Kaiser Permanente South Bay
2022 Community Health Snapshot

South Bay

Serving communities around our Santa Clara, and San Jose medical facilities, including Santa Cruz County.

Improving
the health of our communities

Our work is informed continually by a comprehensive assessment of community health needs, and our grantmaking focuses on making the greatest impact. We’re proud to support local nonprofits and community partners meeting the critical health needs of underserved populations. Together, we’re creating healthier and more equitable communities.

In 2022, Kaiser Permanente provided more than $6.7 million in charitable contributions to address community health priorities in our South Bay service area. Read on for examples of our work.

Supporting community mental health

Amid a national mental health professional shortage, we invested in expanding a diverse, well-trained, culturally responsive mental health workforce. We also focused on increasing access to mental health services for low-income and vulnerable populations.

Our grant to Recovery Café San Jose supported free mental health support services in English and Spanish and connections to clinical providers for people suffering from mental illness, substance use, the impact of homelessness, racialized trauma, and family violence. In Watsonville, our support of the Pajaro Valley Unified School District’s Family Engagement and Wellness Center helped support the center’s multilingual services including mental health and social emotional counseling.

Improving conditions for health and equity

Because good health begins where people live, we worked to improve factors affecting health in our communities, such as access to safe, stable housing, and affordable nutritious food.

For example, our support of St. Joseph’s Family Center provided low-income families and people experiencing homelessness in south Santa Clara County with fresh produce, and other nutritious food 2 to 3 times a month. In Santa Cruz, our grant to the Warming Center Program supported safe, clean, dignified shelter for people experiencing homelessness and mobility and mental health challenges.

Strengthening the health care safety net

We partnered with safety-net hospitals and community health centers to improve care quality for low-income, Medi-Cal, and uninsured patients. Kaiser Permanente clinicians also donated their time and expertise to support these patients.

Our grant to Silicon Valley Independent Living Center provided disabled, low-income, unhoused and uninsured residents of Santa Clara County with assistance enrolling in disability, Medi-Cal, and CalFresh (food stamps) benefits, and other programs to improve their health and wellness. In Santa Cruz, our support of Santa Cruz Community Health and Dientes Community Dental helped the organizations open new facilities that will serve thousands of additional low-income residents.

$140M

2022 South Bay
Total Community Investment

$6.7M

In grants and donations

$17M

Medical financial
assistance

334

Medical residents trained
in our Graduate Medical
Education programs

$141K

In employee and corporate
donations to nonprofits
through KP Gives

Community health priorities

As part of our commitment to improve health and health equity in our community, every 3 years we conduct a rigorous and collaborative community health needs assessment. For 2022, Kaiser Permanente identified the following significant health priorities in our South Bay communities.