Action Teams & Campaigns
Action teams are at the core of Healthy Contra Costa’s work. These collective tables are meant to be a meeting space for resident leaders (adults and youth), organizational partners, and systems partners. Each action team focuses on a specific priority area for Healthy Contra Costa, and generally focuses on one system in their advocacy work, such as the city or school district.
The work taken on by each action team is usually defined as a “campaign”. Each campaign has a dedicated workgroup focusing on planning, implementation, and outreach. Each workgroup meets on a schedule determined by those participants. While there are generally 3 active campaigns, this number can vary depending on a variety of factors. Each year, $4,000 in Healthy Contra Costa’s community grant funds are allocated to at least one of the campaign projects.
STEERING COMMITTEE
The Hub Steering Committee (SC) serves as the lead entity for the Healthy Contra Costa (HCC) in developing systems for community collaboration and updating the logic model. At scale, the SC is comprised of 25 people. The Healthy Contra Costa’s SC includes representative members from all primary areas of the community: municipal offices, the school district, public and private health care providers, nonprofit organizations, faith communities, businesses, and residents.
- Roles within the Healthy Contra Costa’s Steering Committee
- Participate in trainings and community engagement events
- Provide leadership for the Action Teams
- Provide a voice for community residents and leaders
- Create opportunities for resident involvement and community capacity building
- Guide the Healthy Contra Costa on shared values and principles (i.e., systems change, community building, support youth leadership)
- Develop systems and community collaborations
- Outreach to others not at the table (HCC Partners, policymakers, systems, churches) to join activities and membership in activities
- Influence Policy
- Share information about activities on website, newsletter, etc.
- Develop leadership within the SC and Healthy Contra Costa
- Review and update the HCC Logic Model
- Leveraging relationships with elected official
SC MEMBERS
STAFF
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Senior Director of Healthy Contra Costa, formerly known as Healthy Richmond, which developed a Sustainability Plan that supports our collective impact and power-building for public systems change initiative - rooted in Richmond - that centers residents and young people to advance healing and the elimination of anti-Black racism across Contra Costa County. She currently works with resident leaders, Community Based Organizations, base builders, and systems leaders to develop collective policy advocacy strategies in the areas of #Health4All, Economic Justice and Education Equity. She has led HCC for 10 years and prior to joining Healthy Richmond in 2013, Roxanne was a Public Health Program Manager for Contra Costa Health Services where she worked on environmental justice, alcohol policy, neighborhood improvements and violence prevention efforts across Contra Costa County. Roxanne was the Allocations and Planning Director for United Way of Greater Los Angeles, Service Planning Area (SPA) 1 and Program Manager for El Nido Family Services, a social service non-profit agency providing counseling and family support services to disadvantaged communities in LA County. Roxanne received her Bachelor's degree in Political Science from California State University, Northridge and her Master's Degree in Social Welfare from the University of California, Los Angeles.
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Johana Gurdian currently works as the Project Manager for Resident Leadership. She is a Bay Area native and a long time Richmond and San Pablo resident. Funny enough, her community advocacy work began in 2018 with Healthy Contra Costa (formerly Healthy Richmond), when she joined the North Richmond Resident Leadership Team and along with other residents, created the Quality of Life Plan. During the development of the Quality of Life Plan, she grew passionate about alternative business models, specifically cooperatives. After graduating from UC Berkeley with a B.A. in Political Science, she began working for a non-profit that focused on BIPOC, worker-owned cooperative development in West Contra Costa County. Since then, she has been involved in various North Richmond related advocacy projects and now manages the Resident Leadership Team that saw her flourish into the community leader she is today.
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Joanna currently works as the Resident Organizer for Healthy Contra Costa. She grew up in Richmond and is currently still a resident. She began her involvement in her community during High School by participating in programs such as Y-Plan, KIWINS and Earth Team. Following high school, she attended San Francisco State University graduating with a B.A. in Child and Adolescent Development with a minor in Special Education. After graduating she used her degree to work at RBT where she assisted clients to acquire academic and life skills. Most recently, while working as a Team Leader for Team Oakland and as a MIS Admin Assistant at the Youth Employment Partnership Inc in Oakland, she interned with HCC where she took the roles of a North Richmond Youth Leader and a Community Health Advocate for Contra Costa CARES. Through these internships she was encouraged to continue her work with her community through Healthy Contra Costa.
