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The CalFresh Healthy Living Community Impact Framework
Our Principles, Our Collective Action
About the Community Impact Framework
A CalFresh Healthy Living program centered on community impact ensures all people have full and equal access to opportunities that enable them to lead healthy, active lives.
CalFresh Healthy Living is committed to advancing community impact throughout California by embedding the strategies outlined in this document into all its programming.
Who is this Framework for?
Local implementers, including sub-contractors
State agency staff
Non-funded partners interested in aligning work with CFHL efforts
Who created this Framework?
- The CalFresh Healthy Living Community Impact Framework Local Advisory Council coordinated the development, with Leah’s Pantry providing backbone support.
- Local and state staff, including subcontractors, provided feedback throughout the process.
- The framework was approved by CDSS and State Implementing Agency leadership in October 2024.
What's included in this Framework?
Three transformational goals.
Sub-goals and strategies for building capacity, centering community, and delivering programming for maximum community health impact.
A flexible approach to strategy implementation, inclusive of various CFHL roles and starting points in the program cycle
An easy-to-follow navigation that includes images, text, color keys, and icons
Familiarize Yourself with the CalFresh Healthy Living Mission and Vision
Mission: CalFresh Healthy Living supports healthy, active, and nourished lifestyles by teaching Californians about good nutrition and how to stretch their food dollars, while also building partnerships in communities to make the healthy choice, the easy choice.
Vision: A California where everyone is healthy, active, and nourished.
Prepare by asking yourself Orienting Questions
Reflect on these questions as you prepare to review the framework's goals and strategies and apply it to your work.
- What actions am I already taking that enhance community health impact in my CalFresh Healthy Living work?
- How can I collaborate with colleagues to address the root causes of disparate health outcomes in my community?
- What assets—such as skills, competencies, and lived experiences—do I acknowledge in myself and others that can help create impactful change?
- How can we build strong, community-driven relationships to guide program decisions and empower those most affected?
Review the Process for Defining Decision-Making within CFHL
The outer circle represents the program stages where decisions are made. Inside, the multi-colored flower symbolizes key decision-making points, depicted as petals. When considering actions to achieve the framework's goals and strategies, identify who should be involved in each decision and at which stage of the program cycle it occurs.
Transformative Goals
These transformative goals and sub-goals were developed collaboratively by a diverse group of local implementers. Supporting strategies are detailed on the following pages. As you navigate through this document ask yourself:
- Are these goals and strategies already embedded in my work and the work of my organization?
- How can I use these goals and strategies to ensure all people have full and equal access to opportunities that enable them to lead healthy lives?
Community Sub-Goals
1.1 Develop authentic relationships with community members and partners to effectively support community-driven programs.
1.2 Integrate participatory processes throughout the entire program cycle.
1.3 Involve community members in PSEs, with a focus on community-level initiatives.
1.4 Incorporate participatory budgeting into CFHL resourcing policies and processes.
Capacity Sub-Goals
2.1 Implement and maintain the Community Impact Framework to coordinate and align efforts throughout the network.
2.2 Use specific language for community engagement efforts, informed by The Spectrum of Community Engagement to Ownership.
2.3 Incorporate asset-framing and ethical storytelling into CFHL processes using ASNNA's toolkit.
2.4 Integrate community-specific historical and contextual factors and the needs of various population groups into programming.
Program Sub-Goals
3.1 Deliver CalFresh Healthy Living programming in neighborhoods and sites with the greatest potential for health impact.
3.2 Consider the diverse characteristics of the target population when delivering direct education.
3.3 Align PSEs with evidence-based research on nutrition education and physical activity for target populations.
3.4 Integrate CalFresh Healthy Living into broader multi-sector efforts to support nutrition education and physical activity opportunities.
Community Impact Toolkit
Community Impact Toolkit
Find resources and toolkits associated with each Transformative Goal and their associated sub goals.
When building and maintaining relationships with community members and partners, acknowledge their assets, including lived experience.
Build authentic relationships when hiring, retaining, and defining staff roles and responsibilities.
Ensure that community members are valued fairly, including adequate compensation for their time and expertise.
Evaluate how a greater emphasis on building relationships may impact program deliverables, site selection, and overall processes.
Incorporate participatory processes into state-level guidance for needs assessment and evaluation.
Build capacity among community members and partners to engage with CalFresh Healthy Living on strategies with maximum health impact.
Share data with local implementers and program participants before publishing or sharing it with external audiences to maintain trust.
Build capacity and identify resource and expertise needs to design and implement participatory evaluation.
Engage community partners to help identify and support community champions.
Continually engage community members in policy development and prioritization discussions.
Leverage direct education to support community members recruitment for PSE initiatives.
Document and share the impact of community member involvement in PSE initiatives.
Recommend participatory budgeting in local funding guidance.
Develop resources on participatory budgeting for use by community members and partners.
Integrate participatory budgeting into local CFHL budgets.
Integrate participatory budgeting into community engagement efforts.
The Local Advisory Council will maintain, update, and monitor progress on the Framework.
Build capacity among community members and partners to engage with CalFresh Healthy Living on strategies with maximum health impact.
Identify and prioritize implementing agencies capacity building needs based on staff experience, turnover rates, and funding.
Include specific language in planning documents to show how power is shared and feedback loops are incorporated.
Ensure the use of clear, specific language with community members to facilitate their understanding and participation in engagement initiatives.
Develop and adhere to community engagement processes that align with the planned level of engagement.
Use specific language to describe community engagement efforts in PEARS and other reporting documents.
Identify and highlight community assets in planning documents to inform program decisions.
