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PAGE 8 challenges) and possible solutions, but it is also important to identify and celebrate individual and community assets, capabilities, resources, and strengths. All too often when the focus is directed on individuals or neighborhoods with high human service needs, the emphasis is on issues or deficits. This is not only disempowering; it also fails to recognize the many ways that communities can be a source of strength and resilience. Thus throughout the data collection and in this report, we celebrate and honor the strengths of the Tri-Valley. Community capacity building: Similar to the recognized need for equitable data practices, one of the guiding values for this needs assessment was on the importance of engaging in power-sharing activities to support community members’ capacity to develop, implement, and sustain local initiatives. For this project, this included training with community member participants of the Eastern Alameda Power and Action Committee (EAPAC ) with a focus on capacity building and mentorship on methods of data collection, and an explicit focus on how power might be shared to ensure community members felt included in the needs assessment process and beyond. To that end, we made efforts to ensure the findings were broadly accessible to the community by building a public-facing website and creating a section in this report to define terms used throughout. Additional Applied Frameworks As the work unfolded, the community described challenges as cross-generational, interconnected, and stemming from broader, overarching factors. This is important to capture because it not only describes what people are experiencing, but also how they experience and think about their conditions. The following section represents the effort to capture this through existing frameworks that help us think about the challenges and how to shape effective solutions. The Life-Course Perspective The life-course perspective provides a lens to identify interventions that have the potential to crease change across generations. The life-course perspective calls us to focus on: 1) distinct life stages (e.g., adolescence or older adults); 2) the trajectories of lives based on a number of factors and conditions (e.g., social and structural determinants of health); and 3) the relationship between individual and collective life courses, or as Martin Luther King Jr. put it, “the inescapable network of mutuality.” This refers to the idea that the fate of all individuals are linked. Put another way, the health and wellness of the Tri-Valley is inextricably connected to those individuals who are the least resourced within the communities. The G family is a perfect example of why it is important to consider a life-course perspective. The barriers facing the 72-year-old Mia effect the entire family. If Mia’s diabetes gets out of control due to challenges of managing her appointments, her son Luis and daughter-in- law Laura may have to take time off of work to care for her. If the family begins to struggle financially and have a challenging time putting food on the table, Alexa’s and James’ hindered development and mental health will diminish their ability to learn in school. In the context of this EACHSNA update, the use of the life-course perspective draws attention to the need for services that are focused on distinct age groups, while also considering the importance of ensuring people’s needs are met across time. For example, it is important to focus on specific challenges and interventions for teenagers now and to think about how their needs are expected to evolve as they enter young adulthood). It also draws attention to the need to design and deliver services that are both universal or widely available for everyone, and targeted, in that they should respond to the needs of distinct priority populations. For example, there is a need for universal mental health services, but those services must also be tailored to the needs of adolescents, non-English speakers, and people who lack mental health insurance. The life-course perspective also calls us to consider the emotional, physical, psychological, and social needs that evolve within specific historical and cultural contexts. For example, the application of a life-course perspective calls us to understand how youth might be uniquely and disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and to identify services and a responsive delivery mechanism to meet those needs. EASTERN ALAMEDA COUNTY HUMAN SERVICES NEEDS ASSESSMENTSS Page 66 of 554