Our Strategies & Impact
Build Capacity
We keep the asthma field abreast of best practices, opportunities, and research. By creating and disseminating tools and models, providing strategic guidance, and facilitating training and technical assistance, RAMP increases the field’s collective impact on reducing the inequitable burden of asthma. Examples include:
- We provide technical assistance to a network of asthma home visiting programs participating in the Asthma Mitigation Project, funded by the California Department of Health Care Services.
- With funding from the US EPA, we developed tools for school-based health centers across the country to help them conduct effective asthma interventions and we are currently developing tools for asthma home visiting programs.
- For over 20 years, we have conducted monthly workshops for Community Health Workers across California.
RAMP has worked directly with several different types of organizations, including community-based organizations, local health departments and clinics, all serving diverse populations. RAMP has provided one-on-one technical assistance, has planned large convenings, organized trainings, and made connections to additional resources. One organization noted that RAMP ‘provided the best technical assistance.’
Create Linkages
We create linkages among partners for peer learning, collaboration, and network-building. We also create connections across issues and sectors to reduce silos, and advance comprehensive solutions. Here are a few examples:
- Since 2002, we have led Community Action to Fight Asthma, a network of asthma stakeholders across California focused on peer learning and collective action on a comprehensive range of policy priorities, both clinical and environmental.
- Since 2010, we have led the California Healthy Housing Coalition, a diverse, multi-sector coalition committed to advancing policies and practices that improve unhealthy housing conditions and serving as a statewide advocate for healthy housing.
- Since 2015, we have led the California Asthma Financing Workgroup, which in part is focused on building connections among Medi-Cal managed care plans and asthma home visiting programs to partner in the provision of services to low-income Californians with poorly controlled asthma.
RAMP’s leadership of diverse, statewide workgroups enables us to learn and share best practices and to shape collective advocacy strategies to support and improve everyone’s work.
Mobilize Networks to Advance Policy and Systems Change
We advocate—and lift the voices of our asthma networks and partners—for policy and systems changes to address asthma, asthma disparities, and social and environmental inequities. Examples include:
- We led statewide advocacy efforts leading to the successful adoption of two Medi-Cal policies that will increase access to asthma home visiting services for people with poorly controlled asthma.
- We led a policy campaign to make California the first state in the country to list mold as a substandard housing condition.
- We successfully advocated for the reduction of diesel pollution from trucks in low-income communities and communities of color.
RAMP’s impressive track record advocating for policy and systems changes targeting the root causes of asthma disparities provides numerous best-practices for other organizations to learn from and apply in their work.
