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Alameda County commits $3M a year to violence‑prevention; public health office lays out data‑driven plan
Summary
At a Dec. 18 Special Joint Health and Public Protection Committee meeting, Alameda County public‑health officials and community partners described the Office of Violence Prevention's data agenda, community‑led interventions and how a previously approved Measure C allocation of $3,000,000 annually for three years will be used to expand services and staffing.
Chair of the Public Protection Committee opened the Dec. 18 special joint meeting by calling attention to recent shootings and framing violence prevention as a public‑health priority, saying the county’s approach must be “rooted in prevention, healing, and community partnerships.”
Kimmy (Kimmee) Watkins Tartt, Alameda County Public Health Director, and Kristen Clopton, manager of the county’s Office of Violence Prevention (OVP), presented the office’s mission and data priorities. They said OVP, established in 2023, focuses on gun violence, youth suicide prevention, hate‑motivated violence and intimate‑partner violence and that the work is informed by the county’s Community Health Needs Assessment and Community Health Improvement Plan.
“Preventing violence is a public health issue and a public health concern,” Watkins Tartt said, urging an equity‑centered approach and noting the department’s attention to youth and young adults. Clopton reviewed trend data the office is tracking, including 20‑year homicide rates (Alameda County, California, U.S.), recent rises in domestic‑violence deaths (23 in 2024, the highest since 2017) and county‑level suicide patterns in cities such as Berkeley and Livermore.
Clopton said OVP currently supports 14 community‑based grantees funded with $3,840,000 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars; those contracts extend through October or November 2026 while ARPA funds are available. She described a data development agenda that includes hospitalization and emergency‑department injury data, a public violence‑prevention dashboard, a community safety survey and improved monitoring of hate‑motivated incidents.
The Chair and staff also noted a Board letter (Item 30, Nov. 18) that approved allocating $3,000,000 annually for the next three fiscal years from Measure C to strengthen countywide violence‑prevention efforts. Clopton said Measure C funding will support community‑based contracts and four new positions within OVP; the county intends to run procurements in 2026 to select additional partners.
Clopton flagged a planned fatality review team to examine violent deaths and identify system gaps; she said the County is aiming to convene that review in early 2026 but had not finalized a timeline.
Why it matters: speakers tied rising trends in some violence metrics to structural drivers such as inequities and housing instability and framed sustained, braided funding as essential. The Measure C allocation gives the County a multiyear revenue stream for scaling community‑based violence‑prevention work and building OVP capacity.
What’s next: OVP will continue data releases (including a forthcoming county dashboard), run procurements in 2026 to award Measure C–backed contracts and work with regional partners on CalVIP (the California Violence Intervention and Prevention Program) grant applications and other collaborative efforts.
