park and green space equity with power-building organizations across the country.

The People, Parks, and Power (P3) initiative established a theme of “nurturing resistance” for 2025. We strengthened our network of community power-building groups and created spaces for building a national movement for groups who are committed to park equity and land justice. These spaces included our annual P3 Convening, held in May, and various organizers’ circles where community leaders share their challenges and tactics and strategize together towards solutions. In partnership with Berkeley Media Studies Group, we hosted a field-facing webinar focused on building narrative power to elevate park equity as a necessity that intersects with equally important issues such as housing, environmental justice, and land justice. We also provided technical support and training to our partner organizations to ensure that they can respond to emergent and increasing community needs influenced by the current political climate, while remaining steadfast in their goals to advance park equity through community power building and policy and systems change. We shared lessons from of work as part of two presentations at the 2025 American Public Health Association Annual Meeting in Washington, DC.

Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Image by Prevention Institute.

Centered community power and healing to prevent domestic violence and advance health equity.

2025 marked the seventh and final year of Safety & Healing in Networks of Equity (SHINE) in its current form. According to the evaluation findings, SHINE generated meaningful and lasting shifts by building trusted places of safety and connection, mobilizing resources and economic supports, and advancing upstream community-centered policies and programs that address the community conditions that contribute to domestic violence. Across all SHINE communities, collaboratives strengthened community capacity and power by cultivating youth and adult leaders, deepening cross-sector networks that reframed domestic violence as a shared community responsibility, and growing anchor organizations into trusted, influential hubs for equity-centered collaboration. SHINE local partners indicated that Prevention Institute’s trust-based approach, flexible funding, learning orientation, and in-person convenings were essential supports that enabled authentic community-led progress. SHINE demonstrated that community trust, strong relational infrastructure, personal and community healing, and a steady commitment to keeping upstream prevention at the center of the work can meaningfully address the contributors to domestic violence and strengthen relational safety and health equity. We also spent time exploring pathways for the next phase of SHINE, including an effort to promote relational safety, mutual thriving, and prevention of gender-based violence in Houston that builds on California learnings while deeply rooting efforts in Houston’s cultures, relationships, assets, and challenges.

Funder: Blue Shield of California Foundation Image by Prevention Institute.

Fostered inclusive, equitable development through collaborative capacity building efforts.

PI partnered with the St. Joseph Fund to support inclusive, equitable development efforts through ongoing implementation and expansion of the Intersections Initiative. In Washington, community partners continued to build their individual and collective capacity to advance solutions towards a vision of equitable development and community wellbeing for South King County. Key elements of their work include youth engagement and advocacy, coalition building, and narrative change strategies. Simultaneously, we launched a landscape scan process to identify opportunities to apply the Intersections approach to wildfire recovery and resilience efforts in the Altadena and Pasadena areas of Los Angeles County. We also worked closely with St. Joseph Fund to share learnings and insights with the field through such venues as Families USA’s Health Action Conference, the 2025 American Public Health Association Annual Meeting, a podcast on the Intersections approach, and a conversation about burnout in the nonprofit sector. Through our work on the ground and our communications efforts, Intersections continued to grow and advance a model for implementing collaborative, community-driven systems change strategies. Funder: St. Joseph Fund Image by Prevention Institute.

Partnered with communities to improve mental health and wellbeing in Texas.

Since 2019, we have worked with 10 community collaboratives in the greater Houston area to advance mental health and wellbeing for children and youth of color and their families as part of the Communities of Care (CoC) initiative. This year, we proudly co-hosted our final showcase for CoC, entitled “A Legacy of Care: Celebrating Our Shared Successes.” The event was an invitation to all who have been involved in CoC to come out and reflect on their journeys, celebrate their individual and collective successes, and share the meaningful changes they have sparked in their communities. With over 100 people in attendance, this culminating event highlighted stories of transformation and honored the resilience and leadership of youth, families, and community partners. Our local partners continued to play key roles in our Texas work beyond CoC, including through the Policy Workgroup and at the Young Minds Matter conference. We will continue to uplift the stories of CoC, including through profiles of each collaborative and the overall lessons of honoring resident expertise, culture, and history when embarking on similar initiatives. PI also began a new chapter in its working relationship with the Hogg Foundation, launching a two-year landscape scan designed to inform future strategic planning.

Funder: Hogg Foundation for Mental Health Image by Healthy Outdoor Communities.

Facilitated a learning community of community-based organizations engaging youth to prevent violence.