Develop guidance on ethical storytelling to enhance impact reporting.
Build capacity of staff and partners to implement ethical storytelling practices through training and resources.
Consistently apply ethical storytelling techniques to all CalFresh Healthy Living impact reporting.
Develop tools for local implementers to identify factors contributing to nutrition insecurity in CalFresh Healthy Living communities.
Conduct or review research on health out-comes experienced by various population groups.
Build capacity to understand the needs of various population groups.
Incorporate research and data to meet the needs of population groups and to address historical and contextual factors.
Develop guidance and provide support for using data to identify and prioritize neighborhoods and sites.
Prioritize site selection based on potential impact rather than focusing solely on program allowability.
When assessing readiness of new sites, explore the historical and current dynamics between CalFresh Healthy Living, other social services, and community partners.
Collaborate with Tribal Nations to co-create and tailor CalFresh Healthy Living programming that honor cultural practices and strengthen community health outcomes.
Eliminate, modify, or update curricula that do not align with the curriculum rubric.
Work with community members to select curricula that best align with their needs and interests.
Beyond language translation, adapt curricula to address the specific needs of local communities.
Hire staff with language fluency and cultural ties to program participants and community members.
Build capacity to incorporate evidence-based research on nutrition education and physical activity for CalFresh Healthy Living populations.
Document key components of evidence-based research on nutrition education and physical activity in planning documents.
Implement evidence-based research on nutrition education and physical activity PSEs for CalFresh Healthy Living populations.
Report on the integration of evidence-based research and physical activity components in PSE efforts.
Develop guidance for building relationships with non-traditional partners working on upstream factors.
Actively seek out complementary funding to address factors related to nutrition security that are outside program allowability.
Identify in work plans how staff can leverage skills or perspectives from other programs into CalFresh Healthy Living programming using braided funding.
Coordinate and collaborate with partners addressing upstream issues at the local level.
Find resources and toolkits associated with each Transformative Goal and their associated sub goals.
What are my goals?
What am I interested in?
When building and maintaining relationships with community members and partners, acknowledge their assets, including lived experience.
Build authentic relationships when hiring, retaining, and defining staff roles and responsibilities.
Ensure that community members are valued fairly, including adequate compensation for their time and expertise.
Evaluate how a greater emphasis on building relationships may impact program deliverables, site selection, and overall processes.
Incorporate participatory processes into state-level guidance for needs assessment and evaluation.
Build capacity among community members and partners to engage with CalFresh Healthy Living on strategies with maximum health impact.
Share data with local implementers and program participants before publishing or sharing it with external audiences to maintain trust.
Build capacity and identify resource and expertise needs to design and implement participatory evaluation.
Engage community partners to help identify and support community champions.
Continually engage community members in policy development and prioritization discussions.
Leverage direct education to support community members recruitment for PSE initiatives.
Document and share the impact of community member involvement in PSE initiatives.
Recommend participatory budgeting in local funding guidance.
Develop resources on participatory budgeting for use by community members and partners.
Integrate participatory budgeting into local CFHL budgets.
Integrate participatory budgeting into community engagement efforts.
The Local Advisory Council will maintain, update, and monitor progress on the Framework.
Build capacity among community members and partners to engage with CalFresh Healthy Living on strategies with maximum health impact.
Identify and prioritize implementing agencies capacity building needs based on staff experience, turnover rates, and funding.
Include specific language in planning documents to show how power is shared and feedback loops are incorporated.
Ensure the use of clear, specific language with community members to facilitate their understanding and participation in engagement initiatives.
Develop and adhere to community engagement processes that align with the planned level of engagement.
Use specific language to describe community engagement efforts in PEARS and other reporting documents.
Identify and highlight community assets in planning documents to inform program decisions.
Develop guidance on ethical storytelling to enhance impact reporting.
Build capacity of staff and partners to implement ethical storytelling practices through training and resources.
Consistently apply ethical storytelling techniques to all CalFresh Healthy Living impact reporting.
Develop tools for local implementers to identify factors contributing to nutrition insecurity in CalFresh Healthy Living communities.
Conduct or review research on health out-comes experienced by various population groups.
Build capacity to understand the needs of various population groups.
Incorporate research and data to meet the needs of population groups and to address historical and contextual factors.
Develop guidance and provide support for using data to identify and prioritize neighborhoods and sites.
Prioritize site selection based on potential impact rather than focusing solely on program allowability.
When assessing readiness of new sites, explore the historical and current dynamics between CalFresh Healthy Living, other social services, and community partners.
Collaborate with Tribal Nations to co-create and tailor CalFresh Healthy Living programming that honor cultural practices and strengthen community health outcomes.
Eliminate, modify, or update curricula that do not align with the curriculum rubric.
Work with community members to select curricula that best align with their needs and interests.
Beyond language translation, adapt curricula to address the specific needs of local communities.
Hire staff with language fluency and cultural ties to program participants and community members.
Build capacity to incorporate evidence-based research on nutrition education and physical activity for CalFresh Healthy Living populations.
Document key components of evidence-based research on nutrition education and physical activity in planning documents.
Implement evidence-based research on nutrition education and physical activity PSEs for CalFresh Healthy Living populations.
Report on the integration of evidence-based research and physical activity components in PSE efforts.
Develop guidance for building relationships with non-traditional partners working on upstream factors.
Actively seek out complementary funding to address factors related to nutrition security that are outside program allowability.
Identify in work plans how staff can leverage skills or perspectives from other programs into CalFresh Healthy Living programming using braided funding.
Coordinate and collaborate with partners addressing upstream issues at the local level.
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