Study Focused on Black Children in 7 Sacramento Neighborhoods Shows Health Improvements
Pushing Back Longstanding Racial Inequities
By Karen Nikos-Rose on February 26, 2021
"A new study, co-authored by University of California, Davis, and Sacramento State University researchers, shows how a campaign built on community-driven solutions, grassroots leadership and targeted resources has improved the health and lives of Black children, pushing back against the effects of longstanding racial inequities.
The two-year study considered the effectiveness of a regional effort to reduce preventable deaths among Black children, evaluating the impact of the Black Child Legacy Campaign, or BCLC, in seven Sacramento neighborhoods. It clearly illustrates how policymakers and communities must work closely to enact systemic change, co-authors said.
Commissioned by The Center at Sierra Health Foundation, the study is meant to develop further understanding of how a community addresses and ameliorates longstanding racial inequities in health. The BCLC was launched following a report showing that Black children in Sacramento County died at twice the rate of any other ethnicity. Researchers closely assessed the BCLC, credited with reducing the rate of Black child death in the Sacramento region by 30 percent from 2014 to 2018, to determine why the work has succeeded and offer guidance to other cities across the nation."