We facilitated the SYNC Safety (Strategies for Youth and Neighborhood Centered Safety) learning community for a second year, offering a space for healing and support as community-based organizations (CBOs) and partners navigated uncertainty, funding cuts, and fears of deportation in their communities. PI and our partners, including Cities United, the National Compadres Network, Community Justice, Reggie Moore, and others, had impactful conversations focused on long-term sustainability and funding, economic justice, and opportunities in storytelling. PI also helped CBOs connect with external resources and initiatives, such as trainings, webinars, and national efforts to share stories and impacts from community violence intervention funding. PI and SYNC partners presented on a webinar with Healthy Places by Design, and at several conferences, including the National Association of City and County Health Officials (NACCHO) conference, the Safe States conference, and the 2025 American Public Health Association Annual Meeting. The SYNC evaluation reaffirmed the value and importance of being part of a community to connect, engage in thought partnership, co-learn, and share resources, successes, lessons, and challenges. This project was supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $1,000,000 with 100 percent funded by CDC/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by CDC/HHS, or the U.S. Government.

Funder: This project was supported by Cooperative Agreement No. NU38PW000033 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) via the Big Cities Health Coalition. Image by Prevention Institute.

Supported local leadership to advance community safety strategies.

PI served as the lead facilitator for the Santa Clara County Public Health Department’s new countywide Violence Prevention Learning to Action Collaborative, bringing together four CBOs to strengthen local community leadership in addressing community safety strategies from the ground up. Learning session topics included public health pathways to community safety, community healing, narrative strategy, power mapping, and collaboration, all designed to build trusted relationships and support applied learning. CBOs closed out the year with pride in their accomplishments, including culturally rooted healing and spaces of belonging, youth and parent leadership development, neighborhood improvements that foster safety and positive narratives, new and expanded cross-sector partnerships, and coalition building for youth peace and safety. PI also provided coaching to the health department on developing a robust and sustainable countywide network of violence prevention leaders as part of a larger agenda to advance a public health, primary prevention, and systems change-focused approach to community safety.

Funder: Santa Clara County Public Health Department Image by Annie Wu.

Practitioner Knowledge & Skill Building Accomplishments

Practitioner Knowledge & Skill Building: Strengthening practitioner capacity to advance equitable health, safety, and wellbeing.

We partner with practitioners across sectors to provide training and technical assistance; develop actionable tools, guidance documents, and case studies; support framework development; and broadly share learnings and outcomes from community-centered practice and work. In 2025, we continued to strengthen practitioner capacity through trainings, presentations, and curation of resources. Against a backdrop of attacks on science, we worked with partners to support efforts related to narrative change and uplifting contextual and experiential evidence, reflecting our growing understanding of the importance of centering community voice and wisdom in our work. We emphasized the value and importance of contextual and experiential evidence alongside best available research evidence. This approach builds on our 2024 report, Uplifting Contextual and Experiential Evidence: Promising Practices and Recommendations, that includes approaches, examples, and recommendations to integrate all three forms of evidence into decision-making, contributing to a growing call in the public health ecosystem to integrate community voice and perspective into decision making.

Image by Prevention Institute.

Accelerated a public health approach to gun violence prevention through data and narratives. In partnership with Big Cities Health Coalition (BCHC) and RTI International, PI provided strategic guidance to produce a report on narrative change strategies that can help promote a public health approach to addressing community violence. The purpose of this work was to (1) equip the public health ecosystem (including public health departments and community-based organizations) with the knowledge and skills to shift narratives, and (2) promote data practices that prioritize community-rooted solutions for safe communities. PI and BCHC also hosted a two-part webinar series, partnering with American Indians in Texas at the Spanish Colonial Missions, Seattle Public Health Department, and Berkeley Media Studies Group to share perspectives and strategies on reframing violence and community safety for 200 attendees. Finally, PI developed a tool about community safety narrative change and cross-sector collaboration, and contributed to an online repository of narrative change resources for public health practitioners. Funder: Big Cities Health Coalition via the Kaiser Permanente Center for Gun Violence Research and Education Image by Nye' Lyn Tho.

Strengthened the capacity of state and local governments to use opioid settlement funds on evidence-based programs that reduce overdose.

