Greater wealth can mean a longer, healthier life for you and your children, allowing access to medical care, healthier living conditions, and protection from chronic stress. In the Bay Area, racial and gender inequity segregates Black, Indigenous, Latinx, other people of color, and women into the lowest paying jobs and sectors resulting in dramatic income inequality, poorer health outcomes, and shorter lifespans. The impact of COVID-19 has only exacerbated this existing disparity.
Getting cash to people through programs like EITC, the ARPA’s expanded child tax credit, and the Bay Area’s guaranteed income pilots can have a powerful effect on health outcomes for maternal and child health, and children’s development. The Earned Income Tax Credit is one of the most effective poverty-reduction programs in the nation, and this year California has expanded CalEITC to cover low-income immigrants. How can funders focused on health equity and economic security work together to ensure the success of these efforts, improve outcomes for children and families, and level the playing field for an equitable future?
Join the Bay Area Health Funders Group and the EITC Funders Network to:
Learn about the latest research on EITC and improved health outcomes, and the opportunities to lift up the positive health impacts of income boosts from tax credits and other forms of income support to address health disparities in local communities.
Participants in this meeting will:
- Learn about research on how tax credits improve health outcomes
- Learn about tax credit and income support programs happening statewide and in the Bay Area
- Discuss how health funders and economic security funders can engage to improve the health and wealth of local communities
- Build relationships and deepen their engagement with the Bay Area Health Funders Group.
Speakers
Deneisha Thompson, Senior Associate, EITC Funders Network
Deneisha Thompson is a consultant, facilitator and coach who specializes in change management, leadership development, group facilitation and building strong teams. She is also an Adjunct Professor at Metropolitan College of NY where she teaches a variety of courses in the School of Human Services. A fierce advocate for oppressed people and their communities, Deneisha helps to build nonprofit networks and partnerships that center equity. She is currently the Senior Associate of the EITC Funders Network.
Mark Constantine, President & CEO, Richmond Memorial Health Foundation
Mark D. Constantine is president and chief executive officer of Richmond Memorial Health Foundation (RMHF). RMHF works explicitly to foster an equitable and healthy Richmond region through grant making, research, convenings, and impact investing.
Prior to joining RMHF, he served as senior vice president at the Jessie Ball duPont Fund in Jacksonville, Florida, where he directed the Program-Related Investment and affordable housing activities of the Fund.
Dr. Constantine has authored two books, Wit and Wisdom: Unleashing the Philanthropic Imagination (2009) and Travelers on the Journey: Pastors Talk about Their Lives and Commitments (2005), as well as the award-winning monograph, “Where Hope and History Rhyme: Reflections and Findings from the MidSouth Commission to Build Philanthropy (2005).”
Dr. Constantine holds a PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business (Duke University) and a Master of Theological Studies degree from Duke Divinity School. He was a 2006/2007 Fellow of the Emerging Leaders Program directed by the Centres for Leadership at Public Values at the University of Cape Town and Duke University.
Sasha Feldstein, Economic Justice Policy Director, California Immigrant Policy Center
Sasha Feldstein is the Economic Justice Policy Manager at California Immigrant Policy Center, where she works toward the vision for all Californians to be able to meaningfully support themselves, their families, and achieve economic mobility on their own terms. Since joining CIPC, she has worked with partners to remove the harmful exclusion of immigrant tax filers from the CalEITC, secure state COVID relief for undocumented community members, fight against misclassification, and expand workforce development and business opportunities for people who have been traditionally shut out from our state’s prosperity.
Sasha has worked at the local, state, and national levels on key policies and campaigns to promote economic justice. Locally, she worked with Restaurant Opportunities Centers Bay Area to research policy alternatives for addressing occupational segregation, and organized NYC communities to advocate for structural changes to the 2014 Farm Bill. Sasha also worked as a legal advocate at the Urban Justice Center, where she represented public assistance participants and advocated for policy changes to the social safety net to decriminalize participants.
At the state level, in addition to her work at CIPC, Sasha has worked with Initiate Justice to help restore voting rights for people in prison and on parole. At the Goldman School of Public Policy, she was part of Boalt Law School’s Policy Advocacy Clinic, where she researched the rise in the enactment and enforcement of anti-homeless policies in California. She also contributed efforts to expand healthy food incentive programs in California for SNAP participants.
Nationally, Sasha previously worked as Strategic Partnerships Manager at Opportunity@Work, where she was responsible for building partnerships with national organizations to develop solutions for the half of people living in the US who are currently shut out of the labor market, including immigrants and communities of color. And, she contributed to efforts to address discrimination and support local food systems at the USDA.
Sasha lives in Los Angeles and is a proud alum of AVODAH and member of Resource Generation.
Jeff Kim, Program Director, The California Wellness Foundation
Jeffrey S. Kim is a program director at The California Wellness Foundation where he currently manages grantmaking related to the Economic Security & Dignity portfolio. His responsibilities include reviewing letters of interest, requesting and evaluating grant proposals, conducting site visits, making funding recommendations and monitoring active grants.
Prior to joining Cal Wellness in April 2005, Kim was associate director of development for the National Conference for Community and Justice – Los Angeles Region. Before that, he worked for the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center as deputy director for the legal services department.
Kim serves on the board of directors of the Asset Funders Network, as well as the steering committee of the Bay Area AFN regional chapter. Previously, he was appointed by the Speaker of the California State Assembly to the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs. He also served on the board of directors of Grantmakers In Aging as well as the steering committee of the Los Angeles chapter of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy, and served on the steering committee of the Funders Oral Health Policy Group, a national network of funders in oral health.
A member of the State Bar of California, Kim earned his law degree from the University of Michigan and his bachelor’s degree in economics from Yale University.
