Community and Economic Development
The Center for Regional Change (CRC) supports the building of healthy, equitable, prosperous, and sustainable regions. The CRC has successfully partnered with health care providers, public agencies, and community stakeholders to create tools and conduct research that promotes comprehensive community health and improves social determinants of health. The CRC can serve as a resource for shaping policy and evaluating programs by catalyzing research that is innovative, collaborative, and action-oriented.
The CRC provided the mapping and applied research to inform the founding of the Coalition on Regional Equity that promoted inclusionary development throughout the Sacramento region. The Regional Opportunity Index is a holistic web-based platform to visualize community and regional development patterns has been used by banks, non-profit organizational and public agencies to guide economic development and housing investments in disadvantaged communities across the state. The CRC’s work with the San Joaquin Valley Health Fund has helped inform strategies to invest millions of dollars into health equity policy advocacy throughout the region, including the San Joaquin Valley and Kern County. The CRC’s incubated the California Civic Engagement Project, which has become one of the state’s leading sources of research on demographics voting and democratic governance.
