Public Health Institute

The public health institute serves as the fiscal sponsor and partner for the center for wellness and nutrition (phi cwn), which is headquartered in sacramento, california. Phi cwn is a national leader in developing campaigns, programs, and partnerships to promote wellness and equitable health practices in the most vulnerable communities worldwide. Phi cwn has established relationships with local, state, national, and international organizations, and through education, training, technical assistance, advocacy, and evaluation, works to make health accessible for all. Phi cwn has been instrumental for more than a decade in advancing snap-ed across california (known as calfresh healthy living), colorado and usda fns southeastern region. Additionally, cwn has expanded its work to global locations such as puerto rico, palau, cherokee nation, africa, latin america, and asia. Phi cwn's work is spread across 40 states, and it partners with 398 community-based organizations worldwide to increase food and nutrition security and reduce diet-related illnesses and chronic diseases. Phi cwn prioritizes culturally rooted practices as stated in it health equity and racial justice platform. For example, it convenes the calfresh healthy living (cfhl) tribal ambassador committee that includes members representing diverse tribal partners from communities throughout california who provide feedback, guidance, and suggestions on nutrition education materials, healthy traditional recipes, and partnerships development to better serve california american indian alaskan native communities. This committee has developed a range of new culturally appropriate cfhl resources that promote healthy living and traditional foods. In 2024, in partnership with california department of public health's office of health equity phi cwn granted $25 million in grants to 28 community based organizations statewide for the children and youth behavioral health initiative local-level campaigns (cybhi llc), a program charged with reducing stigma related to mental and behavioral health, increasing behavioral health literacy and access to culturally appropriate resources through youth-led, locally developed campaigns. This program prioritizes reaching black, latino, asian-american and pacific islander, native american and lgbtq children and youth. Phi cwn also partnered with la county public health to run the los angeles grocery voucher program that addresses rising food insecurity due to covid-19. Funded by the american rescue plan act, the phi cwn team, distributed over $11.8 million in food benefits through a network of local cbos and vendors reaching over 15,200 households and 58,000 individuals. This program received the los angeles county's prestigious productivity and quality award. In the same year, phi cwn hosted 23 training events and over 20 collaboratives and workgroups directly reaching 17,668 individuals through services offered. Cwn also expanded the global nutrition and partnerships program with grants from the robert wood johnson foundation to address indigenous border health and the us state department to address lead health in india. Through this program, phi cwn collaborates across sectors in research, education, and program implementation to address global health issues. Roots of change (roc), also a program of phi, partnered with phi cwn in 2022 to jointly work on ensuring a healthy and accessible food supply chain. They are part of a coalition that will receive $35 million over five years to develop a system for transparent confirmation of regenerative practices by beef and bison producers worldwide. Roc also advocated successfully with its food and farm resilience coalition partners for over $700 million in the 2022-23 california budget, including $15 million each for the california nutrition incentive program, the healthy refrigeration grant program, and weatherization of farmworker homes.

The Bridge Center at the Public Health Institute ("Bridge") is dedicated to dramatically expanding low-barrier access to critical medical care that is free of stigma and available when and where people need it most. The Bridge model has three pillars: (1) immediate access to low-barrier treatment, (2) a culture of harm reduction that offers treatment without stigma, and (3) connection to continued care in the community through trained navigators. Led by a team of active emergency department (ED) clinicians, Bridge comprises five programs focused on addiction treatment (CA Bridge, EMS Bridge, and the Bridge National Expansion Project), reproductive health (Access Bridge), and public health screening (Emergency Department Syphilis/HIV/HCV Screening Program). Our foundational program, CA Bridge, aims to expand access to medications for addiction treatment (MAT), prevent opioid overdoses, and save lives. To date, CA Bridge has supported the implementation of our model in more than 80 percent of California's acute care hospitals, establishing and scaling open access settings for evidence-based treatment for substance use disorders (SUDs) across the state. Now, we are working to significantly increase the number of Californians with easy access to MAT beyond the ED. Through our publicly available platform-CA Bridge Connect-people interested in treatment will be able to connect through phone, SMS, or an online chat feature with navigators and be linked to providers such as primary care, street medicine, telemedicine, harm reduction, and other community care providers to receive addiction treatment. Our EMS Bridge and Bridge National Expansion Projects extend our addiction work into the prehospital space-through engagement of emergency medical services agencies and personnel in the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD) and prevention of overdose-and across the United States. Through our EMSBUP model, patients are offered treatment with buprenorphine from the ambulance, receive naloxone, and are encouraged to be transported for additional care and treatment at a nearby ED that treats OUD. Our Bridge National Expansion Project offers intensive training, technical assistance, and customized support for clinicians and administrators at the hospital/system, state or local, and federal levels, and has led to implementation of the Bridge model in 20 states, the District of Columbia, and four tribal communities. Modeled on our ED-based addiction work, our Emergency Department Syphilis/HIV/HCV Screening Program (EDSP) increases public health equity through routine opt-out screening in EDs. EDSP provides immediate care for people at the highest risk for syphilis, HIV, and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and helps control these growing epidemics statewide. We support hospitals through funding and capacity building to identify and treat those who might otherwise remain undiagnosed, reduce care barriers, and strengthen opt-out screening processes. Access Bridge fills critical gaps in reproductive health care by building the capacity of EDs across the United States to serve as reproductive health safety nets. We aim to improve access to evidence-based reproductive health services and increase health equity, focusing on communities with limited access to primary care and reproductive health care services. Using evidence-based protocols and ED-friendly training approaches to realize practice and culture change, Access Bridge helps emergency medicine clinicians integrate critical reproductive health protocols at participating EDs.

For 60 years, phi has implemented research and programs to improve the health and well-being of people across california, the u.s., and the world. Phi is a hub for public health innovation, providing supportive infrastructure, resources, and intellectual community with some of the best minds in public health. With over 100 researchers and project directors - and over 1000 staff worldwide - phi leads new research, tests novel interventions, and implements and builds capacity for on-the-ground programs to address new and emerging public health problems. For example, phi programs comprise one of the largest obesity networks in the country, addressing an epidemic that has reached communities in the u.s. And around the world, raising the risk for chronic diseases like cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. Globally, phi is dismantling the barriers to health and opportunity experienced by women and girls in the u.s. And creating gender equity partnerships. Phi is developing workforce pipeline programs to train and graduate health care professionals representing the diversity of our population and who will meet the growing demand for care. Phi is also at the forefront of the opioid epidemic, supporting local multi-sector coalitions addressing prevention and new substance use disorder and behavioral health care models. Implementing programs, systems and research that connect public health and health care delivery thru new design methods and data tools, we are bridging historic gaps in population health. Phi spearheads trainings and solutions to address climate change, which, although typically framed as an environmental issue, represents a huge threat to human health. Together, phi programs are helping to create healthy communities where individuals can achieve their highest potential. The breadth of phi expertise and experience positions us as a premier partner and leader in public health. Civicspark fellows assist in building local workforce capacity to respond to community identified priorities on a variety of local issues such as disaster preparedness and response, water, natural resource management, housing, economic development, transportation and infrastructure, parks and recreation, public health and community engagement. Fellows work for up to 11 months and complete research, planning and implementation projects for their communities and lead volunteer engagement activities. Civicspark fellows have provided over 1,250,000 hours of service to communities in three states (california, colorado, and washington) with expansion planned for 2025.