Capacity-building to promote racial and ethnic health equity

In the year 2000, several California REACH 2010 Program grantees, representing distinct communities and interventions, gathered to develop a strategy to build California's capacity to address health disparities among racial and ethnic communities. These grantees, funded under the CDC Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health – REACH 2010 Initiative, formed the California REACH Coalition. The planning process resulted in the organization of statewide conferences which highlighted racial and ethnic health disparities and presented strategies and lessons learned to healthcare providers, policymakers, and community-based organizations. Conferences were convened in 2000, 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2009. The conferences evolved to include workshops with plenary sessions designed to engage attendees in examination and discussion of health equity. The conferences provided forums for building community-academic partnerships, engaging additional community-based organizations as partners, supporting community education, increasing knowledge of public policy and resources; sharing community expertise in effective outreach methods, and disseminating best practices in community-based participatory research and the elimination of racial and ethnic health disparities. In order to continue and strengthen capacity building, the California REACH Coalition is making efforts to strategically link state efforts with other national groups such as the National REACH Coalition. The Coalition's lessons learned to promote capacity building will be shared.