Regional Asthma Management & Prevention (RAMP) has been coordinating the Community Action to Fight Asthma (CAFA) Network since 2002. Having begun as a network of community asthma coalitions, RAMP is excited to expand the network to include all asthma stakeholders across the state. Please review the information below and consider participating!

What is the purpose of the CAFA Network?

The California Endowment launched Community Action to Fight Asthma in 2002. CAFA started as a network of asthma coalitions in California working to shape local, regional, and state policies to reduce environmental triggers of asthma among school-aged children where they live, learn, and play.

Since that time, the field has evolved. Although CAFA is no longer a funded network, RAMP has continued to provide coordination in order to create opportunities for asthma coalitions to benefit from peer learning and to shape state level policy change. Over time, the policy priorities have evolved to encompass a comprehensive range of policy priorities, both clinical (financing for asthma home visits) and environmental (outdoor air quality, substandard housing, and indoor air quality in schools), and to target asthma among all age groups with a focus on those disproportionately impacted by asthma.

Now, we’re ready to take the next step in CAFA’s evolution. With decreases in funding, there aren’t as many community asthma coalitions across the state as there had been in the past. Yet, there are still many individuals and organizations working diligently to address asthma. To reflect this change, RAMP is excited to open up the CAFA Network to any individual or organization across California working to reduce the burden of asthma.

Who should participate?

Participation is open to any individual or organization working to reduce the burden of asthma in California. This may include advocates, Community Health Workers, clinicians, health educators, or anyone working on asthma in a health department, health plan, hospital, clinic, environmental health or justice organization, social justice organization, healthy housing organization.

Why should people participate?

People who have been participating in CAFA over the past 15+ years generally focus on two benefits of CAFA:

• CAFA provides the opportunity to connect with others across the state doing similar work. You can hear about their successes and challenges, share ideas and tools, and strategize together.
• CAFA provides the opportunity to easily shape state policies. Each year, RAMP staff track legislation and other state policies that CAFA participants have identified as priorities. We notify you when there are opportunities to weigh in with letters of support, meetings with legislators, etc. Yet, there’s no obligation to actively participate in policy activities.

What does it mean to join the CAFA Network?

Being a CAFA member connects you with other asthma stakeholders across the state who are working on similar issues in their communities that you are in yours.  We host regular network conference calls or web meetings that you’ll be invited to join to learn from the work of others as well as share you own lessons learned.  Joining CAFA also means you can help shape and amplify a statewide voice to bring attention to asthma and impact policy decisions.  We are also looking into opportunities to host annual in-person meetings to provide opportunities for face-to-face peer learning as well as advocacy, education, and relationship building with state-level decision-makers.

How do people join?

It’s simple. If you’d like to join or learn more about CAFA, e-mail RAMP Senior Policy Associate, Brandon Kitagawa, at brandon@rampasthma.org.