PI continued to develop capacity-building materials for local government officials to prioritize evidence-based strategies for opioid remediation and prevention using opioid settlement funding. Big Cities Health Coalition and PI, along with our partners ChangeLab Solutions and RTI International, presented a three-part webinar series with accompanying blogposts on narrative and messaging, sustainability planning and implementation, and multisector strategies for collaboration, with 725 participants across all webinars. We also facilitated a peer learning discussion and continued to update an online resource hub with more than 4,200 views to build opioid settlement fund decision-maker capacity and knowledge. Our work has increased an understanding of strategic investment approaches across the prevention continuum and emphasized the need to partner with communities and people with lived and living experience for settlement fund decision making. This project was supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $450,000 with 100 percent funded by CDC/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by CDC/HHS, or the U.S. Government.

Funder: This project was supported by Cooperative Agreement No. NU38PW000033 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) via the Big Cities Health Coalition. Image by Prevention Institute.

Provided coaching and technical assistance to CDC’s nutrition and physical activity grantees.

PI provided coaching and technical assistance to grantees of the CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity (DNPAO). The grantee programs include the State Physical Activity and Nutrition Program (SPAN), the High Obesity Program (HOP), and Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH). We focused on topics like community engagement, coalition building, and sustainability. PI worked especially closely with Beaumont Health Foundation at Corewell Health in Detroit, MI, to support their landscape analysis process and launch their REACH coalition. Building on lessons learned from our technical assistance to CDC DNPAO grantees over the years, we developed a resource guide that can support organizations and coalitions that work to improve community conditions and change systems to advance health. Whether the user is just starting out and needs support building a coalition, already has partners but is thinking about how to prioritize issue areas for action, or is ready to go deeper into strategies that address root causes and advance transformative systems change, this guide will provide key resources and frameworks, sample discussion questions for consideration, and recommendations for practice.

Funders: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity via the Veritas Management Group and Beaumont Health Foundation at Corewell Health Image by Prevention Institute.

Enhanced practitioner knowledge and skills nationwide through conferences and webinars.

Prevention Institute staff shared our work and approach with practitioner audiences at conferences and webinars, including the National Association of County and City Health Officials Annual Meeting, the Texas Annual Prevention Providers Meeting, the Safe States Annual Injury & Violence Prevention Conference, the California Public Health Convening on Strategies for Firearm Violence Prevention, and with Healthy Places by Design. Additionally, PI staff presented at the American Public Health Association’s (APHA) Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, in early November. APHA is one of the largest annual gatherings of public health professionals from multiple sectors across the country, and provides a valuable opportunity to share lessons learned, generate new ideas and relationships, and look ahead to the future. The theme was “Making the Public's Health a National Priority.” PI staff presented on the following topics:

Funders: Cooperative Agreement No. NU38OT000305 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) via the Big Cities Health Coalition, Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, St. Joseph Fund, and The California Endowment Image by Prevention Institute.

Policy & Systems Transformation Accomplishments

Policy & Systems Transformation: Changing policies and systems to produce equitable health, safety, and wellbeing.

We collaborate with policymakers, payers, system influencers, and advocacy partners to champion local, state, and federal policy and systems change rooted in a positive vision and hope for the future; align interconnected priorities across public health, health equity, and racial justice; and elevate community-centered practice and learnings. 2025 underscored that we are in a moment of significant uncertainty for organizations that believe that societal systems and structures must be designed for health equity and racial justice. Administrative actions seeking deep cuts and eliminations to community health, safety, and wellbeing threaten the sustainability of entities that undergird community health ecosystems. Executive actions to upend both governmental and non-governmental DEI work add further pressures and demands for racial justice and health equity grounded organizations and networks—especially frontline, power building groups. In 2025, we asserted that we are not interested in maintaining the status quo; the inequitable outcomes we were already experiencing were produced by the systems and policies that were already in place as we headed into 2025. We want systems and sectors that are community-centered and work for communities that are most marginalized and vulnerable. As systems, institutions, and sectors are torn down, we have the opportunity to reimagine how they can work better. That’s why in 2025 we championed an affirmative policy agenda that describes a positive vision and hope for the future and focuses on long-term transformational change even while working through the current policy context. Image by Prevention Institute.

Upheld an affirmative federal policy agenda while opposing harm.

