Alliance Healthcare Foundation

Grantee Spotlight 🌊 Paddle for Peace is pioneering a community-rooted approach to healing and connection. Its Blue Prescription model uses a culturally grounded, trauma-informed framework with the ocean as a setting for healing, learning, and personal growth.

With a mission to “diversify the coast by breaking down barriers and connecting underserved youth to the ocean’s transformative and healing power,” Paddle for Peace reaches young San Diegans -- including BIPOC, low-income, and justice-involved youth -- through meaningful access to our region’s greatest natural asset.

Through programs such as Rising Tides Youth Leadership and Healing Currents, Paddle for Peace combines nature, physical activity, mindfulness, leadership, and community connection to empower San Diego youth. Learn more about their work here ↪️ www.paddleforpeace.org

Helping young people build confidence, connection, and trusted relationships before challenges escalate 👉 Our partners at Youth Empowerment embed Credible Messengers -- mentors who bring lived experience and provide consistent, relationship-based support to students –- into their high impact youth programming in City Heights.

➡️ These Credible Messengers connect with Hoover High School students through restorative practices, mentorship, and a daily presence on campus.

➡️ During three years of the program, incidents of fights at Hoover declined 84%, alongside improved attendance and reductions in suspensions and expulsions.

AHF is proud to support the work of Youth Empowerment as they invest in the people, environments, and relationships that help young people feel safe and supported from the start. Learn more about their work at https://www.youthempowermentsd.com/

AHF is committed to advancing equitable health systems that give everyone the opportunity to live healthy, thriving lives. We’ve joined 30 co-signatories and Grantmakers In Health in submitting a comment letter responding to a proposed Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Interim Final Rule.

The proposed rule requires adult Medicaid beneficiaries to work or perform community service for 80 hours per month or risk losing their Medicaid benefits.

If implemented, it would create significant barriers to coverage for eligible individuals and families, and many people who are otherwise eligible for Medicaid are expected to lose coverage inappropriately as a result of these new requirements.

Learn more here: https://www.gih.org/gih-news/join-gih-in-commenting-on-proposed-medicaid-work-and-community-service-requirements/

Highlight from our partners at Imperial Valley Wellness Foundation (IVWF): Feliciano Farmworker Fund awards its first $25,000 🎉 The grants support five local partners to expand access to health care, education, legal services, and other essential resources for farmworker families.

➡️ The Fund is a partnership between the family of local farmworker Feliciano Herrera, International Community Foundation and IVWF, and it reflects a long-term commitment to the families who are essential to the Imperial Valley. It’s just one of many initiatives launched in the past two years as IVWF continues to grow its role as a community-driven leader and regional ecosystem builder.

➡️ In 2025, AHF made a rare move for a private foundation, transferring $7.5 million — 10 percent of our endowment — to help establish IVWF as an independent grantmaking organization. This capital shift has supported IVWF's long-term financial autonomy and community-led investments in civic infrastructure, local leadership, and community-driven priorities.

We are thrilled to see the impact of IVWF's work as a locally governed, community-embedded foundation that is moving the community’s priorities forward and attracting additional resources to the Imperial Valley.

AHF joins San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation (EDC) ➡️ At AHF, we recognize that economic conditions like jobs, wages, cost of living, housing affordability, and access to opportunity are some of the most powerful drivers of health and well-being.

EDC is a respected cross-sector convener bringing business, civic, and community leaders together around inclusive growth. We look forward to building relationships and collaborations that align with AHF’s vision for thriving, healthy communities across the San Diego region.

Our team was also thrilled to join EDC's recent Annual Dinner at Petco Park -- check out some of the pics below!

Congratulations to AHF Mission Support grantee A Reason To Survive (ARTS) on 25 years of fostering creativity, belonging, and impact among our region’s youth! Based in National City, ARTS is grounded in the philosophy that the arts can heal and transform lives.

Since its founding by our colleague Matt D'Arrigo in 2001, the Creative Youth Development-focused organization now serves more than 1,500 local young people each year through its in-school and community-based programs, as well as services specifically developed for system-involved youth.

Arts and culture play an integral role in wellness, and Alliance is proud to support ARTS as they advance health equity for young people and their families while supporting a creative and resilient South County community.

Bright Lights: Honoring 25 Years of Those Who Create Impact — A Reason To Survive (ARTS) This spring, supporters, partners, alumni, staff, and community members came together at ARTS for Bright Lights 2026, a special event celebrating 25 years of creativity, belonging, and impact. For a quarter century, ARTS has been a place where young people are seen, heard, and uplifted through the

Economic mobility and financial stability as drivers of health outcomes 💡 Earlier this summer we were thrilled to attend the Grantmakers In Health conference, where MANA de San Diego’s CEO Daniela Perez and AHF’s own Barbara Orozco-Valdivia co-presented about our partnership supporting the Latina Upward Mobility Initiative (LUMI).

A few highlights we shared:

The program ➡️ LUMI is a community-rooted program launched by MANA to support Latina mothers through guaranteed income, workforce development, case management, and culturally responsive services.

The process ➡️ Based on goals they identified for themselves, LUMI mothers advanced professionally, launched and expanded businesses, enrolled in educational and workforce training programs, and strengthened the skills and relationships that contribute to long-term economic mobility and well-being.

The big picture ➡️ When funders invest in culturally responsive, community-informed solutions and trust the leadership, strengths, and aspirations of the communities they serve, we can create enduring pathways to dignity, stability, and opportunity.

We were thrilled to join Daniela onstage to share this program with a national funder audience! Learn more about LUMI in our most recent newsletter: https://alliancehf.org/news/stability-creates-the-conditions-for-health/

We're proud to be one of 25 California funders and philanthropic organizations calling for the withdrawal of the Office of Management and Budget's proposed federal rule.

This proposed rule threatens the health and well-being of Black, Brown, immigrant, and LGBTQ+ communities by putting access to critical federally funded programs and services at risk.

At Alliance Healthcare Foundation, we remain committed to advancing health equity and standing alongside the communities working every day to help ensure everyone has the opportunity to live healthy, thriving lives.

Nonprofit leaders play a critical role in supporting communities across our region.

The San Diego Fundraising Conference presented by PNC Bank helps strengthen that work by equipping nonprofit leaders and fundraisers with practical tools and strategies to build more sustainable organizations.

Join us September 9–10 at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront.
Register here: https://www.sdfundraisingconference.com/

San Diego Foundation National University

Partner spotlight: Project New Village ✨ Check out AHF’s 2022 Innovation Initiative (i2) grantee Project New Village - San Diego (PNV) featured in a recent Civil Eats article on building community wealth through food in Southeast San Diego.

💡 Did you know? PNV is the only organization in San Diego with an Equitable Food Oriented Development (EFOD) designation, a model centered on reparative, community-owned wealth building.

Their work reflects how community-led approaches can strengthen local food systems and economic opportunity.

PNV was also recognized recently with the John Barnard Uplifting Communities Award at the annual Power of the Plate Conference, a global gathering focused on the intersection of nutrition, healthcare, food systems, and sustainability ➡️ The award honors organizations and leaders expanding access to whole-food, plant-based nutrition and building healthier, more equitable communities.



https://civileats.com/2026/03/31/in-southeast-san-diego-a-model-for-creating-community-wealth-through-food/