Equity Community Organizing (ECO) Group

In 2023, the Healthcare Foundation secured funding and joined with local partners to create an Equity Community Organizing (ECO) Group in Cloverdale that will engage older adults, and other local residents and stakeholders, in identifying the drivers of health inequities for older residents as well as exploring solutions for aging in health, wellbeing and community.

The ECO Group will also support the county effort around California’s Master Plan for Aging, a developing “blueprint” for state and local government as well as the private and philanthropic sectors which seeks to address coming demographic changes by building a “California for All Ages” by 2030. Partnering organizations supported by the grant include Alexander Valley Healthcare, Cloverdale Multi-Purpose Senior Center, La Familia Sana, Nuestra Comunidad, On the Margins, and Sonoma County’s Council on Aging.

Having launched in January 2024, the Cloverdale ECO Group is meeting regularly over 18 months at the Cloverdale Senior Center and other locations for charlas y cafecitos (Coffee and Conversations) to share experiences, identify priorities and solutions, and collaborate on ideas. The data and experiences collected and the solutions explored will culminate in a final report shared with Cloverdale residents, government and other stakeholders as a tool to catalyze change. The ECO Group process is also expected to produce informal and/or formal partnerships conducive to the project’s goals of inclusion and equity for older residents.

We gratefully acknowledge support from The SCAN Foundation and the California Health Care Foundation in making possible the Cloverdale ECO Group project.