California Endowment

Today is the last day to submit comments on proposed national nutrition standards for school snacks and drinks, so there’s no time to spare. These guidelines, which were developed by the USDA, have the power to replace the candy, junk drinks and greasy chips often served in schools with the tastier and healthier options our kids want and need.

“I never thought I would have to worry about how I would get to school.” Those are the words of Delvina Johnson, a young high school student in Merced. Delvina  and dozens of other residents and young people have been speaking out since the local ...

We’ve all heard the expression “double bottom line” or even “triple bottom line,” meaning that an investment not only brings a return but also generates a second or third return, such as having a positive social impact. What about a quadruple bottom ...

Each week in the 14 Building Healthy Communities sites, young people knit together experiences at school, at work, at home and in their neighborhoods to tell stories about how health happens. This month, their stories range from profiles of a trash picker in Boyle Heights to ...

The California School Health Centers Association had their annual statewide conference, “Vision & Voice for Healthy Students” in Long Beach, California on March 14-15. As the title states, it was all about the youth. The main day of the conference, ...

My family got some bad news last week. My 21-year-old niece, Caitlin, a student at the University of Texas, learned that she’d had a relapse of the leukemia that struck a year ago and forced her to undergo months of intensive chemotherapy. She endured ...

Tavis Smiley Investigates School Discipline Policy--on PBS this Tuesday

While the injunction that was issued last week against Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal to put a cap on sugary drinks at restaurants is a setback, the Center for Science in Public Interest (CSPI) has provided research to expose the Junk Drink Industry’s all ...

Think the full implementation of the Affordable Care Act in 2014 will take care of the challenges of the uninsured? Think again.   Even after full implementation, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that some 30 million Americans will remain ...

With the passage of Obamacare, over five million previously uninsured Californians will have access to affordable, preventive health care after 2014.  But a lot of work remains to be done:  namely health care access for the more than three million ...

Grantmakers in Health (GIH) held their annual convening last Wednesday through Friday (March 13-15) in San Francisco with a focus on how foundations can be “change agents” in this time of health care reform in the US.   The breakout sessions ranged ...

When the California Endowment (TCE) launched its Building Healthy Communities Initiative it took on a huge challenge; shifting a system of programs, regulations, policies, laws, funding streams and mindsets from an individual-based to a place-based ...

The state legislative session is now in full swing, and lobbyists and advocates are descending on Sacramento to talk health care coverage – who should be eligible and how they should get it. It's a debate you might have expected Obamacare to end. But ...

From the second Mr. John Choi’s high school biology class stepped off their school bus and into a conference room turned laboratory, they became scientists.  “My students entered an amazing gateway into the world of science and it opened their eyes to ...

This hasn’t gotten much notice, but a “listening campaign” in California communities by a major nonprofit led to a swift – in legislative terms – enactment of five new California laws to reduce high schools suspension and expulsion rates. The ...

Robert K. Ross, M.D., president and chief executive officer of The California Endowment, released the following statement commenting on In It for Good: 2012 Annual Progress Report, which was released today by the Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA).

Growing up in Southern California, I vividly recall the funerals I attended for my classmates whose lives were tragically cut short by the violence in my community.  The impact of bearing witness to the tragedy of violence had an immense influence on ...

  “At a December 2012 meeting, The California Endowment Board of Directors voted unanimously to pledge a minimum of $225 million in a special allocation over the next four years to support the successful implementation of the Affordable Care Act in ...

The state’s newly established Health Benefits Exchange, Covered California, will launch its online portal in October of 2013. The portal will serve as an on-line marketplace for Californians to compare and purchase health insurance plans. Individuals ...

As Medicaid programs and providers prepare to cover more patients in 2014, Obamacare is picking up the tab for higher reimbursements for primary care services. Given the current low level of Medi-Cal reimbursements, this is good news for California’s ...