Background and History
The City of Richmond, California, is a leader in using city-level policy to promote greater resident inclusion in government and to address neighborhood-scale inequalities, including violence reduction, affordable housing and access to quality public spaces.
Richmond is a small city in the San Francisco Bay Area with about 115,000 people, with about 40% Latino (from Mexico, El Salvador & Guatemala), 20% African-American, 15% Asian (mostly from Laos & Vietnam) and the rest white and Native Americans. About 25% of the population has a high-school education or less, 12% are unemployed and about 52% are tenants or renting their place of residence. However, these general data mask intra-city differences. In the Iron Triangle neighborhood, median household income is $33,000 ($24K for African-American residents), 65% are renters, 35% are immigrants (mostly Latino), 62% are under 18 years old, unemployment is over 25%, and 33% live below the federal poverty level ($24,600 for family of 4; $12,000 for an individual).
In 2009, Richmond was once of the most violent cities in the US and the world. There were 42 gun homicides per 100,000 residents. In 2009, life expectancy differed by both where you lived in Richmond (and the Bay Area more generally) and your race/ethnicity.
Richmond is a small city in the San Francisco Bay Area with about 115,000 people, with about 40% Latino (from Mexico, El Salvador & Guatemala), 20% African-American, 15% Asian (mostly from Laos & Vietnam) and the rest white and Native Americans. About 25% of the population has a high-school education or less, 12% are unemployed and about 52% are tenants or renting their place of residence. However, these general data mask intra-city differences. In the Iron Triangle neighborhood, median household income is $33,000 ($24K for African-American residents), 65% are renters, 35% are immigrants (mostly Latino), 62% are under 18 years old, unemployment is over 25%, and 33% live below the federal poverty level ($24,600 for family of 4; $12,000 for an individual).
In 2009, Richmond was once of the most violent cities in the US and the world. There were 42 gun homicides per 100,000 residents. In 2009, life expectancy differed by both where you lived in Richmond (and the Bay Area more generally) and your race/ethnicity.
Investing in Community Health and Equity
Pressured by community residents and local organizations to address violence, environmental health and neighborhood inequities, the City of Richmond embarked on a series of actions. Starting in 2007, the City drafted and adopted California’s first Community Health and Wellness Element (or chapter) into its General Plan. The General Plan is a 30 year policy and development ‘constitution’ for the city. The Health Element set in motion the formation of the Richmond Health Equity Partnership, which has worked since 2009 to implement the recommended policies. With the support of UC Berkeley, Richmond drafted and adopted the first municipal Health in All Policies ordinance in the United States. This local law provides a framework for action, include indicators to track progress and links all city decisions - -from the budget, to hiring to development approvals – to health equity objectives defined in the ordinance.
Reducing Violence
Another innovation from the City of Richmond was to create an agency focused on violence reduction and peacemaking, called the Office of Neighborhood Safety (ONS). This office shifted peacemaking from only the responsibility of the police department to this new government office staffed with social workers and street-outreach workers – called Neighborhood Change Agents (NCAs). The ONS also started a ‘peacemaker fellowship’ that recruited young people from the streets and supported them with mentoring, skill building and financial resources to stop killing and pursue a more healthy lifestyle. Since 2010, the ONS has supported 94 young people in its fellowship and Richmond had 11 gun homicides in 2015 (down from 42 in 2009).