About Breathe California
OUR MISSION
As the local lung health leader, Breathe California of the Bay Area fights lung disease in all its forms and works with its communities to promote lung health.
OUR VISION
Healthy Lungs in a Healthy Environment
TAGLINE
"The Clean Air and Healthy Lungs Leaders"
VALUES
Leadership through Passion, Integrity, Excellence, Accountability, and Fiscal/Social Responsibility
THE EVOLUTION OF OUR LOCAL ASSOCIATION
Over our many decades, we have been known by several names:
(1911 - 1920) Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis, Santa Clara Anti Tuberculosis Association, Santa Clara County Anti-Tuberculosis Society, Santa Clara County Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis, and Santa Clara County Anti- Tuberculosis Association
(1920 - 1960) Santa Clara County Tuberculosis Association
(1960 - 1967) Santa Clara County Tuberculosis and Health Association
(1967 - 1970) Tuberculosis and Health Association of Santa Clara-San Benito Counties
(1970 - 1973) TB & Respiratory Disease Association of Santa Clara - San Benito Counties
(1973 - 2006) American Lung Association of Santa Clara-San Benito Counties
(2006 - present) Breathe California of the Bay Area
For a number of years, Breathe California of the Bay Area was affiliated with the American Lung Association (ALA) and the American Lung Association of California (ALAC). In 2006, Breathe California of the Bay Area ended its affiliation with the ALA and the ALAC and is no longer affiliated in any way with those organizations. Breathe California of the Bay Area continues its mission dedicated to healthy air and preventing lung and other air-pollution related diseases by partnering with youth, advocating public policy, supporting air pollution research, and educating the public.
100 YEARS OF LOCAL SERVICE
On March 21, 1911, at a meeting on the campus of what is now San Jose State University, eleven community leaders assembled to found our agency. As the local anti-tuberculosis association, the agency spent its first several decades fighting TB… for which there was no cure… by promoting good health, hygiene and nutrition at schools and to the general public, by founding a preventorium for children not yet diagnosed whose families had TB and were in special hospitals known as sanitoria, and by raising money and mobilizing the community to conduct research, screen for case finding, and develop an infrastructure for public health (health department) that would halt the spread of TB.
By the 1950s and 1960s when first streptomycin and later additional antibiotic drugs were developed to fight TB, our agency had advanced mobile screening programs for TB, funded equipment for the County Hospital, and concentrated on high-risk populations in nursing homes, jails, and poverty areas. It had also begun offering programs to train professionals about other lung diseases, to provide education and support for patients who had COPD, and to promote general health education in its communities.
Over the next half century its work would broaden further, with major areas of emphasis including:
- teach kids how to manage their asthma;
- prevent teens from using tobacco;
- assist smokers who want to quit;
- offer support to local COPD & lung cancer patients;
- advocate for clean air policies; and
- support innovative lung disease research.
Our founders included three physicians, a minister, a judge, and six prominent women who were active in social programs to assist the needy. They would engage citizens from every walk of life in this work over the coming decades. From community leaders, to Girl Scouts, school clubs, and even prisoners, everyone would join in to fight the “white plague.” This community action model continues today through the agency’s collaborative, partnership-focused model of working.
We believe the most significant impact on people's lives takes place through local interaction. Through education, political advocacy, cutting-edge research and patient services, we use a comprehensive approach to promote healthy lifestyles and reduce the impact of lung disease. With a committed core of volunteers and staff who hold hope, determination, action and vigilance as the cornerstones to creating change, we will continue our drive to ensure we can all breathe easier.