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By David R. Shorey, East County Program Manager, Institute for Public Strategies
November 20, 2022 (San Diego) - The Institute for Public Strategies is a recognized leader in community-based drug and alcohol harm prevention workthroughout San Diego County. But what may not be known is the history and depth of our work.
IPS celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2022 as a San Diego-based public health organization leading upstream prevention projects in the East County, across the United States and Mexico. Since 1992, IPS has been directing multiple government-funded and foundation-funded projects throughout Southern California, with offices in San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Bernardino Counties. IPS has more than 40 employees and offices in multiple California cities, as well as in Montana and Maryland.
“Equity is not a path forward, it is the path forward,” is a phrase you can often hear around IPS and is part of our office culture. CEO/President Brenda Simmons says IPS is committed to transforming the social determinants of health so that all individuals, regardless of their race, culture, economic circumstances, sexual orientation, gender identity, or educational attainment, have the opportunity to live their best lives.
Our mission is to work alongside communities to build power, challenge systems of inequity, protect health, and improve quality of life. The mission is based on an understanding that most health-related problems are preventable and most health disparities stem from unjust community and social conditions. Equity is listed first among IPS’s core values, which also include diversity, empowerment, systems change, results, and integrity. It is not enough to get rid of policies that create or perpetuate social/racial inequity and injustice, we need new policies and practices in place that actively reverse the harm that was caused, according to Simmons.
Community Partnerships
“What IPS is most proud of now is our community partnerships with other like-minded agencies and community groups doing similar work, as well as with our funders,” Simmons said. “These partnerships allow us to do our best work and to make a difference.”
James Baker founded IPS with the original focus serving communities by providing media advocacy services, training and technical assistance. “Over the past 30 years, IPS began operating its own projects, performing prevention implementation on large research initiatives and providing technical assistance and training to many government agencies and program operators across the nation,” Baker said. “IPS now partners with communities to advance quality of life and transform the conditions and systems that perpetuate inequity, poor health, and lack of opportunity in order to create vital, thriving, and inclusive communities.”
IPS has emerged as a leader in program design and implementation of environmental or upstream prevention in the public health and safety field, having worked in dozens of state-, county-, and community-level projects, including the Community Trials to Reduce Alcohol Trauma project and the American Medical Association-led A Matter Of Degree (AMOD) – a college-community alcohol and binge drinking prevention program.
IPS’s expansive body of innovative work continues today
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
IPS’s commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion begins at the Board of Directors level.
“When everyone has the opportunity to live to their full potential, that’s when we have achieved equity,” said IPS Board Member Dana Sherrod. “We are cultivating a sense of community cohesion by developing and advocating for changes to policies and systems that work as barriers to equity.”
IPS is also expanding into providing training webinars online, including utilizing public art in prevention; breaking the cycles of adverse childhood experiences; using GIS maps to advocate for healthier communities; making the case for harm reduction, engaging youth through technology and many others. The nonprofit is positioning itself for another successful 30 years and beyond. Over the past few years, as health disparities and racial injustices reveal that people of color are denied the ability to achieve the same quality of life that others get to enjoy, we have shifted our approach by viewing it through the lens of equity.
Everyone Should Thrive
Our work starts with the understanding that systems and policies have worked to the advantage of some and the disadvantage of others. These disparities manifest in disinvested communities, educational failures, wealth gaps, community trauma, structural racism, and other types of harm to our neighborhoods. Ensuring that everybody is able to thrive where they live, work, and play means that we must address their access to quality education and healthcare, housing security, economic stability, safe neighborhoods, and support systems.
We work to ensure a neighborhood doesn't become oversaturated with liquor stores which leads to problematic drinking and can potentially increase alcohol access to minors. And we work to improve neighborhood conditions so that businesses beyond liquor stores and other adult-focused stores can be successful. Some of our recent successes in the East County include helping the Casa de Oro Alliance and its specific plan and our involvement with the Spring Valley Alliance and a grant it recently acquired to help improve their community. IPS efforts in the South Bay include helping improve the Broadway Corridor in Chula Vista. all of this work is helping revitalize neighborhoods, ensure a diversity of businesses to support local residents, and ensure our youth and the future generations growing up in these neighborhoods have the resources they need for longer, happier and healthier lives.
Whether our projects address alcohol-related harms, promote food security, engage immigrant youth who have been victimized by the War on Drugs to become civic leaders, or reduce health disparities among the Latinx community in San Diego’s Southern Border Region, we recognize that our work would not be complete without an approach toward equity.
Follow us by clicking on the links to our social media platforms: IPS East County Facebook, IPS East County Twitter, East County Youth Coalition Instagram.
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