Berkeley City

The City of Berkeley utilized California Equitable Recovery Initiative (CERI).funds to create and implement a Strategic Plan for Health Equity for the Department of Health, Housing, and Community Services (HHCS). To accomplish this, the team completed a competitive bid process to identify an equity consultant that would meet the needs of Berkeley, and Tiana Sanchez International, LLC (TSI) was selected to conduct the work in fall 2022. Throughout the end of 2022 and 2023, TSI conducted surveys, focus groups, and leadership interviews to identify areas of success for HHCS and key areas for growth, using the social determinants of health as the foundation.

Following the Department’s recent equity assessment, HHCS developed targeted strategies and goals to ensure our work prioritizes advancing equitable health outcomes for the Berkeley community. These strategies span both external efforts—such as programming with community partners—and internal initiatives focused on staff development. They also align with the data collected from the Community Health Assessment and Community Health Improvement Plan (CHA/CHIP), ensuring our efforts remain evidence-driven and responsive to community needs.

Implementation of these five strategies has been an ongoing process. In September 2023, staff received training on the social determinants of health, and in February 2024, staff participated in an interactive bridge-building training that focused on the identified strategies. HHCS is exploring different strategies to further codify the Strategic Plan for Health Equity, including potentially formally adopting the plan through the City Manager and City Council to ensure implementation continues. HHCS will also be implementing a results-based accountability framework to measure progress on this Plan.

To learn more about the City of Berkeley’s equity assessment and ongoing processes, please contact Sandra Mistretti at smistretti@berkeleyca.gov.