We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration.                        -  Frank Tibolt

Castro Valley High School
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

 

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

East Bay Cancer Support Group
Adult Metastatic & Caregivers Support
The Adult Metastatic Support Group provides individuals the opportunity to deal with the physical and emotional challenges that arise when coping with cancer. The Adult Caregivers Support Group provides caregivers the information and support they need to help them balance caring for their loved one with cancer and addressing their own needs. The Adult Caregivers Support Group meets simultaneously with the Adult Metastatic Cancer Support Group affording the patient and caregiver convenience in transportation and scheduling. Group support sessions are held weekly and are ongoing. Licensed therapists facilitate all groups, and all our groups and services are offered free of charge. The EBCSG seeks to extend clinical sessions to those people in crisis who are uninsured for one-on-one psychological services.
Grant Award: $13,000

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

Girls, Inc.
Pathways Counseling Center
For over 25 years, Pathways Counseling Center, a component of Girls Incorporated of Alameda County, has provided mental health services for children, adolescents, adults, and families. The proposed project offers a comprehensive and coordinated Child Abuse Prevention, Intervention, and Treatment Program to meet the overwhelming needs of children (female and male) and families in the Eden Area. More specifically, Pathways will deliver prevention, intervention and treatment services for 83 child abuse victims (ages 0 to­ 18) and their families living in the Eden Area. Eighty-five percent of clients are low-income (families earning $35,000 per year or less) and reflect diverse racial and ethnic groups.
Grant Award: $40,000

H.A.R.D.
Ashland Community Center
The Ashland Community Collaborative seeks to fund a full-time Coordinator at the Ashland Community Center to implement programs for children, adults and families in one central area. The primary purpose is to provide consistent services at the Ashland Community Center for a minimum of 40 hours per week that best support the needs of the Ashland Community. With the provision of a Center Coordinator, it will be possible to keep the Community Center open for regular drop in hours. Local social services and community agencies and county ­based programs will be more available at the Community Center as well as a variety of recreation and social programs.
Grant Award: $18,876

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: $10,000

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: $40,000

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: $25,000

 

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

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: $12,000

Tri-City Health Center
H.I.V. Case Management Studies
The program will provide 1,500 units of case management (i.e. one unit equals fifteen minutes of direct contact or advocacy conducted on behalf of a client) to 38 unduplicated HIV + residents of the Eden Health Care District. The case management program helps clients manage their HIV disease by coordinating a comprehensive set of services that help clients: (1) Obtain and maintain primary medical care; (2) Secure safe, affordable housing: (3) Obtain financial assistance and engage in long-term financial planning; (4) Access legal help; (5) Obtain financial and programmatic assistance for food and transportation; (6) Apply for benefits (e.g. SSI, medical coverage) for which they qualify (7) Obtain mental health counseling, including individual, couples, and caregiver counseling, as well as HIV+ support groups (8) Connect to Peer Treatment Advocates who help them acquire the skills necessary to manage the disease and to remain connected to care.
Grant Award: $25,000