Equity in OC

About Equity in OC

Equity in OC is an Orange County Health Care Agency initiative that aims to improve the lives of underserved and multicultural communities in Orange County by advancing health equity, access, and wellness through a collective, responsive, and unified approach.

Funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Health Equity grant, Orange County United Way has joined this initiative and is tasked with carrying out the Community Partner Engagement aspect of the grant, which includes engaging and recruiting participants, as well as administering the various funding opportunities.

The organizations who participated in the Equity in OC initiative worked together to identify health inequities in our community while developing and establishing sustainable solutions throughout Orange County. Past and current Equity in OC Partnership Meetings can be found on the Equity in OC events page.

For a full listing of the Grant Recipients of the Equity in OC initiative, please click here.

Community Participation Grants

Select this if you:

Are applying as an individual
Are applying as an organization

Other Funding Opportunities

Please select the appropriate grant below:

Power Building Fund 2023
Power Building Fund 2022
Social Determinants of Health-Implementation Grants
Underserved/Underrepresented Grants
Population Health Equity Collective Grants

Community Participation Grants

Community Member Personal Service Contracts (AKA Honorariums)

The Orange County Health Care Agency Office of Population Health and Equity is committed to engaging community members with lived experience(s) of inequities for the Equity in OC initiative. Since those who are most impacted by health inequities are the same experts who can address the needs of their community, forty-nine (49) community members received grant funding with a Personal Service Contract (aka an honorarium) to participate in the Equity in OC initiative.

Funding is closed and is no longer accepting applications.

Community Organizational Participation Grants

Community-based organizations were invited to join the Equity in OC initiative and actively attend and participate in the Equity in OC partnership meetings and other related activities. These organizations were provided funding to support their capacity costs/needs in order to share insights and help identify solutions to achieve health equity.

To view 2023’s list of grant recipients, click here.

Power Building Fund 2022 & 2023

Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC), women, LGBTQ, and minority-led organizations were provided the opportunity to build their infrastructure and capacity, otherwise referred to here as power. These organizations have been identified as critical partners in health equity work and often lack the resources and/or power to be able to meaningfully engage in the various processes and collaborations where the work is taking place. By providing them with a combination of: 1) engagement in an in-depth power-building opportunity, and 2) a grant to support their own organization’s capacity and/or infrastructure, these smaller organizations whose operational budgets are less than $500K, will be more likely to engage in new and/or on-going health equity collaborative opportunities such as the Equity in OC initiative.

2022 Grant recipients for the Power Building Fund include:

2023 Grant recipients for the Power Building Fund include:

Social Determinants of Health-Implementation Grants

The grant provided funding support to collaborative systems change efforts that created positive change in the three (3) identified Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) Action Areas: 1) Housing is Health; 2) Food as Medicine; and 3) Health & Healing. By focusing on these SDoH Action Areas, communities are building resilience to not only recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, but become better positioned to adapt to future public health crises.

The Equity in OC initiative provided funding to support Implementation Partnerships to improve health equity in Orange County communities by developing and implementing 12 projects that aimed to reduce health equity gaps and address SDoH affecting their communities.

To learn more about the SDoH grant recipients and their funded projects, click here.

Underserved & Underrepresented Communities Grants

Grant funding was awarded to provide COVID-19-related services including but not limited to, mitigation and recovery supports to underserved and underrepresented communities which strengthened their internal capacity and improved the health equity of their respective communities in Orange County. This funding was aimed to serve the American Indian and Alaskan Native community; Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander community; and the Transgender and Gender Nonconforming community.

Grant recipients for the Underserved & Underrepresented Communities Grants include:
- Sacred Path Indigenous Wellness Center serving the American Indian and Alaska Native community
- Pacific Islander Health Partnership serving the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander community
- Alianza Translatinx serving the Transgender and Gender Nonconforming community

Population Health Equity Collective Grants

Grant funding was awarded to seven (7) population health equity collectives to build and expand their internal capacity as a collective to improve the health equity of their respective communities in Orange County. These collectives aimed to serve and represent the following communities: Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders; or Black or African Americans; or individuals with disabilities; or Latinx, Hispanic, Chicanos, or Latin Americans; or the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer communities (LGBTQ+); or Older adults (65+); or South Asian, Middle Eastern and North African (SAMENA).