Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul; the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.                     -  Napoleon Hill

Alameda County Women, Infants & Children
WIC Immunization Project
Alameda County WIC, in collaboration with the Immunization Partnership of Alameda County, has expanded its childhood immunization project to serve both Oakland and Hayward area children. The program focuses on WIC clients with historically low immunization rates in an ethnically diverse and high-risk population. The program provides direct services of immunization assessment and referral, with a goal to raise to 70 percent the number of children who are fully immunized by their second birthday.
Grant Award: $55,985

 

Alzheimer’s Services of the East Bay
Hayward Center Expansion
Alzheimer’s Services of the East Bay promotes early intervention and prevention of premature or inappropriate institutionalization for people affected by early-to-late stage Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia, including support groups, adult day health care, counseling, education, training and referral. The organization’s services are designed to increase the quality of life of those with dementia and to lessen caregiver burden and stress. Alzheimer’s Services of the East Bay operates the only licensed adult day care center in the District, and it is the only Alzheimer’s Day Care Resource Center in Alameda County. The Eden Township Healthcare District Community Health Fund grant was used for program salaries, supplies and outreach materials to help provide expanded services to area residents and help the organization expand its dementia-specific services in the District through their new Hayward center.
Grant Award: $30,000

 

Castro Valley Unified School District
Healthy Teen Program
The Castro Valley Unified School District’s Healthy Teen Program augments its school nursing programs by adding one full time nurse to serve the two high schools in the district: Castro Valley High with 2,200 students and Redwood Alternative High with 170 students. The program responds to pressing issues of medical emergencies, substance abuse, eating disorders, high-risk sexual behavior, and mental health conditions such as depression. The program seeks to reduce unnecessary emergency room visits; improve access to health care assessment, case management and advice; reduce numbers of suicide attempts; increase use of on-campus mental health, eating disorder and substance abuse services; and provide staff with better information about adolescent treatment issues, strategies and referral mechanisms. The Community Health Fund has helped to expand these services, double the overall nursing capacity of the school district, and concentrates these services on adolescents experiencing acute or chronic risk conditions.
Grant Award: $60,000

 

Christmas In April
National Rebuilding Day
Christmas in April’s program is centered on National Rebuilding Day, which is the last Saturday in April. The program’s mission is to provide a free service to those who cannot afford to make much-needed repairs on their homes, allowing families to live in a safe and clean environment. The Community Health Fund has helped renovate three homes, including construction of wheelchair ramps, restoration of heating systems and installation of smoke detectors, for low-income seniors and disabled homeowners as part of a larger effort for residents in Castro Valley, San Lorenzo, San Leandro and Hayward.
Grant Award: $5,000

 

Davis Street Community Center
Ashland/Eden Wellness Project
The Davis Street Community Center improves the quality of life of its clients by providing direct services that include free acute medical care to uninsured residents, food packages and nutrition workshops to low-income families and their children, job training/placements to CalWorks participants and quality subsidized childcare to eligible clients. The Community Health Fund has helped create the Ashland/Eden Wellness Project, with a goal to enhance health and livelihood of Ashland and Eden area residents and their families through access to health services, nutrition education, life skills training and nutritious food, fostering the creation and sustainability of a vital, self-sufficient and productive life for disenfranchised and impoverished persons. The Community Health Fund has also helped improve the basic-need services through nutrition education and life skills training that teach low-income individuals about menu planning, food budgeting, safety and goal-setting efforts to establish and maintain a healthier lifestyle for themselves and their children. In May of 2000, DSCC opened its "family support services" satellite office on East 14th Street at 163rd Avenue. Here, a family advocate provides comprehensive community assistance, case management, and access to services such as food, shelter and medical care, as well as assistant to home-bound and isolated residents of Ashland.
Grant Award: $75,000

 

Deaf Women Against Violence (DWAV)
Hayward Area Outreach and Expansion
Deaf Women Against Violence originated as a program of the Deaf Counseling, Advocacy and Referral Agency with the support of a grant from the Eden Township Healthcare District in 1999-2000. This past year, DWAV became an independent, not-for-profit agency and opened a new office in Hayward. The purpose of DWAV is to assist deaf women who have been abused (emotionally, physically, financially and/or sexually); advocate for the needs with hospitals, courts, police and other agencies; assist in finding safe housing; and provide emotional support to victims. The organization seeks to meet the needs of all East and South Bay Area deaf women through a program that includes three major components: volunteer advocates who are available 24 hours a day to assist women; advocacy and advocacy training to the deaf community, police departments, hospitals and other entities related to domestic violence and sexual abuse; and parenting classes and training to children and adolescents to prevent "learned helplessness" behaviors that lead to becoming victims.
Grant Award: $44,880

 

