October 2020 

Sierra Health Foundation has joined 12 other foundations to pool resources and launch Together Toward Health, an initiative that will connect with community-based organizations to expand workforce development opportunities for Californians most impacted by COVID-19, and create and amplify public outreach efforts to reduce its spread. Supporting foundations include: The Ballmer Group, Blue Shield of California Foundation, The California Health Care Foundation, Genentech, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, Heising-Simons Foundation, The James Irvine Foundation, Sierra Health Foundation, The California Endowment, The California Wellness Foundation, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and the Weingart Foundation. The Public Health Institute coordinates the fund. Learn more on the Public Health Institute web site.

The California Funders Workgroup for Prevention and Equity this month published an important report, Beyond Screening: Achieving California’s Bold Goal of Reducing Exposure to Childhood Trauma, which shares community-level strategies that both protect children from adverse experiences and foster supportive environments that help children and families to be more resilient in response to Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and heal from trauma that has occurred. Incorporating community-level prevention and healing approaches will help to ensure that we prevent ACEs where we can, while promoting the healthy development of children in ways that support more equitable health and safety outcomes across the life course.

The California Funders Workgroup for Prevention and Equity includes Blue Shield of California Foundation, The California Endowment, The California Wellness Foundation, Sierra Health Foundation, St. Joseph Community Partnership Fund and Well Being Trust.

In partnership with the Sacramento County Division of Behavioral Health Services, The Center at Sierra Health Foundation will award funding for eligible community-based agencies — including nonprofits, for-profits and public-private partnerships — to provide trauma-informed community outreach and engagement and support services that address mental health and wellness of the African American/Black community. Successful applicants will demonstrate understanding of community members’ experience of trauma, racial discrimination, and mental health or behavioral health issues.

We will host two request for applications review webinars on Nov. 5 and Nov. 9. Applications are due by Nov. 30 at 5 p.m. Learn more, access the request for applications and register for a webinar on The Center web site.

In addition to this funding opportunity, The Center, in partnership with the Sacramento County Division of Behavioral Health Services, will offer funding for trauma-related services to the African American/Black community parallel to the request for applications. These services are intended to respond to the immediate needs of the community to ease emotional stress associated with racial stress, anxiety and/or trauma experienced by adults and youth.

E-mail us any questions with the subject line: Trauma-Informed Wellness Program.

This program is funded by the Sacramento County Division of Behavioral Health Services through the voter-approved Proposition 63, Mental Health Services Act.

The Center at Sierra Health Foundation and the Sacramento County COVID-19 Collaborative — known as the Collab — are partnering with multiple community organizations to provide assistance for individuals and families who have been adversely affected by COVID-19. Community members who need assistance can access the Resource and Financial Assistance Application on the Collab web site. Access a KCRA 3 news report.

As COVID-19 health and economic challenges disproportionately impact communities of color, and safety precautions restrict positive community activity and connection, communities throughout the country have seen increased violence. In Sacramento, a weekend of heightened gun violence earlier this month brought a tragic end to more than 30 months with zero youth homicides. In response, the Black Child Legacy Campaign brought its Healing the Hood partners together for 72 hours of intensified visibility of its community violence prevention and intervention work. Activities included a “Silence the Violence” community vigil, “Occupy the Corner” community evenings in multiple neighborhoods, a virtual town hall and increased contact with neighborhood leaders and community members. Community leaders also called for increased investment. Learn more in this Capital Public Radio article: After String Of Violent Shootings This Weekend, Sacramento Community Leaders Call For Investment In Youth.

Casey Family Programs partnered with the Black Child Legacy Campaign to publish a strategy brief and a report about the campaign and community partners in Sacramento County, who continue their work to reduce African American child deaths. The publications are available on the Casey Family Programs web site: What is the role of the child protection agency in the Black Child Legacy Campaign? and How is the Black Child Legacy Campaign saving lives and advancing equity in Sacramento?

The Build.Black. Coalition, in collaboration with the Be Heard podcast network and Entercom, has launched the Build.Black. Podcast to serve as a platform for Black healing, organizing and power, uplifting Black entrepreneurs, artists, families, and cultural and community leaders. Issue areas addressed will reinforce the four pillars of the Build.Black. Coalition: uplifting Black youth voices, health equity and access, justice and policing in Black communities, and investment in Black neighborhoods and businesses. Access the podcast.

Sierra Health Foundation and The Center have openings for an evaluation officer and a grants and contracts management associate. Visit our Employment Opportunities web page to learn about the positions and apply online.

We’re pleased to introduce Palvinder Kaur, who recently joined our team to serve as Program Officer for the Elevate Youth California program. In this role, Palvinder is responsible for implementation and management of the program and supports community partners to build capacity to address policy and systems change through youth activism, implement best practices in youth prevention activities, and conduct data collection and reporting.

