To view pictures of the CAFA Annual Meeting click here.

CAFA

Community Action to Fight Asthma (CAFA) is a network of asthma coalitions in California working to shape local, regional, and state policies to reduce the environmental triggers of asthma for school-aged children where they live, learn, and play. It is widely recognized that environmental factors play a major role in asthma, so CAFA members work to support the creation and implementation of policies that reduce environmental risk factors for school-aged children with asthma.

The CAFA Network provides a structure to help safeguard and enact environmental policies at the state, regional, and local levels throughout California. The policies are focused on reducing environmental triggers in schools, homes, and outdoor air, ultimately improving the quality of life for people with asthma. The CAFA Network comprises local coalitions that bring together diverse constituents, including health care providers, schools, public health organizations, environmental health and justice groups, and community residents, to collectively address the problem of asthma in their communities. The CAFA Network mobilizes the voice and experience of the local communities to shape asthma policies.

CAFA Annual Meeting, November 2009

Since 2002, when the CAFA Initiative began, these diverse coalitions have met at least once a year in Oakland, Los Angeles, and more recently in Sacramento, to discuss coalition development strategies and learn about local policy objectives being implemented. The 8^th CAFA Annual Meeting brought together 15 of the 17 member coalition (seven of them new to CAFA this year) from across the state to work collectively on our state policy agenda and provide support for the great local work being conducted in communities across the state.

Coalition goals for this meeting included:

• obtain a clear understanding of the impact the coalitions’ work is having
• continue and enhance local and statewide strategies and successes through the CAFA Network
• work towards individual coalition and network sustainability
• further develop and implement CAFA’s statewide policy strategies.
• gain support for local work through a peer learning environment.

In addition, in order to refine our policy priorities in the areas of outdoor air quality, housing, and schools, the meeting focus has expanded to include policy workgroup sessions. On the final day of this gathering, meetings were scheduled with legislators and their staff to educate them about these priorities. This year’s emphasis was twofold: how to grow the coalition network and how to sustain it.