August 2021 

With wildfires burning across California, Sierra Health Foundation and The Center are providing much-needed funds for wildfire resilience and community rapid response. We recently awarded three COVID-19 and wildfire relief grants to help Northern California communities facing the dual crises of pandemic and wildfire. These include funds to support Greenville Rancheria’s Tribal and community members displaced by the Dixie Fire, the Plumas Crisis Intervention and Resource Center’s emergency and ongoing case management, and United Way of Northern California, offering sub-grants to nonprofits and financial and housing assistance for wildfire victims.

Earlier this year, The Center’s San Joaquin Valley Health Fund awarded four one-year grants of $100,000 each to support wildfire resiliency, including culturally appropriate health education, distribution of N95 masks for farmworkers, and emergency preparedness outreach to the region’s rural migrant farmworker, Hmong and Southeast Asian communities. Grantee partners include: Central California Asthma Collaborative, Central California Environmental Justice Network (Fiscal Sponsor: Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs), Central Valley Air Quality Coalition (Fiscal Sponsor: Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs) and The Fresno Center.

We will continue to monitor the wildfire situation closely and commit to provide timely relief support for impacted communities.

Preventing youth substance use requires so much more than “Just Say No.” That’s why The Center and the State of California teamed up to build a statewide network of community leaders elevating opportunities for culturally relevant connection and advocacy rather than penalization for California’s youth. This month, the program announced its third round of funding, with up to $1 million in grants over three years to support community-based and Tribal organizations working with youth in California’s low-income urban and rural areas, particularly communities of color that have endured the consequences of systemic racism, including the punitive physical, emotional and economic impacts of the War on Drugs.

Elevate Youth California grants strengthen community networks and support youth activism, mentorship and/or peer-to-peer support to educate communities, change social norms around substance use, and prevent harms and risks associated with substance use. Applications are due by Sept. 27 at 1 p.m. Access the request for applications and register for an overview webinar and office hours on the Elevate Youth California website.

With COVID-19 on the rise again, youth vaccinations (ages 12+) are a critically important way to protect the entire family, particularly as students re-enter the classroom. To help get the school year off to a healthy start, five Sacramento-based community organizations hosted back-to-school vaccine and backpack giveaway events in Sacramento neighborhoods with the lowest vaccination rates.

Through the Donate4Sacramento COVID-19 Regional Response Fund, The Center and Sierra Health Foundation provided funds for community partners to host the events and purchase backpacks and school supplies. Thank you to partners Asian Resources, La Familia, Liberty Towers, Mutual Assistance Network and South Sacramento Christian Center! See South Sacramento Christian Center’s event highlights on ABC10.

The five partners are among a larger group of organizations offering free weekly COVID-19 vaccine and testing services in their neighborhoods as part of the Sacramento County COVID-19 Collaborative. See more about the collaborative in the Program Updates section below.

Sierra Health Foundation and The Center are accepting applications for three positions:

• Director of Evaluation and Learning
• Senior Program Officer for Community and Economic Development programs
• Program Officer for California Funders for Boys and Men of Color

Visit our Employment Opportunities page to learn about the positions and apply online.

Asthma is the most common chronic childhood disease, with 5.5 million children affected nationwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research says that in California, one in six children (1.5 million) has been diagnosed with asthma, and it is one of the leading causes of hospitalization. Although asthma affects Americans of all ages, races and ethnic groups, low-income and minority populations suffer substantially higher fatality rates, hospital admissions and emergency department visits due to asthma, according to Regional Asthma Management & Prevention.

The Center at Sierra Health Foundation, in partnership with the California Department of Health Care Services, this month awarded Asthma Mitigation Project grants totaling $1.85 million to six organizations. They will join a network of 22 other nonprofit organizations, community-based health care providers, health departments and managed care organizations funded through the Asthma Mitigation Project. Partners provide culturally and linguistically appropriate asthma home visiting services to individuals with poorly controlled asthma. The project focuses on low-income communities and communities of color that have disproportionate rates of asthma. Learn more about the project and the funded partners on The Center website.

Congratulations to 18 Elevate Youth California community partners joining the new Capacity Building Cohort! With a total of $5 million in funding, the awarded grassroots community-based organizations and Tribal organizations will implement innovative projects for substance use disorder prevention, with a focus on youth social justice, peer support and mentoring in low-income communities of color, including Tribal communities and LGBTQ communities.

Learn more about the program and our partners on the Elevate Youth California website.

The Sacramento County COVID-19 Collaborative, known as the Sac Collab, this month launched the Vaccine Ambassador Program. This innovative program is kicking off with a series of Vaccine Influencer trainings in collaboration with Kaiser Permanente, Sacramento County Public Health Department and a host community organization for each training to establish a community model for vaccination outreach. Vaccine Influencers will have the option to continue their training to become Vaccine Ambassadors.

