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CaliforniaSpeaks to link Eight Sites Together for Non-Partisan Conversation on Health Care Reform Issues

On August 11, thousands of Californians from across the state will participate in CaliforniaSpeaks, a live, statewide videoconference, designed to give residents a direct voice into the health reform debate. The forum will link participants gathered at eight sites across California and will also involve state leaders Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, Senate President pro Tem Don Perata and Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines, among others. To ensure that attendees span all different ages, ethnicities, socio-economic backgrounds and political beliefs, participants will be randomly selected. CaliforniaSpeaks, a project of AmericaSpeaks, is funded by grants from TCWF, The California Endowment and The Blue Shield of California Foundation.
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New Gang Czar Appointed in Los Angeles

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has appointed Jeff Carr deputy mayor and the city’s first director of gang reduction and youth development programs. An ordained minister with more than 17 years of experience developing social service and youth programs in Los Angeles, Carr was formerly executive director of the Bresee Foundation, a Los Angeles-based organization that has previously received funding from TCWF. In his new role, Carr will coordinate Mayor Villaraigosa’s Gang Reduction Strategy—which targets eight zones across the city—and oversee an evaluation of current gang prevention and intervention programs.
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Report Examines New Approaches to Program Evaluation

A study by FSG Social Impact Advisors identifies new methods foundations are using to evaluate their work. Based on nearly 100 interviews with foundation staff—including Ruth Brousseau, former director of evaluations and organizational learning at TCWF—the report highlights performance-centered evaluations that provide timely information and insights that can improve grant planning, implementation and ways of tracking progress toward specific goals.
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Southern California Grantmakers To Hold Foundation Accountability Workshop

“Foundation Accountability: Assessing Your Own Practice” is the topic of a Southern California Grantmakers (SCG) workshop on July 18 in Los Angeles. Led by David Biemesderfer, president of DJB Consulting Services, the session will provide an opportunity to share best practices and learn about the Accountability Self-Assessment Tool, designed to help private foundations ensure full legal compliance and assess public accountability practices. The registration deadline is July 11.
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TCWF 2007 Champions of Health Professions Diversity Award Announced

TCWF presented its fifth annual Champions of Health Professions Diversity Award to three physicians: Dr. Michael V. Drake of Irvine, Dr. Hector Flores of Los Angeles and Dr. Ernest C. Levister, Jr. of San Bernardino. In recognition of the honoree’s efforts to reduce entry barriers to the medical professions and to ensure the success of underrepresented minorities, they each received a cash award of $25,000 at an awards ceremony in Los Angeles on June 11.
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Nominations Open for Grantmakers in Health Leadership Award

The Terrance Keenan Leadership Award in Health Philanthropy honors an outstanding individual whose innovation and risk-taking has led to permanent improvements in health, with a particular emphasis on reaching people most in need. Grantmakers in Health is accepting nominations for the annual award until September 12.
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Academy Health Seeks Nominations for HSR Impact Award

Academy Health, a professional society for health services researchers, policy analysts and practitioners, is seeking nominations for its HSR Impact Award, which recognizes published or unpublished health services research that has positively affected health policy, health practice, or both. The lead researcher of the winning entry—to be announced at the 2008 National Health Policy Conference in Washington, D.C.—will receive a $2,000 cash prize. Academy Health will disseminate the research as part of its ongoing efforts to communicate the value of health science research for health care decision-making. Deadline for submissions is July 31.
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New Book Chronicles History of Barrios Unidos

Barrios Unidos, a Santa Cruz-based organization founded to prevent gang violence among inner-city youth, is the subject of a new book that chronicles the organization’s history from its beginnings in the Mexican-American civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Through interviews, written testimonies and documents, author Frank De Jesús Acosta—a former program director at TCWF—shows how the organization created community-based violence prevention programs and after-school programs to help at-risk young people reduce gang warfare and build healthy communities.
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Youth Radio Expansion Plans Described in San Francisco Chronicle

Youth Radio’s new headquarters in Oakland, and plans to expand both its teenaged staff and audience, are the focus of a recent San Francisco Chronicle article. Founded in 1990, the TCWF grantee provides free after-school training in audio, video, Web and print journalism production and technology to approximately 1,300 youth each year. Candid, youth-produced stories on subjects ranging from teen sex and gang violence to music and movies can be heard on NPR, Public Radio International and KQED-FM. Youth Radio has bureaus in Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C., and produces about 300 broadcasts per year.
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Youth Activists Applaud Partial Closure of Chemical Recycling Plant

Since 1991, Youth United for Community Action (YUCA), a TCWF grantee, has waged a community campaign to shut down Romic Environmental Technologies Corp., a bulk chemical recycling plant, on the grounds that the company releases hazardous waste into the environment, resulting in high local asthma and cancer rates. A Palo Alto Online article about community response to a recent state order mandating that Romic cease nearly all bulk chemical recycling operations in East Palo Alto and Redwood City included a quote from a YUCA spokesperson.
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