CC Southern California Selected as a Fellow for Center for Civic Policy & Leadership

Cambridge College Southern California has been selected as a fellow for the CCPL (Center for Civic Policy & Leadership) Healing Communities Through Racial Justice Initiative, which promotes, encourages, and supports greater strides toward racial justice in the Inland Empire for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC).  CCPL, a program of Reach Out, engages leaders from throughout the Inland Region to support building healthy, safe, and peaceful communities.  This 15-month fellowship includes a $10,000 grant award to provide core support for the agency and to help offset the time invested by the participants in HCRJ.

Inland Empire Southern California faces numerous societal challenges that require innovative approaches to leadership. In order to accomplish the large-scale health and social changes/improvements we want to achieve, we must be intentional about strengthening the various fields in which we work and lead, as well as be willing to build and sustain strong public/private partnerships between our sectors. 

The Center for Civic Policy & Leadership (CCPL) engages leaders from throughout the Inland Region to support building healthy, safe, and peaceful communities. CCPL serves San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, with a focus on our diverse communities that face significant challenges to health and equity. CCPL has traditionally been a 2-year fellowship focused on building cross-sectoral health leadership. This year CCPL will be pivoting away from this model. 

In 2020, CCPL took a bold step towards taking on the challenges of our time. With COVID-19, the growing movement for racial justice, particularly Black Lives Matter, CCPL implemented the Healing Communities through Racial Justice Initiative. Its primary goal is to promote, encourage, and support greater strides toward racial justice in the Inland Empire for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC).

The 15-month program will develop allies and advocates for the racial justice movement, while also building racial responsiveness/inclusivity within the participating agencies’ internal policies and structures. It will be cohort-based, and will include didactic learning, reflection, interaction, agency-based project planning, and implementation. 

This initiative is also an opportunity to engage with local leaders to provide community solutions to county resolutions passed in San Bernardino (June) and Riverside (August), each declaring racism to be a public health crisis in their counties. 

There are 65 people in the cohort: 10 organizations each have 2 representatives, 15 organizations each have 3 representatives. There are 4 Staff/Facilitators. Selected agencies will receive a grant award in the amount of $10,000 over a 15-month period. These funds may be used for core support for the agency and to help offset the time invested by the participants in HCRJ.