October 2021 

By Lisa Chan-Sawin, MHA

Beginning Jan. 1, Medi-Cal patients will have access to a new program offering a range of services to help patients address the social factors impacting their ability to live stable, healthy lives, such as housing and food. This new Community Supports program is part of the State’s broader California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM) effort to transform Medi-Cal over the next five years. The Medi-Cal program is overseen by the California Department of Health Care Services and is administered locally by counties and health plans.

Formerly known as the In Lieu of Services program, the Community Supports program helps vulnerable Medi-Cal patients access services designed to address unmet social needs that impact health and well-being. Paired with the Enhanced Care Management program, patients can receive intensive care management and service coordination linking them to vital services, such as sobering centers and medically tailored meals. An important goal of Community Supports is to ensure patients can access critical social services that support the patient’s ability to stay healthy and thrive in their own home and community.

Read more on The Center website.

The National Academy of Public Administration has selected Chet P. Hewitt, president and CEO of Sierra Health Foundation and The Center at Sierra Health Foundation, for inclusion in its 2021 Class of Academy Fellows. The lifetime honor recognizes Hewitt’s years of public administration service and expertise.

“I am deeply grateful to receive this recognition, which is among the highest honors those working in public administration can hope to achieve,” Hewitt said. “It’s just as much about partnership as it is leadership. This reflects the efforts of people coming together and working collectively in service of the public.”

Read more on the Sierra Health Foundation website.

In 2003, Sierra Health Foundation opened Grizzly Creek Ranch in Plumas County as a magical place where children with medical, physical and developmental disabilities and youth from historically marginalized communities could explore nature in a fully accessible, safe and fun environment. The camp’s founding purpose was to improve health, independence and life skills by exposing campers to the wonders of nature in an accessible and accepting environment.

We partnered with Sierra Nevada Journeys in 2009 to launch a state-of-the-art outdoor education program at the camp, with hands-on learning that emphasized youth development, science education, green technology, alternative energy and environmental stewardship. Sierra Nevada Journeys purchased Grizzly Creek Ranch in August 2020 after a three-year capital campaign and hosted a belated celebration with camp supporters earlier this month. Sierra Health Foundation President and CEO Chet P. Hewitt was among the supporters and accepted honors on behalf of Sierra Health Foundation, including the unveiling of a memorial bench dedicated to our late board member Carol Whiteside, who also served as a Sierra Nevada Journeys trustee.

Sierra Nevada Journeys CEO Eaton Dunkelberger stated, “The celebration may be in honor of the people who supported the capital campaign and programs like ours, but it is truly the youth who we celebrate each and every day at Grizzly Creek Ranch.” We couldn’t agree more.

Each month we share media highlights about our work and our dedicated community partners.

City of Sacramento plans to open homeless “Safe Ground” for large camp of seniors
The Sacramento Bee reported on the city of Sacramento and Sierra Health Foundation plan to open a Safe Ground sanctioned tent encampment for about 60 homeless seniors who have been living in a tight-knit encampment along the Sacramento River for many years. The Safe Ground site will be located behind the foundation’s Garden Highway headquarters on a grassy riverfront lot.

“The Natomas Community is filled with great people, and I know that all of us want to see real solutions to the region’s homelessness crisis and are willing to do our part,” said Chet P. Hewitt, president and CEO of Sierra Health Foundation and The Center. “We’re going to be part of the solution. If we can do something meaningful, and change the trajectory of another person’s life, there’s nothing more important.”

In Response To The Orange County Oil Spill Disaster, Southern California Conservation Organizations Issued Statement
The Citizens Journal in Ventura County published a statement after the Oct. 3 oil spill in Huntington Beach, the homeland of the Tongva and Acjachemen peoples. Our partner Angela Mooney D’Arcy (Acjachemen) of Sacred Places Institute for Indigenous Peoples stated: “Acjachemen and Tongva People have maintained respectful, reciprocal and sustainable relationships with the coastal lands and waters of what is now known as Orange County since time immemorial. We are heartbroken to witness the environmental devastation in our ancestral lands and waters as a result of oil extraction in our homelands.”

