On Dec. 18, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors held a special joint meeting of the Health and Public Protection Committees to receive updates on violence prevention efforts from local organizations, as part of an ongoing public health project by the county.
Supervisors Lena Tam (District 3) and Elisa Márquez (D2) engaged with questions, while Supervisor Nate Miley (District 4) joined remotely to give a public comment.
“Behind each data point is a life lost to violence and then the pain experienced by loved ones and the wider community trauma,” said Kristen Clopton, a violence prevention manager with Alameda County Public Health Department.
According to a press release from the Alameda County Department of Public Health, “[In June, 2025], the County announced a $5.7 million investment in a new public health program aimed at examining the root causes of violence, supporting community-based violence intervention efforts and reshaping local narratives around violence.”
The program is a multi-year effort administered by the Office of Violence Prevention (OVP), involving nearly 20 nonprofit organizations.
Organizations who presented at the meeting were: Destiny Arts Center, inspiring and igniting social change through movement arts; Roots Community Health, intensive life navigation and data sharing for violence reduction; Youth Alive, hospital-based violence intervention; and Asian Health Services and Baywell Health’s Asian-Black Racial Health Project.
One theme shared across the organizations was the need to treat violence as a public health issue rather than a pure law enforcement issue, and to address unstable situations before violence breaks out
While some organizations focus specifically on youth, supported by Measure C funding, Dr. Noha Aboelata, founder and CEO of Roots Community Health, said that the age of those at risk of gun violence is going up.
One theme shared across the organizations was the need to treat violence as a public health issue rather than a pure law enforcement issue, and to address unstable situations before violence breaks out. Violence isn’t only related to gangs, but can come from interpersonal disputes or encampments.
“The pressures of high cost of living and the stark inequities in wealth and poverty make Alameda County vulnerable to community violence,” said Clopton.
“Violence shows up long before a 911 call,” said Robert Phillips, president and CEO at Baywell Health.
Organizations presented the data on the people their programs have rehabilitated and connected to services.
Aboelata also pointed out the need to work with communities directly to share data. What official data says about crime rates might not reflect public perception.
“News may be saying one thing and residents may be saying another,” Aboelata said. “You might see there are a lot of parks in East Oakland, but you go there and there’s illegal activity or syringes… It doesn’t matter that it’s on the map. The residents are saying this is not a place to be.”
Supervisors asked questions to ensure the reliability of services—for example, on lay counselors being used by Asian Health Services to fill a deficit in providers.
Ben Wang, Asian Health Services’ director of special initiatives, said that lay counselors do receive 60 hours of training through Elizabeth Morrison’s Lay Counselor Academy and similar programs. They also often have skills such as being bilingual, which helps them connect with patients.
Given the emphasis on intervention before violence escalates, the supervisors also questioned what help programs could provide in situations that have already exploded into violence. Would a non-police response still suffice?
Wang answered that prevention is still the most effective, and that the Black community especially didn’t want police to be the first response in a crisis.
Recent cuts to government programs, especially Medi-Cal will worsen triggers that can lead to violence in a community. Aboelata said, “It feels like we’re going to go right back to a pre-Affordable Care Act time,” because so many will lose coverage. However, Oakland now has 5,000 people sleeping on the streets, which wasn’t the case back then.
The work done by Alameda County’s Violence Prevention Office resonates through the Bay Area.
“Violence prevention isn’t just stopping at county borders,” said Supervisor Nate Miley. “It does cut across other counties and regions. We are continuing to work to see how we can have a public safety corridor and a comprehensive approach to violence prevention at least throughout the East Bay and hopefully with San Francisco as a part of that.”