East Bay Cancer Support Group
Teen Cancer Support Group Program
The East Bay Cancer Support Group is a non-profit organization serving individuals, families and caregivers facing the emotional challenges that arise when coping with the reality of cancer. The Community Health Fund has helped develop their Teen Cancer Support Group to provide emotional support for teens who are diagnosed with cancer, who are dealing with a family member who has been diagnosed with cancer, or who are coping with the death of a family member. This past year, the organization expanded its services to provide support for children and adolescents. The professionally-facilitated support group creates a unique and safe environment for emotional support and the sharing of experiences among peers.
Grant Award: $10,500

 

Eden Counseling Services
Castro Valley School District Summer Session
Eden Counseling Services provides a multi-systemic intervention program for the Castro Valley Unified School District’s six-week summer school session. The program focuses on identifying and treating youth at high risk for substance abuse, involvement in the juvenile justice system, and/or aggressive and violent behavior. Treatment options include individual assessment and counseling, group counseling and skill training, family counseling and family case management services. The Community Health Fund has helped establish the program and secure a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with a specialization in adolescents and substance abuse to provide on-site assessments and counseling for 10 hours at Castro Valley High School, 10 hours at Canyon Middle School and 5 hours at Creekside Middle School.
Grant Award: $5,000

 

Eden Youth & Family Center
Hayward New Start Tattoo Removal Program
Eden Youth and Family Center’s mission is to improve the quality of life for children, youth and their families. The Center’s goal is to ensure that every young person has the opportunity to develop his/her potential to become a productive, happy adult. New Start offers life-changing opportunities to youth who are, or have been, gang or drug involved and who have a genuine desire to move their lives in a positive direction. The Hayward New Start Tattoo Removal Program assists youth and adults ages 13 — 26 to remove visible gang and drug related tattoos at no cost to the participants. The participants must develop and carry out an educational and/or vocational training or employment program under the guidance of a sponsoring organization, contribute 50 hours of community service and attend a group support meeting once a month. The Community Health fund has helped expand the program to serve the residents of the Eden Township Healthcare District.
Grant Award: $18,000

 

Family Emergency Shelter Coalition (FESCO)
Resettlement Services for Homeless Families with Children
The Family Emergency Shelter Coalition (FESCO) is a coalition of 30 churches and community organizations that operates an emergency shelter in Hayward, the only shelter in the District that serves two-parent families, single fathers, and families with boys over the age of 12, as well as single mothers. Since its inception in 1988, FESCO has served more than 1,500 homeless families with children. Their services include not only emergency shelter, but also food, transitional housing, employment services and an aftercare component that supports families after they have been placed in a stable home environment. Families exiting the shelter dedicate all of their efforts and income to housing costs, utilities and food, with little or no money left for basic furniture and house wares. FESCO’s Resettlement project helps these families with furnishings and household goods after their shelter stay, so that they may save their limited dollars for essential rent, utilities and household goods. The program also works to coordinate with other human service agencies to increase communication about agency resource needs and help fill identified gaps.
Grant Award: $36,500

 

Girls Inc. of Alameda County
Fitness Center
Girls Inc. of Alameda County seeks to empower girls and young women by inspiring all girls to be strong, smart and bold. As a multi-service agency addressing the most serious needs of girls in the community, Girls Inc. focuses on gender-specific issues and also provides a full range of youth and family services to Alameda County communities. The Fitness Center provides a supportive environment that focuses on the health needs of adolescent girls through personalized fitness instruction, education, skill building and challenging physical activities that take place after school, evenings and weekends. The Center helps to build strong public support for youth, ensures access to youth-friendly health services and offers youth positive life options. In addition, the Fitness Center emphasizes the importance of personal responsibility and regular physical activity throughout life in order to maintain a healthy body, enhance psychological well-being and prevent premature death.
Grant Award: $60,000

 

Legal Assistance for Seniors
Healthy Seniors
The Eden Township Healthcare District funded the HICAP program in 2000 to address the health care coverage needs of low-income, eligible seniors and Medicare-eligible disabled persons. This grant request builds on that success to create "Healthy Seniors" in cooperation with Hayward’s Healthy Families Outreach & Education Campaign and The California Endowment. The program seeks to improve access to health care services, as well as advocacy and support for seniors in dealing with the many hurdles in using health insurance benefits. The group is taking a unique approach to this by working with the Healthy Families program in order to reach a much wider range of people.
Grant Award: $55,000

 

Mercy Retirement and Care Center
Eden Township Healthcare District Brown Bag Program
The Mercy Brown Bag Program began in 1982 with support from the State of California Brown Bag Network Act and sponsored by Mercy Retirement & Care Center as a community outreach service to provide groceries to low-income seniors. Mercy Brown Bag Program’s mission is to coordinate the distribution of high quality, nutritionally balanced, bags of groceries to low-income seniors age 60 and over, in Alameda County. The Community Health Fund has helped establish food distribution sites in the Eden Township Healthcare District to serve at least 80 low-income seniors, primarily those underserved residents of Cherryland, Ashland and Fairview. Because of the Community Health Fund, the program has found a new distribution site at the Davis Street Community Center in San Leandro, merged with another brown bag program and expanded its reach in the District.
Grant Award: $15,000

