Deep in California's Central Valley, in San Joaquin County, just 80 miles from San Jose, lies the city of Stockton, an agricultural center buoyed by the Port of Stockton, a major logistics center connecting the Pacific Ocean with the bounty of the Valley’s farmlands and the interstate highway system. The port—and its environmental impacts—is situated alongside the neighborhoods of South Stockton, a diverse community long impacted by redlining.

“While South Stockton is a proud and resilient community that brings together Latinos, Filipinos, African Americans, Sikhs and many others, we’re all still working to overcome the lingering impacts of systemic racism and disinvestment,” says Jason Weiner, Programs Manager for Reinvent South Stockton Coalition (RSSC), an Accountable Community for Health (ACH). “Consequently, South Stockton is now home to one of the poorest and least healthy Census tracts in the entire state of California. We have the lowest life expectancy—up to 20 years lower than wealthier areas of the city—and the highest rates of chronic disease, especially asthma.”

To combat these odds, residents, community leaders, health care organizations and government leaders (including then-Councilmember, later Mayor, Michael Tubbs) came together to form RSSC, one of California’s first ACHs. With a mission to empower South Stockton residents to make change in their own community and to eliminate poverty and health disparities, RSSC has worked strategically— by engaging residents through convenings, work groups, and annual resident summits—to amplify resident voices and bring forth community-informed and culturally relevant solutions to complex problems.

“Our community understands best what it needs,” says Weiner. “An excellent example is our work to reduce violence and encourage residents to take advantage of the social and health benefits of parks. While we worked on a mural on a handball wall in a regional park, we discovered how significant the sport is to the South Stockton community, especially Latino residents.”

He continues, “We also learned that many of our local courts were unusable because of poor maintenance. We took that insight and launched a new initiative to put this into action—by gathering data on what handball players need and working to renovate the city’s nine unusable handball courts. These are key places where our community can have intergenerational, accessible and free gatherings that feature physical activity and the cultivation of positive connections.”

Other strategic priorities include efforts to train health care and other service providers to offer more trauma-informed and trauma-responsive care and to reduce stigma around mental health care. This includes two major efforts: the introduction of Community Health Workers (CHWs), who serve as housing and health navigators, and the Black Birth Equity Initiative.

Motivated by data showing that Black mothers and infants in San Joaquin County have mortality rates 4.5 times higher than other populations, RSSC partnered with local doulas and other community care providers, such as Dignity Health - St. Joseph’s Medical Center and San Joaquin County Public Health Services, to facilitate the rollout of a new community lactation room, doulas and four community baby showers through summer 2024.

As it approaches its ten-year anniversary, RSSC is aggressively seeking out sustainable funding streams—such as Medi-Cal reimbursements—to fuel these innovative, resident-led programs and continue building capacity, bringing lasting, transformative change to the South Stockton community.

Learn more at rsscoalition.org.