PI did not retreat amid a federal policy environment increasingly misaligned with equity and prevention. Partnering with public health, civil rights, racial justice, and social justice allies, we supported 57 federal advocacy actions to advance an affirmative policy vision and oppose harm. Strengthening the Public Health Ecosystem & Aligning Investments with Health Equity and Racial Justice: We stood for a strong, independent public health ecosystem grounded in equity, prevention, and accountability to communities. We opposed efforts to destabilize public health systems and weaken nonprofit and civic institutions essential to equity and justice. Community Protective Factors: We stood for policies that protect access to healthcare, housing stability, food security, and economic supports. We opposed actions that deepen inequities, undermine health, and erode the social safety net. Community Safety: We stood for a public health approach to safety grounded in prevention and the lived experiences of communities. We opposed approaches that expand enforcement at the expense of community safety, and efforts to defund evidence-informed community safety programs. Community Mental Health, Wellbeing & Resilience: We stood for community-centered, prevention-focused mental health strategies that address trauma, reduce stigma, and support youth and families. We opposed underinvestment in prevention that erodes community mental health and resilience. Climate Justice & Resilience: We stood for the creation of policy that would hold the biggest polluters accountable for climate damages and harmful health impacts of fossil fuel emissions. We opposed continued inaction on environmental harms that disproportionately falls on communities. Immigration Justice: We stood for immigration policies rooted in health, safety, and dignity that protect families and access to essential services. We opposed criminalization, executive overreach, public charge expansion, and funding threats that harm immigrant families and communities.

Prevention Institute relies only on unrestricted funds to support our grassroots and direct lobbying efforts. Non-lobbying support to strengthen our policy partnerships and narrative efforts was provided by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Kresge Foundation. Image from iStockPhoto.

Secured equity-centered policy wins through sustained advocacy in California.

PI remained steadfast in our California advocacy to advance policies in a tumultuous year. In 2025, a state budget deficit, federal cuts to the social safety net, and a challenging political climate made it more difficult to advance our priorities. At the same time, we know how important it is for communities to maintain the gains we have fought hard to secure. Throughout the year, we partnered with advocates across the state to build power and momentum for policies aligned with our priority areas. We are proud to have supported our partners in advancing essential policies that reflect the long-term legislative advocacy and power building necessary to secure victories for health equity and racial justice. The following policy wins represent sustained investment over multiple legislative sessions:

SB 590 (Durazo) - Made possible by the California Work and Family Coalition, this bill expands paid family leave so workers can care for a designated person who does not fit within existing definitions of “family.”
SB 518 (Weber Pierson) - Establishes the Bureau for Descendants of American Slavery, creating the government infrastructure needed to support lineage verification, conduct public education and outreach, and coordinate future reparative programs.

Funders: Prevention Institute relies only on unrestricted funds to support our grassroots and direct lobbying efforts. Non-lobbying support was provided by The California Endowment, Blue Shield of California Foundation, and The California Wellness Foundation. Image by Prevention Institute.

Advanced community-led policy solutions across health, education, and housing in Texas.

PI’s advocacy in Texas is rooted in multisector collaboration and a commitment to advancing equity in a challenging political landscape. In 2025, we partnered with community organizations, students, and advocates to build power, uplift community leadership, and advance policy solutions across education, health, and housing. Uplifting Student Voice for Mental Health & Education Equity: We partnered with community collaboratives to advance education equity and student mental health for Black, Latine, and AAPI students in the Houston region. We focused on promoting safe and supportive schools by expanding access to school-based mental health care, reducing exclusionary discipline and surveillance, resisting curriculum censorship and book bans, and elevating student voice through engagement at the Texas Capitol, including co-organizing the 2025 Texas State Capitol Advocacy Day. Advancing Health Equity Through Collective Action: As co-chairs of the Health Equity Collective’s Social Determinants of Health Policy Workgroup, we led coordinated advocacy and policy education in response to federal threats to Medicaid, SNAP, and other critical programs, and for health equity policy priorities during the 2025 Texas legislative session. Addressing the Eviction Crisis in Texas: We opposed state-level policies that accelerate evictions and harm public health. Through our leadership with the Keep Harris Housed Coalition, we supported a $1 million county-funded pilot for tenant right to counsel to prevent displacement and strengthen housing stability.

Funders: Prevention Institute relies only on unrestricted funds to support our grassroots and direct lobbying efforts. Non-lobbying community engagement support was provided through a network of regional partners. Image by Prevention Institute.

Conducted a 74-county environmental scan to inform strategic planning and program alignment.

As part of our 74-county environmental scan for Methodist Healthcare Ministries (MHM), we conducted and analyzed 30 internal staff interviews and four group interviews to inform the organization's strategic planning and program alignment. In July, PI joined MHM's CEO Council to facilitate a SWOT workshop, gathering input from their leadership on what they see as organizational strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities. We also presented our analysis and early recommendations from the external scan and internal assessment, working collectively to strategize in response to the impact of the federal policy climate on MHM's work and the wellbeing of residents in South Texas. In the final phase of our work, we analyzed and compiled key external factors and trends that influence health and wellbeing in their service area. This analysis included opportunities for internal program alignment to more effectively reach clients and promote systems-level transformation to digital equity, economic mobility, food security, and overall access to health.