Sacramento Mayor Steinberg was vaccinated and still got COVID. Here’s what he learned
“I am convinced that if I had not received my J&J shot, I would have wound up hospitalized,” Mayor Darrell Steinberg wrote in an opinion piece for The Sacramento Bee. The mayor shared his experience regarding the COVID-19 vaccination and his illness and encouraged readers to visit the Sacramento County COVID-19 Collaborative website to access online training and resources. The Center at Sierra Health Foundation manages the Sac Collab, which is working with partners around the county to provide vaccinations, testing and other resources for people in Sacramento’s diverse communities.

Black Doctors Speak: African American Physicians Urgently Call On Community To Get Vaccinated
The Sacramento Observer reported on local African American doctors who are stepping up and speaking out to allay fears and encourage people to make informed decisions about their own health and protecting others around them. The article mentions a series of trainings by the Sacramento County COVID-19 Collaborative, The Center at Sierra Health Foundation and the Sacramento County Public Health Department.

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

• Evaluation Assistant
• Program Assistant for the California COVID-19 Outreach Project
• Program Associate for the California COVID-19 Outreach Project
• Program Officer for California Funders for Boys and Men of Color
• Program Assistant for California Funders for Boys and Men of Color, My Brother’s Keeper Sacramento and Positive Youth Justice Initiative

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

Students need teachers, administrators, aides, counselors and people to keep campuses clean and safe. But nobody has a bigger influence on a student’s success than a parent or caregiver. Evidence consistently shows that parent engagement improves a child’s grades, confidence, social skills and likelihood of attending college. Unfortunately, not every parent who wants to participate in their child’s education is able to do so. That’s where a new initiative called Sacramento Parents Advocating for Student Success comes in.

Sacramento PASS connects, supports and empowers parent advocates who have children in Sacramento City Unified School District Title 1 schools to ensure student achievement, mental health and well-being, and education equity throughout the district.

Learn more on the Sierra Health Foundation website.

Photo: Parent Patrice Hill speaks at an Oct. 13 news conference that officially launched the Sacramento PASS initiative.

The flurry of COVID-19 vaccination updates can be confusing, especially as changes make their way through different advisory and governing bodies. Recent updates on boosters and pediatric vaccines follow a series of checkpoints, first through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, then on to the Western States Scientific Review Work Group. With all this news in motion, the State of California in partnership with a network of community partners, counties and The Center are working to provide much-needed information and, most important, clarity. Here’s the latest:

Booster shots are now available for all three vaccines, Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. Check your eligibility and schedule an appointment at myturn.ca.gov.

Youth and pediatric vaccines continue to be an important point of focus for health experts, schools and families. Vaccines for youth 12 and up are currently available, and health authorities expect an announcement on pediatric vaccines (ages 5 to 11) in the coming days. The Sacramento County COVID-19 Collaborative is hosting a series of upcoming Zoom information sessions for parents featuring pediatricians and other trusted experts. Some information covered at the sessions will be specific to the region, but parents across the state are encouraged to attend. The first session is coming up on Thursday, Nov. 4, and will cover the COVID-19 vaccine for youth ages 12 and up. A webinar covering the new pediatric vaccines will be scheduled later in the month. In the meantime, we recommend the following resources for parents:

• The Conversation: Kids and COVID Vaccines
• COVID-19 and kids: How mRNA vaccines work
• California Safe Schools for All parent information page.

Vaccine ambassadors across California are working in their communities to connect people with COVID-19 vaccinations, testing and other related services. Recently, the California Department of Public Health produced a five-part series of short videos to support ambassadors in their work and for general public sharing. The videos are available in English and Spanish and soon will be available in 10 additional languages.

This recent webinar provided an update on a wide range of state efforts to reduce California’s significant air pollution and climate change challenges. With speakers from Regional Asthma Management and Prevention, the American Lung Association and the California Air Resources Board, the educational webinar helped participants understand the state’s air quality policy landscape and how residents can support healthy air for all. Access the webinar recording on Vimeo.

Fresno community-based organization Cultiva la Salud launched an adult-based promotora program earlier in the pandemic so trusted community members could provide accurate COVID-19 information to the Latino community. This July, they launched a “promoterito” program with the Fresno COVID-19 Equity Project and the Immigrant Refugee Coalition. The program trains teens to become community advocates and use technology and social media to encourage vaccinations among younger people. Learn more in The Fresno Bee.