Santa Ana

Background

Santa Ana Building Healthy Communities (SABHC)  is committed to addressing health inequities and improving opportunities for a healthy, thriving Santa Ana. SABHC understands that health is directly shaped by the circumstances in which people are born, raised, live, and work. Improving these circumstances is a collective responsibility and one that must be led by those directly affected.

While culturally rich, youthful, and hardworking, Santa Ana struggles with an array of challenges and hardships. Residents, youth, organizations, and systems collaborate in the Equity for All, Health for All, and Restorative Justice workgroups to achieve systems and policy changes that advance human rights, such as improved health, safety, youth development, education, economic development, land use, and community engagement.

Santa Ana Community

Quick Facts

• The Santa Ana Building Healthy Communities area has an estimated population of 91,513—94 percent of which are Latino, 88 percent Spanish speaking, and with a high concentration of youth.
• Per capita average income of $16,891, which is substantially lower than the county average ($34,550).
• Approximately 43 percent of Santa Ana’s non‐elderly adults lack health insurance, compared to 22 percent of comparably aged Orange County residents.
• Santa Ana has one of the lowest levels of educational attainment among large U.S. cities, with only 50 percent of adults 25 years and older having a high school diploma or equivalent
• Approximately 24 percent of families in the SABHC area are single parent households and 26 percent live in poverty, contributing to a poverty rate of 16.5 percent that is substantially higher than the county (9.5 percent), state (12.9 percent) and nation (13.2 percent).

Focus Areas

The map below gives a snapshot of the breadth of SABHC’s actions (click the boxes under each category to learn more), followed by more information on our top three priorities for the coming year.

In an effort to address the the multiple issues and opportunities faced by our community, the SABHC workgroups consolidated into three active work groups.

• Equity for All: In the face of displacement, overcrowding, unemployment, homelessness, and a lack of economic power, parks, good food, and opportunities for meaningful participation, Equity for All works towards the “Right to Remain, Reclaim, and Thrive.”  Key actions include: worker cooperatives, micro farms, affordable housing, anti-displacement policies, and community-led economic development.
• Health for All: At the root of the Health for All workgroup is education, access, equality, and coverage for the remaining uninsured, including undocumented immigrants.  Excluding undocumented Californians from the fundamental human right of health is immoral, inhumane, and it is a threat to the health of all of our communities.
• Restorative Justice for All: The Restorative Justice Workgroup aims to build and create a movement that transforms minds, hearts, communities, and systems through restorative and healing cultural practices.  The prioritized system changes focus on ending the school to prison to deportation pipeline. Some of the specific proposals include community conferencing, implementation of Restorative Justice in schools, healing circles in schools and in the community, community oriented policing, and a civilian oversight committee.

Learn More

• SABHC Overview 
• SABHC Strategic Plan 
• Restorative Justice Workgroup OverviewSABHC Overview General Presentation (1) 
• Report: Disproportionate Minority Contact in Santa Ana 
• Santa Ana Wellness District Market Study 

Get Connected

Sandy Chang
Program Manager, Santa Ana

Sandy Chiang, program manager for Santa Ana, returned to The California Endowment in September 2015 after a three-year hiatus.

Prior to her current position, Chiang served as the program manager for Long Beach Building Healthy Communities. In addition, Chiang served for two years as a program associate at The Endowment during which she provided analysis of grant proposals, served on the monthly peer review committee for funding recommendations and provided technical assistance to organizations across the state seeking grant funding.

Prior to joining The Endowment, Chiang was director of the Justice, Advocacy and Compassion (JAC) Ministry for NewSong Community Church where she developed strategies to engage and mobilize NewSong congregation members to become involved in the JAC Ministry. In addition, she served as a consultant for NewSong’s urban ministry program, the SHAW.

Chiang was also a health educator for Kaiser Permanente Southern California Medical Group and a project director for People Assisting the Homeless (P.A.T.H.) where she oversaw the organizational design and implementation of the PATHHealth Clinic, which provides primary health care services to homeless individuals in Los Angeles.