In addition to staff from 22 organizations funded through the Vaccination Ambassador program, residents have an opportunity to attend webinars to learn about the different COVID-19 vaccines, skills to address common concerns about the vaccines, communication tools to have effective conversations in different communities, and information on COVID-19 vaccine rollout and sites.

A training for the general public is scheduled on Sept. 1. Access the flyer for more information and the Zoom link.

La Familia held a training for the Spanish-speaking community on Aug. 11. Access the Latinx webinar recording.

Access a webinar recording for “Building COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence in the African American Community,” held on Aug. 18.

A long-vacant piece of land in the Del Paso Heights neighborhood of Sacramento is on its way to becoming a destination sports venue, thanks to a public-private partnership and committed community leaders. The Del Paso Heights Sports Complex will include four futsal courts and a softball field, providing much-needed recreational space for local youth and families, while offering youth employment opportunities and spurring economic growth in the community.

The project is a partnership of the community of Del Paso Heights, City of Sacramento, Mutual Assistance Network, Sacramento Republic FC and The Center at Sierra Health Foundation. Funding for the sports complex is from the $200 million in community investments the City of Sacramento has made from a combination of Measure U, General Fund and American Relief Plan Act dollars.

“The Del Paso Heights Sports Complex is a powerful example of a project that promotes community ownership and builds neighborhood infrastructure for economic growth,” said Chet P. Hewitt, president and CEO of Sierra Health Foundation and The Center. “The sports complex and other community economic development projects will create both community and economic opportunity in neighborhoods that deserve and are more than ready for deep investment.”

The Center is coordinating the current slate of regional community economic development projects in partnership with community organizations and the City of Sacramento. The focus of these projects is economic growth and community leadership in underinvested neighborhoods. Learn more about the Del Paso Heights Sports Complex and pledge support on the Mutual Assistance Network website.

Kings and Queens Rise players, coaches and families came together last month to celebrate the fourth successful season of the Sacramento co-ed youth sports and mentoring league. On July 30, Kings and Queens Rise basketball participants played their championship games at the Sacramento Kings’ Golden 1 Center, took team pictures, and received trophies and tickets to the NBA’s California Classic games. On July 31, Kings and Queens Rise golf participants joined their families and coaches for a final golf demonstration and award ceremony celebrating their successes. Youth in the NBA 2K21 program will complete their tournament in September.

This innovative sports league seeks to prevent and interrupt violence by providing an opportunity for young people to engage in intercommunity activities that provide a caring, productive environment through community building, sportsmanship, and resources for health and safety. Participants are youth from eight priority neighborhoods with disproportionate negative health outcomes who join with trusted community organizations and mentors.

Kings and Queens Rise is a partnership of the Sacramento Kings, Build.Black. Coalition, Black Child Legacy Campaign, My Brother’s Keeper Sacramento, First Tee of Greater Sacramento, Cameron Champ Foundation, OneSwing Golf Academy, Architects of Hope and Arden Fair Mall.

The COVID-19 pandemic is sharply on the rise, with disturbing new data on the disproportionate impacts to California’s diverse and underserved communities. According to the latest health equity numbers on the State of California’s COVID19.CA.GOV website:

• Pacific Islanders have a 41 percent higher COVID-19 case rate than the rest of the state.
• The death rate for Latino or Latinx people is 21 percent higher than the state average and 12 percent higher for African Americans.
• Case rates are 35 percent higher than the state average in communities where the median income is less than $40,000 a year.

The same communities face the lowest rates of vaccination and the most difficult time accessing affordable health care. The Center is working actively with the State of California and a trusted network of community partners to boost vaccination rates where help is most needed. Although news of boosters is making headlines, vaccinating the unvaccinated remains the single most important way to save lives and put an end to the pandemic.

Asthma educators like our Asthma Mitigation Project partners at Regional Asthma Management & Prevention (RAMP) are helping families during this year’s wildfire smoke events. The RAMP team developed a suite of resources to help people with asthma cope with wildfire’s complex mix of dangerous air pollutants. Access RAMP’s Tips for Asthma Educators toolkit and asthma action plans, available in multiple languages.

Climate change is a public health issue and one that disproportionately impacts already vulnerable communities. Yesterday, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra announced a new federal Office of Climate Change and Health Equity. Among a number of duties, the new office is tasked with addressing health disparities made worse by climate change, identifying communities with disproportionate exposure to environmental pollution and toxins, fostering innovative climate adaption in vulnerable and low-income communities, and exploring public-private partnerships to address disparities and health care transformation.

It’s been a tough month across the world and burnout rates are high, especially among health care workers and community service providers. Research shows that writing down our experiences can help, which is inspiring therapists and doctors to incorporate narrative therapy and poetry in their healing work. You can give it a try for yourself using National Public Radio’s Joy Generator. Have something you’d like to share? Tag us with your poems and other work @sierrahealthfoundation.