Funder: Methodist Healthcare Ministries Image by Prevention Institute.

Evaluated an equitable funding initiative for park access and inclusion.

We delivered an evaluation of the pilot funding cycle for Seattle’s Park CommUNITY Fund (PCF), which plans to invest $14.8 million by 2028 to improve park access and inclusion in frontline communities which experience inequitable access to green space, exposure to environmental harms, histories of disinvestment, and high displacement risk. The evaluation crunched data from more than 200 proposal entries to assess funding criteria and outcomes. The evaluation relied on input from community groups participating in the process and from the field of local park equity advocates. Our findings make the case that the PCF warrants continued funding consideration and represents authentic progress toward community-driven planning and budgeting norms, while also framing major structural changes to the program that will be considered.

Funder: Seattle Parks and Recreation via SM Watts Image by Seattle Parks and Recreation.

Momentum Building Accomplishments

Momentum Building: Strengthening a prevention and health equity ecosystem while shifting fields, norms, and narratives.

We work across sector, philanthropy, and societal influencers to engage in field building; advance advocacy and policy change; emphasize narrative change; bridge build across sectors and issues; and develop partnership, networks, and ecosystems. In 2025, we witnessed several harmful and restrictive narratives driving policy actions and significant risks to community health ecosystems. These included an emphasis on scarcity (e.g. gutting government services and spending); blame (e.g. mass deportations, isolating trans community members), and control (e.g. suppressing public and private DEI policies, removing information from government websites). We also saw the weaponization of “broken government” and “anti-status quo” narratives to try and shift resources and jobs away from public and governmental systems that serve the public’s health to support privatization and deregulation. However, these same narratives addressing broken government systems and rejecting the status quo were also in play during the pandemic and the 2020 racial justice uprisings to shift attention towards collective antiracist practice. So in 2025, we set the intention that our narrative development activities will be grounded in opportunities to responsibly activate community-centered liberatory narratives of collectivism, thriving, and abundance and to amplify structural solutions grounded in a positive vision for the future of the public’s health. Importantly, this includes drawing on experiences across policy issues (from immigration justice to saving Medicaid), sectors, and geographies to elevate emergent lessons and opportunities most salient to community health ecosystems. We also lifted up the importance of exploring ways to reclaim and redirect the “broken government/broken systems” narrative in favor of policy solutions that reimagine and redesign systems for health equity and racial justice. Image by Prevention Institute.

Strengthened community health ecosystems grounded in health equity and racial justice.

PI launched Strengthening Community Health Ecosystems Grounded in Health Equity and Racial Justice, a two-year effort to sustain policy and advocacy momentum while amplifying community-centered narratives that support equitable community health ecosystems. The initiative advances two core strategies: 1) policy and narrative analysis and development rooted in an affirmative, future-oriented vision; and 2) partnership and network development that aligns interconnected policy, narrative, and community-centered practices. Early activities include advancing our Uplifting Contextual and Experiential Evidence (UCEE) work through a practitioner action guide; updating the Pillars of Wellbeing to support affirmative narratives in the current policy context; analyzing opportunities to strengthen an equitable public health ecosystem; and exploring ecosystem-building opportunities across priority regions, including Houston metro and Memphis, Tennessee. As part of this work, we produced the Moving Upstream podcast episode, “A Mercy in the Telling: Memory, Story, and Public Health Evidence,” which leverages UCEE to challenge narrow definitions of evidence and elevate memory, story, place, lived experience, and art as essential to advancing equity and justice in public health.

Funder: Kresge Foundation (The Moving Upstream podcast episode was co-funded by core support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Kresge Foundation.) Image by Nye' Lyn Tho.

Advanced prevention and health equity through racial justice.

As part of PI’s general operating support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to advance prevention and health equity, we strengthened internal infrastructure and external influence in the field. Internally, we formalized the Health Equity & Racial Justice Team and expanded our Timeline of Resistance to better connect policy implications with contemporary social movements, equipping staff and partners to advance racial justice. Externally, we fostered cross-sector dialogue through a 2025 National Day of Racial Healing webinar where staff reflected on lived experience, racial healing, and inclusive partnership-building at the intersection of public health and racial justice. To advance field-level learning, we recorded the Moving Upstream podcast episode “A Mercy in the Telling: Memory, Story, and Public Health Evidence,” exploring how research, lived experience, and art can inform a more human framework for equity and justice. Funder: W.K. Kellogg Foundation (The Moving Upstream podcast episode was co-funded by core support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Kresge Foundation.) Image by Prevention Institute.

