The Action Council of Monterey County was created in 1994 to address unmet needs of low-income residents as a result of welfare reform. Since that time it has evolved into a hub for social innovation, incubation, and cross-sector collaboration in the region. Action’s mission is to empower people to transform their communities and they do this by incubating leaders, innovative ideas, emerging organizations, and collaborative community action. This role presupposes a strong commitment to work with funders, policy makers and the community to facilitate change on critical issues. To this end it has incubated Building Healthy Communities, Mujeres en Accion and other grassroots organizations in the community. Building Healthy Communities (BHC) was a 10 – year initiative of The California Endowment that cultivates assets in communities to improve health status and equity for all residents. East Salinas is one of the fourteen place-based sites within BHC that is looking at values and practice changes across systems (schools, healthcare, land use, justice system) and supporting community leadership to redefine health and identify solutions that are relevant to East Salinas. BHC supports the design of communities that are safe, healthy, while promoting community wellness and healthy economic opportunities. The work is now expanding across Monterey County which has sparked the name change to Building Healthy Communities Monterey County (BHCMC). BHC Monterey County is supporting local efforts to engage and develop the leadership capacity of community residents and systems to achieve equitable outcomes in health, education and economic opportunity for all people. BHCMC has a distinguished track record of facilitating community engagement opportunities and incorporating community voice into policies and decisions that impact their lives. The principal driver of this work is centering residents as assets and key stakeholders not just as recipients of services.