We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.                 -  Winston Churchill

Alzheimer's Services of the East Bay
Managing Care: A Dementia Specific Care Management Program
Alzheimer’s Services of the East Bay has developed this new program to support those individuals and their families who are affected by Alzheimer’s disease or related dementia. The program provides dementia-specific care management to those families in the Eden Township Healthcare District and throughout Alameda County who choose to provide care in the home and do not use the day programs available in the community. The care management program includes home visits, care planning assistance, counseling, education, service planning and other support services.
Grant Award: $40,000

 

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

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

Creekside Middle School
Crossing Guard
The Community Health Fund grant has been used to provide a before and after school crossing guard program to increase the physical safety of the school’s 800 students.
Grant Award: $3,780

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 Counseling Advocacy and Referral Agency (DCARA)
Health Education Program
Deaf Counseling, Advocacy and Referral Agency’s new Health Education Program provides health education and health related services to deaf, deafened, deaf-blind and hard-of-hearing residents of the Eden Township. The program includes education about common illnesses and diseases, assistance for people who are losing their hearing or who have become deaf as adults, a patient navigator program, learning to use a sign language interpreter in a medical setting, health insurance issues, training on proper nutrition, and an exercise program conducted in American Sign Language.
Grant Award: $44,000

Eden Counseling Services (see also YWCA of Oakland/Mid-County Counseling Services)
Castro Valley School District Summer Session
The YWCA Mid-County 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

Girl Scouts of the San Francisco Bay Area
Healthy Lives Project
The Community Health Fund Grant has provided Girl Scout Troop 2028 with funds to plan and execute a Healthy Living project to teach girls about healthful living while providing leadership opportunities for middle school girls. The troop will plan, budget, execute and evaluate a program focusing on a specific health topic, chosen by the troop members, to include research, workshops, guest speakers and the development of a training program for other students.
Grant Award: $500

The Kids’ Breakfast Club
Ashland Community Center
Since 1992 The Kids’ Breakfast Club has worked to provide a child, family and community network that promotes the health and wellness of children and their families through specific activities that foster physical, social and intellectual growth. They have grown from serving 200 breakfasts at one site to now serving 2,000 breakfasts at four sites. The scope of their program has expanded to include parent education workshops, health services through screenings and referrals, a literacy component and a daily arts and crafts program. The Community Health Fund has helped the program expand from four sites to five ­ adding a new site at the Ashland Community Center, strengthening partnerships with local schools, opening a year round referral and resource center and providing more continuous year round service. The second grant was awarded to expand the Saturday program and continue to grow the program.
Grant Award: $31,500

Legal Assistance for Seniors
Health Insurance Counseling & Advocacy Program (HICAP)
The mission of Legal Assistance for Seniors is to ensure the independence and dignity of seniors, especially those with the greatest need, by protecting and advocating for their legal rights. The Community Health Fund has helped establish HICAP Plus to expand on the organization’s Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program by providing additional, specialized services to seniors in the Eden Township Healthcare District living at or slightly above the poverty line. Its purpose is to improve access to health care for these individuals by making Medicare more affordable. Specifically, HICAP Plus will expand awareness and use of federal subsidy programs, provide training for service providers, provide individual counseling to help Medicare beneficiaries apply for correct programs, and provide advocacy to solve problems that arise during the process or after they enroll. The project includes services in English, Chinese, Farsi and Spanish.
Grant Award: $55,000

Lincoln Child Center
Kinship Support Program
Lincoln Child Center has been working with the special needs of children with severe emotional problems and their families for 118 years. In addition to residential services, the Center operates a successful transitional program and programs in public schools. The Community Health Fund has helped the center to expand its Kinship Support Program for elder caregivers of at-risk children to develop a Health Support Project. The project will serve low-income families at risk for entering or who have been involved with public child welfare and juvenile probation agencies. The project will provide kin caregivers with health education and referrals, parenting support, respite care, family recreational activities, legal education, peer support groups and more. The youth will receive direct and referral services to promote healthy lifestyles, health services and guidance. The grant will specifically help the program focus on 520 to 700 residents of the District and the Ashland/Cherryland neighborhood.
Grant Award: $26,813

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: $22,000

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

San Lorenzo Unified School District
Hillside Elementary School Counselor
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

Southern Alameda County Sponsoring Committee
Community-Driven Heath Care: Education & Enrollment Project
The Southern Alameda County Sponsoring Committee’s "Congregations Organizing For Renewal" is a federation of 14 congregations in San Leandro, San Lorenzo, Hayward, Union City and Fremont, working to improve their local communities. The Community-Driven Health Care project seeks to improve access to health care for underserved residents of their communities. The goal of the program is to increase the number of insured families in the target communities, increase awareness of health insurance programs, and train grassroots community leaders to become a resource on health insurance programs in the community. The program’s model is unique in that it draws upon the leadership of local congregations and their immediate neighborhoods to mobilize and enroll families in low-cost and no-cost health insurance programs and address concerns about health care and access to services.
Grant Award: $20,000

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: $70,000

Spectrum Community Services
Project Hope
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. This program provides support in the form of case management, subsidized housing, home delivered meals, homemaker and errand assistance, adult day care and other similar services for seniors who are at high risk for institutionalization.
Grant Award: $50,000

Sports4Kids
After-School Program at Tyrell Elementary School
Using games and sports as an incentive to encourage participation, Sport4Kids provides children with a variety of after-school activities including homework help, leadership training, nutrition awareness and violence prevention. The Community Health Fund grant helps the agency expand its program to involve fourth and fifth grade students at Tyrell Elementary School in Hayward.
Grant Award: $10,000

Students In Business, Inc.
The Mentor Project
Students In Business works in collaboration with the Hayward and San Lorenzo Unified School Districts to pair at-risk middle and high school students with caring adults in one-to-one mentoring relationships. Many of the students whom teachers refer to this program come from single-parent households and are poor academic achievers, while some have physical disabilities or are in special education classes. Mentors take students to the library to assist them with their homework, to university and college campuses, nature reserves, museums, cultural events and sporting events to expose students to positive environments. The Community Health Fund has assisted 10 additional students in gaining the personalized support they need to make good decisions that have a positive impact on their lives.
Grant Award: $5,000

Valley Community Health Center
Senior Health Screening Program
The Senior Health Screening Program of Valley Community Health Center is an essential element in the system of care for seniors living in the area. The program provides health services at senior centers, mobile home parks, churches and housing centers, enabling the staff to identify seniors who are in urgent need of care but do not have access to services due to disabilities, transportation problems and a lack of knowledge about available services. Through the referral and follow-up program, the program’s nurses have been able to coordinate care and establish services to help seniors live independently and with a better quality of life. The Community Health Fund has helped expand the program to two additional sites and reach 240 more Eden Township Healthcare District residents.
Grant Award: $26,301