 

San Leandro Boys & Girls Club
Hillside Unit After School Program
The San Leandro Boys & Girls Club invests in the future of youth by providing programs and opportunities that nurture their capacity to become self-sufficient, responsible and fulfilled members of the community. The goal is that all Club programs and services promote and enhance the development of boys and girls by instilling a sense of competence, usefulness, belonging and influence. The Hillside branch offers more than 300 youth of unincorporated San Leandro a place with educational, recreational and youth development activities. The youth in this area have limited access to recreation — no library, recreation center nor park within walking distance. The Community Health Fund has helped strengthen and expand services to youth, including the addition of nutritional and health education programs, at the Hillside branch. The after school program at Hillside School in Ashland has seen a steady increase in attendance since the school year began.
Grant Award: $35,000

 

Hillside Elementary School is located in the heart of the Ashland district in unincorporated Alameda County. The majority of students it serves are low-income children of color, and sixty-three percent of Hillside’s students receive free or reduced priced meals. Hillside Elementary School students present a variety of medical, social and environmental conditions which affect their learning. The Eden Township Healthcare District has provided funds for a full-time professional counselor to serve the students and families of Hillside Elementary School. The counselor provides individual and group counseling for the students, consultation and referrals for the staff, and parenting classes and facilitation to community resources for the parents. The counselor connects parents to community resources such as mental, physical and dental health services, as well as new resources made possible by the District’s Community Health Fund.
Grant Award: $70,000

 

Service Opportunity for Seniors, Inc. (SOS)
Meals on Wheels
Service Opportunity for Seniors, Inc. (SOS) has delivered hot meals directly to homebound seniors for the past 35 years. The program strives to assist seniors with the best nutritional service available as well as nutritional education. The Community Health Fund grant has allowed the program to add additional hot meal delivery routes to reach residents of the Eden Township Healthcare District.
Grant Award: $30,730

 

Shelter Against Violent Environments
Medical/Hospital Intervention in Domestic Violence
Shelter Against Violent Environments (SAVE) is a domestic violence prevention and intervention agency with a mission to offer alternatives to domestic violence through support services, advocacy and education and to assist domestic violence victims and their families in ending the cycle of violence. SAVE offers one of the largest domestic violence shelters in Alameda County with 30 beds. The Community Health Fund has helped establish a program that enables medical facilities to respond to domestic violence in a comprehensive manner (screening, identification, assessment, intervention, etc.). The program also provides 24-hour on-call services to include basic intervention, safety planning, information and referral, for women who require medical assistance in the emergency room or medical facilities. In its first year of funding, SAVE’s Community Outreach Prevention Services program placed SAVE staff at police departments in Fremont, Union City, Hayward, San Leandro and Newark, with great success.
Grant Award: $30,000

 

Spectrum Community Services
Fall Risk Reduction Program
Spectrum Community Services works to assist low-income, disadvantaged and elderly residents of Alameda County as they attempt to achieve and maintain self-sufficiency and improve the overall quality of their lives. The Community Health Fund has helped create the Fall Risk Reduction Program for frail, low-income elderly in the Eden Township Healthcare District. Falls are the number one cause of trauma-related injuries among the senior population, contribute substantially to health care costs and trigger repeated hospital admissions. The program combines a strength-building exercise regime with minor home modification and education to reduce the number of falls among participating seniors and increase the perceived sense of control that they have over their independence.
Grant Award: $50,000

 

Teens In Crisis
Pathways to Promise
Pathways to Promise is a youth education and public safety program designed as an after-school program for at-risk and high-risk adolescents who have issues with substance abuse, gang involvement, and other health and wellness obstacles. In collaboration with the Alameda County Office of Education, Alameda County Probation Department, and the State of California Department of Education, Teens In Crisis has implemented Pathways to Promise as a prevention and early intervention strategy for adolescents — referred from the Alameda County Probation Department and other entities — to improve social excellence, physical health and social development. The centerpiece of the program is multi-dimensional service learning that includes identification of and intervention with substance abuse, significant school behavior and performance problems, and delinquent behavior, along with development of job training and placement.
Grant Award: $63,040

 

Tiburcio Vasquez Health Center
Programs at San Lorenzo High School Health Center
Tiburcio Vasquez Health Center, Inc. (TVHC) has received funding to augment its work at the San Lorenzo High School Health Center. The organization will establish a Comprehensive Perinatal Services Program to serve residents of the San Lorenzo, Ashland, Cherryland and surrounding communities. Currently, TVHC provides Women, Infant and Children services and health programs for teens at the site, in cooperation with the San Lorenzo Unified School District. This expanded program will provide approximately 2,000 local residents with comprehensive prenatal care and support to improve health, to reduce perinatal morbidity and mortality related to nutritional deficiencies and poor access to adequate food, and to develop an integrated service that allows access to quality care for pregnant women who have been under-served because of immigration, economic or language barriers. The project includes both clinical care and social work services.
Grant Award: $75,000