Palvinder is a public health, education and social justice enthusiast. She currently is pursuing her Doctorate in Educational Leadership at UC Davis and holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Texas, Health Science Center at Houston. Palvinder is passionate about building community power and inspiring changemakers. She served as the first Community Organizer for the Jakara Movement, where she founded and established a number of programs for Punjabi youth and adults across California. She also has worked with volunteers to establish mentorship and service programs for high school and college youth, and is actively committed to advancing racial equity.

Thank you to all of the organizations that submitted applications for the second round of Elevate Youth California funding. The Center at Sierra Health Foundation will review all applications using the selection and evaluation criteria in the request for applications. The Center plans to announce awards in early November. Grants up to $1 million over three years will support prevention of youth substance use. Learn more about the program on the Elevate Youth California web site and contact us with any questions.

The Center at Sierra Health Foundation, in partnership with the California Department of Healthcare Services, awarded $2.3 million to the following four community-based organizations through the Medi-Cal Health Navigator Project: Amador Tuolumne Community Action Agency, Community Health Initiatives Napa, Nexus Youth & Family Services and United Way of Northern California. These funded partners will facilitate Medi-Cal enrollment and retention in Amador, Calaveras, Lassen and Solano counties.

Populations of focus include households and individuals who are eligible for Medi-Cal, such as people with mental health disorder needs, substance use disorder needs and other disabilities, aged persons, homeless individuals and families, young people of color, immigrants and families of mixed immigration status, people with limited English proficiency, low-wage workers and their families or dependents, uninsured children, youth formerly enrolled in Medi-Cal, and people who are in county jail, on county probation, in state prison, on state parole or under post-release community supervision.

Learn more about the project on our Medi-Cal Health Navigator Project web page.

The San Joaquin Valley Health Fund recently wrapped up Phase 1 of its COVID-19 Response Cluster. Through the generous support and contributions of a range of funding partners, the San Joaquin Valley Health Fund provided more than $3.8 million to more than 60 community based-organizations to support the provision of direct relief assistance for vulnerable populations throughout the San Joaquin Valley. Learn more on the Response Cluster web page.

In Phase 2, the San Joaquin Valley Health Fund is expanding the scope of the COVID-19 Response Cluster to support regional recovery and resiliency efforts through policy and systems change. The Response Cluster also continues to provide some support for direct relief assistance to a cohort of partners new to the San Joaquin Valley Health Fund and who provide services to particularly vulnerable populations, such as those who are formerly incarcerated.

Thank you to all of our Census outreach partners in the San Joaquin Valley, Region 1 and Region 6! California’s 2020 self-response rate was 69.6%, surpassing its 2010 rate by 1.4%. We appreciate your tireless efforts to ensure the hardest-to-reach communities in our state were counted in the 2020 Census.

The Center served as the California Census 2020 Administrative Community-Based Organization (ACBO) for Region 6 (Fresno, Inyo, Kern, Kings and Tulare counties), building on its significant census work in the San Joaquin Valley and leveraging its experience as the managing partner and hub for the San Joaquin Valley Health Fund. We thank our 60 dedicated community partners in this work!

The Center also partnered with Sacramento Region Community Foundation, the ACBO for Census Region 1, which includes 17 counties. The Center awarded grants to support nonprofit organizations engaging in outreach activities to increase census participation among hard-to-count populations in eight of the region’s counties: Colusa, Glenn, Lassen, Nevada, Plumas, Sierra, Sutter and Yuba. Thank you to our 10 committed community partners in this region!

California youth advocates applauded Gov. Gavin Newsom for signing landmark legislation in late September that will close the state’s youth prison system, the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ), a move that now offers a historic opportunity to advance racial equity and transform the youth justice system. The effort to close DJJ the right way was led by community members who were formerly incarcerated at DJJ and experienced this traumatizing system firsthand.

Thank you to our many partners from California Alliance for Youth and Community Justice, Alliance for Boys and Men of Color, Positive Youth Justice Initiative, and members of California Funders for Boys and Men of Color, who were engaged in the advocacy that informed the proposal and resulting legislation.

Counties now are charged with developing their own plans to care for youth involved with the juvenile justice system. Some youth advocates say they are concerned as counties create their own approaches, as the state’s 58 counties vary in size and resources. The State of California, through the Office of Youth and Community Restoration, will have some oversight to assure that county plans incorporate opportunities for youth to receive alternatives to incarceration and trauma-informed healing and care, and that this involves community-based organizations and county agencies that have the capacity to implement such services. We and our community partners will be monitoring legislative developments on the creation of state standards for county plans, as well as the development of county plans.

The Center signed onto a letter to the U.S. Senate from The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the Census Project that underscores the urgency of extending statutory reporting deadlines for congressional apportionment and redistricting data. In order to deliver a complete and accurate count, the U.S. Census Bureau needs sufficient time for data processing and quality assurance. We are following developments closely. We also will monitor the Nov. 30 Supreme Court hearing to decide if the president can exclude undocumented individuals from the apportionment count.