Mission
The mission of Anchors in Resilient Communities (ARC) is to address the social, economic, and environmental determinants of health by leveraging the assets and capacities of Bay Area anchor institutions and community-based partners. This work will focus on expanding community wealth and ownership, improving health outcomes, and strengthening the capacity of communities of color and low- and moderate-income residents to be resilient in the face of climate and economic disruption.
Vision
When our policy decisions, investments, and development align with our values, a healthy, just, and inclusive society is possible. ARC envisions communities with:
Community Wealth
Wealth is equitably distributed in communities, and jobs provide living wages, excellent benefits, and advancement opportunities. People of color and low-income communities are full beneficiaries of community investment and economic expansion.
Community Health
Everyone in the community has resources, tools, and opportunities to support their physical, emotional, and social well-being. ARC strives to make collective well-being the community’s bottom line.
Climate Resilience
Communities can withstand or rebound from climate disruption because they have access to regional, community-owned networks for critical needs. Communities also have economic independence, strong social capital, and effective physical infrastructure.
The strong, vibrant communities ARC works with have many long-standing programs that create jobs, provide new business opportunities, expand collective ownership, ensure access to food, and grow the green economy. Still, generations of disinvestment and harmful policy decisions have drained communities of basic resources and disconnected them from the chance to live up to their potential. While people of color and low- and moderate-income families are disproportionately affected by this injustice, their barriers to opportunity hold all of us back from uplifting our values and advancing our region’s economic potential. As part of the solution, ARC communities are looking to anchor institutions to become active partners in increasing wealth, health, and climate resiliency.
ARC was formed as a collaboration between nonprofits Emerald Cities Collaborative and Health Care Without Harm. Each organization brings its unique strategies and partners to address economic, health, and environmental inequities, offering a suite of tailored services for meaningful engagement between anchors and community members.
In 2015, ARC partnered with the Democracy Collaborative to conduct a Bay Area landscape assessment of anchor procurement and investment needs and community capacity and momentum for projects that focused on economic wealth and climate resilience. The Assessment found that East Bay anchor institutions collectively spend about $6.8 billion a year on products, goods, and services. Even a fraction of this amount could dramatically impact local economies. The Assessment detailed three areas of opportunity that ARC could support to accomplish its goals: regional food systems, energy/climate investments, and green business enterprises. Based on stakeholder interest, ARC started with a regional food system initiative.
Today, ARC works with several anchor institutions to shift their food procurement to source from more sustainable, local, BIPOC farmers and food producers throughout the Bay Area. We continue to expand our efforts beyond food and have launched other climate equity initiatives exploring climate resilience, food waste, and community ownership. ARC initiatives aim to create pathways for hospitals, schools, and other public institutions to aggregate their purchasing and investment power in order to make a lasting and sustainable impact in their communities.