Uplifted youth organizing and engagement by convening the Young Minds Matter Conference.

In October, we co-hosted Young Minds Matter: Meeting the Moment Together, with The Hogg Foundation for Mental Health. The conference convened more than 150 youth, families, and community leaders to advance collective action for youth mental health and wellbeing. It was a two-day gathering that combined a community-centered opening with arts, culture, and a resource fair, followed by a full-day conference featuring youth leaders, advocates, artists, and organizers. Sessions focused on youth leadership, wellness and culture, economic pathways, and emerging challenges facing youth and families. Keynote speaker Dr. Raphael Travis highlighted Hip Hop culture as a tool for youth learning and wellbeing, while a youth panel reinforced the importance of centering young people in decision making. The convening strengthened cross-sector connections, elevated youth voice, and reaffirmed a shared commitment to respond to current challenges through collaboration, Meeting the Moment Together.

Funder: Hogg Foundation for Mental Health Image by Paul Carrizales.

Supported momentum for park equity efforts in Los Angeles.

In 2025, anticipating high-stakes funding decisions in 2026 for community groups and park agencies, Prevention Institute (PI) was a key contributor to multiple park equity efforts across the Los Angeles region. PI staff served on the LA Park Needs Assessment steering committee over a year-long development process, which provided unmistakable documentation of the city’s structural underfunding of park facilities and staff and serves as a vital prioritization tool for reinvestment. Coinciding with this report, we worked with key conservation groups and park advocates to craft a citizen-initiated ballot measure in Los Angeles for Fall 2026 that would help restore fiscal health to the city’s park system before the current 30-year funding assessment lapses. We also served as core team members of the county-wide Park Needs Assessment+ Coalition, which has developed a 10-year implementation plan for urban greening/biodiversity, climate resilience, and brownfield remediation investments in the region.

Funder: Prevention Institute relies only on unrestricted funds to support our grassroots and direct lobbying efforts. Non-lobbying support was provided by The California Endowment and The California Wellness Foundation. Image by the city of Los Angeles.

Partnered in the Public Health for Community Power Coalition.

PI helped grow and strengthen the Public Health for Community Power (PH4CP) Coalition as a steering committee member and co-lead of the membership and resource development subcommittee. Launched in 2024 with catalytic support from Health in Partnership, PH4CP was formed in response to an urgent call from community power-building organizations (CPBOs) for the public health field to stand in solidarity with grassroots campaigns for racial, environmental, economic, and social justice. PI helped establish operating agreements, launch sub-committees, grow the membership, and develop a preliminary fundraising strategy. The coalition deepened relationships with CPBO-led campaigns and selected two long-term campaigns for engagement: rent control and Make Polluters Pay. We coauthored a brief—The Health Benefits of Rent Control—and laid the foundation for 2026, including planning for the Make Polluter’s Pay National Week of Action. Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation via Health in Partnership Image by Health in Partnership.

Advised local, state, and national initiatives for health, safety, and wellbeing.

Prevention Institute’s staff participated on multiple advisory committees and working groups at the local, state, and national levels. In these roles, our staff provided guidance across topics like health equity, mental health, and community violence prevention to various national nonprofits, state governments, and policy advocacy groups. Through this work, we help to advance policy and systems change that is rooted in health equity and prevention. Such groups included:

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Collective Wellbeing Workgroup
The Gravity Project’s Neighborhood Safety Workgroup
Los Angeles Park Needs Assessment Steering Committee
Health Equity Collective, Social Determinants of Health Policy Workgroup (TX)
Keep Harris Housed Coalition Core Team
State of Equity Advisory Group (CA)
Prop 64 Advisory Committee (CA)
The Community Prevention and Population Health Task Force

Funders: The Gravity Project, National Philanthropic Trust Operating Support, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The California Endowment, and The California Wellness Foundation Image from iStockPhoto.

We never do this work alone. And we are grateful to our many partners: communities and community members, practitioners, government agencies and systems leaders, foundations, public health organizations, and many other organizations advancing equitable health outcomes. These accomplishments would not be possible without our shared values, learning, and partnership.

Thank you!

Credits:

Prevention Institute