The East San Jose PEACE (Prevention Efforts Advance Community Equity) Partnership is a group of residents and organizations working together to build a healthy, peaceful, and empowered community in the 95116, 95122, and 95127 zip codes. We hope to counteract the conditions that have led to a high level of community violence and trauma in East San Jose by building on our strengths—community pride, diversity, creativity, and a rich history of community activism, among others. By putting hope and healing at the center of activism for policy change, we believe we can transform the health and safety of the entire community.

Uniting East San Jose for Health Equity

Health equity is when everyone has a fair opportunity to be healthy. That means we need to remove barriers like poverty, racism, and other forms of discrimination, and the conditions they create that make it harder to be healthy, such as lack of access to good jobs, safe environments, quality education and housing, and healthcare.

The East San Jose PEACE Partnership is bringing together community groups, community residents, healthcare organizations, schools, city agencies, businesses, and others to achieve health equity for East San Jose residents by:

• Supporting policies and programs that prevent violence and trauma
• Lifting up the important role culture and relationships can play in building community strength and resilience
• Advocating for increased economic opportunities and investments
•  Countering negative stereotypes about East San Jose by empowering community members to tell their own stories of life in their neighborhoods

Values and Vision

PEACE is rooted in the values of being community-led and resident centered, uplifting racial equity, using an upstream approach by changing systems, and aligning existing efforts and building mutually reinforcing activities.

Our work is guided by five pillars: building a structure for community leadership, reducing violence and increase healing, promote economic resilience, combating displacement, and addressing immediate community needs.

For more information about our vision for change in East San Jose, please click here.

Structure

Our partnership is made up of a Leadership Team, comprised of government and community leaders, workgroups that carry out the portfolio of interventions, and a Wellness Fund that serves as a vehicle for funding community-identified needs and collective impact projects. The Public Health Department’s Violence Prevention Program serves as the Backbone Agency for this collaborative.

Click here to see a visual of our operating structure.

PEACE partnership participating organizations:

Convening organization: Santa Clara County Public Health Department

• Alum Rock-Santa Clara St. Business Association
• Alum Rock Counseling Center
• Asian Americans for Community Involvement (AACI)
• Catholic Charities, Franklin-McKinley Children’s Initiative
• City of San Jose:
  • City Manager’s Office
  • Mayor’s Gang Prevention Task Force
  • Housing Department
  • Parks, Recreation & Neighborhood Services
• Community Health Partnership
• Bay Area Community Health
• The Health Trust
• JSI
• National Compadres Network
• Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence
• Prevention Institute
• Santa Clara County:
  • District Attorney’s Office,
  • Probation Department
• San Jose Bridge Community
• Somos Mayfair
• Valley Medical Center (VMC) Foundation
• Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Commission

The East San Jose PEACE Partnership is part of the California Accountable Communities for Health Initiative (CACHI), which is funded by The California Endowment, Kaiser Permanente, Blue Shield of California Foundation, and Sierra Health Foundation.