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Jillian de la Torre is an intern at Healthy Contra Costa, where she currently supports various projects including the Richmond Youth Health Advocacy Pathway program and the East Contra Costa Community Alliance. Jillian grew up here in the East Bay Area, where she returned after graduating from Reed College in Portland, OR with a B.A. in English in 2020. Jillian is currently a student at the UC Berkeley School of Social Welfare specializing in Strengthening Organizations and Communities, and will graduate with her MSW in 2024. She has worked in many different social work capacities; most recently, she completed a comprehensive evaluation of the housing strategy used at People’s Park in Berkeley, and she previously worked as a founding staff member at the first tiny house village for homeless young adults in the nation. She also currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Greater Richmond Interfaith Program. She’s thrilled to be working in her home community as a part of the HCC team.
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Emma (they/she) is an intern at Healthy Contra Costa, supporting the East Contra Costa Community Alliance, and the #OneContraCostaCoalition. After many years at City College of San Francisco, they transferred to San Francisco State University and graduated with a B.A. in Social Work in 2023. Currently, Emma is a graduate student at UC Berkeley in the School of Social Welfare, with a specialization track focusing on Strengthening Organizations and Communities. Emma brings experience from previous roles that take a trauma-informed approach to meeting the needs of survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence, and focus on building safer communities through advocacy and education. Prior to interning at HCC, Emma interned at Our Family Coalition and conducted policy analysis for LGBTQ+ inclusive health care and school environments. They also served as a student worker at SFSU’s SAFE Place, and CCSF’s Project Survive, facilitating DV/SA workshops on campuses. Currently, Emma works as the Program Coordinator at IMPACT Bay Area, a non-profit offering empowerment self-defense and boundary-setting courses.
RESIDENT LEADERSHIP
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Graduated from LEAP and is currently in her fourth semester at Contra Costa College. She has been a Richmond resident for 20 years and is part of the City of Richmond’s Race Equity Team as a Resident Ambassador. She has volunteered at the Richmond Library She is a Bilingual speaker who is passionate about
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Lynne Abram was raised and grew up in North Richmond. She joined the North Richmond Resident Leadership Program because North Richmond and the community and the people in it are important to her. She feels the work of the committee is an important opportunity to improve the quality of life for residents of North Richmond. She has been heavily involved in the Contra Costa Housing Authority’s redevelopment efforts of the Las Deltas projects.
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Originally from Champaign, Illinois, Latifah Abdullah now resides as a homeowner in unincorporated North Richmond. Within Urban Tilth, she plays a vital role in facilitating the North Richmond Farm Community Advisory Committee and serves as the editor of Restoring Tilth – The North Richmond Farm magazine. Latifah actively engages with the community, participating in events like the fruit tree giveaway, the free farmer’s market with the Black Neighborhood, and supporting Verde Elementary’s Black Student Union. As a North Richmond resident, she actively participates in community initiatives and maintains open communication with community-based organizations, regulatory bodies, and elected officials regarding land use, hazardous materials, and sustainability.
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Bertha Alvarez was a tenant in the Mission district of San Francisco. Her family decided to pursue homeownership, but they could not afford to do so in the city. Their search led them to North Richmond, where they now live in a house that they own. Berta's desire to learn about her new community led her to attend MAC meetings. She sought representation for the Hispanic community and soon learned the importance of working with the African American community to improve living conditions for all residents of North Richmond.
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Lorena Guerrero was born in Durango Mexico and is the mother of 2 Girls and 3 Boys. In 1995 she migrated to the U.S. In 2015 she became a Health Promoter with the LifeLong Brookside San Pablo Clinic. In 2019 she gave Kid Parenting Classes at the Latina Center and also became part of National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI Contra Costa). She is passionate about racial equity and mental health.
