Initiatives

South Stockton Promise Zone (SSPZ)

In 2016, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development declared South Stockton a finalist for Promise Zone designation. Promise Zones are economically distressed regions where federal and local partners collaborate to boost economic activity, improve educational opportunities, reduce crime, and leverage private investment to improve the quality of life in these vulnerable areas. The Promise Zone work was the catalyst for the formalization of the Reinvent South Stockton Coalition.

Through this initiative, the coalition gained the resources necessary to create a collective impact model. Additionally, the Promise Zone status was used to leverage the City of Stockton into investing in a one-year contract with PolicyLink, which introduced the concepts of data tracking and the Results-Based Accountability to the growing coalition. The Promise Zone work continues to this day through community meetings and resident engagement events which provide the coalition with direct residential input.

Neighborhood Transformation

RSSC has convened more than 20 partner organizations to create a vibrant, healthy, and equitable South Stockton. Using a powerful collective impact framework, RSSC’s Neighborhood Transformation initiative aims to improve the quality of life and economic activity by increasing access to affordable homes, quality jobs, and public parks. By bringing together the ideas, resources, and focused attention of residents, community-based organizations, advocates, and public agencies, we can achieve measurable and sustainable benefits for our community. 

Trauma-Informed Services Initiative

South Stockton has been plagued with violence, high incarceration rates, and economic disinvestment for decades, leading to extraordinary levels of trauma that have become generational. Lack of access to behavioral health services, as well as poverty and cultural stigma, prevents many families from locating support services to cope with trauma, loss, and chronic stress.

San Joaquin County Transforming Communities for Healing is a coalition of community stakeholders, brought together to address the collective trauma that many San Joaquin County residents face. Community healing is promoted by advancing policy and systems change, providing community education, and training service providers to implement trauma-informed care.

Family Connectors

For agencies to create systems that foster change within communities, it is imperative that the people who live there inform those efforts. In neighborhoods that have historically endured disparities across all avenues of life, like South Stockton, this work must first begin with building mutual trust, often through the mouthpieces of community leaders.

In 2018, the Family Connect Project was initiated to build resident trust through collaboration and community engagement. With funding from CA Accountable Communities for Health Initiative (CACHI), trustbuilders are hired from within South Stockton to engage and connect with community members. They coordinate and share community events, assist residents in finding and sharing resources/services, and let people know what is happening in their neighborhoods. 

To learn more and connect with the Trustbuilders at STAND, contact Maria Alcazar.