One of the primary goals of the Capacity Building program is to support our partners in attracting and leveraging outside dollars to San Diego, which is what we consider “growing the pie.”

To this end, we provide grants towards critical capacity needs, including technical assistance, grant writer support, consultations and backbone support, with the high possibility of bringing in additional resources to the region. Our Capacity Building program has proven to be an important and nimble way for us to engage with our community partners on strategic priorities.

The chart below illustrates how we have been successful at leveraging both our capacity building and other investments to have an outsized impact on issues we care about and the populations we serve.

When communities come together, positive transformation is possible. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, 11 front-line refugee organizations in City Heights got together and formed the San Diego Refugee Communities Coalition. Over the last two years, the Coalition has served thousands of vulnerable, low-income refugees with the shared understanding that refugees need to be empowered to address the problems, solutions and outcomes for health and other disparities in their communities. After initial seed backbone funding from AHF and a few other funders, they were able to build enough capacity to attract and deploy millions of dollars in funding to support their coordinated efforts. The Coalition, which is trusted by and embedded in some of the hardest-to-reach communities, has gone on to secure its first-ever County contract for Community Health Workers.