It is every man's obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it..                            -  Albert Einstein

In partnership with the Eden Senior Alcohol & Other Drug (AOD) Workgroup, CommPre wrote and published the Eden Senior AOD Prevention Plan in January, 2009.  This proposal will launch the implementation of the identified prevention strategies highlighted in the Plan; Promotion, Partnering and Policy change.  The escalating health problem with the misuse of prescription drugs, over-the-counter medications and alcohol among the older adult population continues to be overlooked by agencies and decision-makers as a serious substance abuse issue.  This project aims to increase community awareness, create partnerships, expand capacity of workgroup members to advocate for change, and build momentum for policy changes.  CommPre will provide leadership and technical assistance to implement this comprehensive approach to reduce and prevent substance abuse problems for Eden area older adults.

 

Eden I&R
24 Hour Health and Social Service Telephone Line, Alameda County 2-1-1
Eden I&R is the operator of Alameda County 2-1-1, the phone line providing residents free access to health, housing, and human services information and referral 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  2-1-1 is a simple and easy to remember three-digit telephone dialing code that enables individuals and families in need to make a critical connection with the appropriate community-based organizations and government agencies.  The 2-1-1 phone service is very well received by the public, as many people have gone through the frustrating process of calling numerous agencies/departments before getting through to the one that can actually help. 

 

The La Familia Family Resource Center (FRC) in Hayward provides services to residents of the Eden Township Healthcare District.  The FRC is ideally situated to serve all residents of Hayward, Cherryland, and Ashland.  The FRC Family Wellness Advocates will provide drop-in health advocacy and basic needs support, as well as case management to families experiencing multiple challenges.  The purpose of the Family Wellness Advocates is to intervene with families to promote overall optimal family wellness, stability and self-sufficiency.  This is of particular consequence during this period of increasing economic instability.  Using a collaborative service model, FRC staff partner with the South Hayward Neighborhood Collaborative to optimize human and social service resources through service integration - specifically included are information and referral services, health outreach (i.e., insurance application assistance, immunizations), intake, assessment, basic needs support (i.e., food, clothing, shelter), and education and community support.

 

The Hayward Area Recreation and Park District's Ashland Community Center has provided essential resources and services to the Ashland community since 2002.  It is the only site in Ashland that offers necessary support services continually to the underserved, low-income, at-risk Ashland community.  Over forty free or low cost programs and events for all ages are offered annually at the Ashland Community Center.  Services include after school and summer youth programs, community outreach activities and events, financial education workshops for adults and youth, fitness and nutrition programs for adults and youth, food distribution programs for families and older adults, GED test preparation classes, health workshops for adults and youth, homework help, library services, senior programming, youth literacy program and free youth summer lunch program.  The Ashland Community Center is a valued resource for local residents who attend programs over 20,000 times a year.  These programs have been designed to equip individuals, youth, and families with tools and skills necessary to lead a productive, self-sufficient lifestyle that is fundamental for improving their overall development, health and quality of life.

 

Falls among the elderly present one of the greatest health threats to this population and often severely limit independence by leading to premature institutionalization, lengthy hospital stays and mobility problems.  Spectrum's Fall Risk Reduction Program uses a multi-pronged approach to help prevent falls among Eden Area seniors - addressing the physical, behavioral and environmental factors that contribution to falls.  To do this, they employ strategies that 1) educate about fall prevention (including medication management and other strategies); 2) guide and make referrals for home safety modifications that can prevent falls; and 3) offer training that builds strength, mobility, balance and fall prevention skills.  Their focus is on empowering participants - helping them to implement solutions and become more confident of their control over their own lives.

 

Mercy Brown Bag Program coordinates the distribution of nutritious groceries, free of charge, twice a month, to over 2,000 low-income seniors in Alameda County, including 240 people in 162 households served at the Hayward Area Senior Center this past year.  In addition to the nutritional benefit these seniors receive, they are also more able to stretch their budget to afford medicine and other essential items.  They look forward to "Brown Bag Day" because of the socialization and physical activity.  The 22 bags received annually typically include fresh produce, fresh and/or canned vegetables and fruit, pasta and/or rice, a protein item, bread and snacks.  Mercy Brown Bag Program is the only large-scale nutritional food distribution program exclusively for low-income seniors in the Eden area.  Collaborations are created with others who share their vision and values to sponsor sites for the distribution of food.  With only two full-time and one part-time staff member, volunteers are the backbone of their program.

 

Since their inception in 1997, CALICO, the Child Abuse Listening, Interviewing and Coordination Center, has served as a multi-disciplinary hub, bringing together police officers, child welfare workers, and prosecutors to respond collaboratively to child abuse allegations, hear children's testimonies, and link children and families with vital therapeutic, medical and legal support services in Alameda County.  CALICO's mission is to provide a supportive environment to interview children and facilitate a collaborative response to child abuse in which the needs of the children take precedence.  In 2008, CALICO served 698 children, most of whom were sexually abused, and many of whom were physically hurt, neglected, exploited as prostitutes, and/or witnessed violence in their homes or communities.  CALICO is often the place where these children recount their experiences in full for the first time.  A supportive and effective response from CALICO is therefore crucial in fostering a child's healing and ensuring that offenders are held accountable.

 

For the past eight years, La Clinica de La Raza, Inc. has operated the San Lorenzo High Health Center (SLHHC), a school-based health clinic, at San Lorenzo High School.  Services at the SLHHC are available for adolescents who attend San Lorenzo and Royal Sunset High Schools.  SLHHC has agreements to serve students from neighboring Edendale Middle School and Arroyo High School as well.  Both schools serve youth from the underserved communities of Ashland and Cherryland, two of the most diverse and rapidly changing areas in Alameda County.  Many of the students served by the SLHHC have no health insurance and lack a regular source of comprehensive and coordinated primary care services.  Without SLHHC, these students would have very limited access to age-appropriate medical, health education and/or mental health services. 

 

East Agency for Children's Child Assault Prevention (CAP) Training Center holds child abuse and violence prevention workshops in Alameda County for children, youth, school staff, parents, and youth serving professionals, and school-based mental health services at targeted Eden area elementary schools.  With a growing waiting list and increasing number of referrals, the CAP Training Center is the only program in the Eden area that provides this type of comprehensive service for low-income, under-insured children.  CAP staff will continue to provide high-quality, short and long term mental health services to a minimum of 50 low-income children at the targeted Eden area schools where they have identified children who present impaired social and psychological functioning at home and in school.  These children are uninsured or are ineligible for Medi-Cal coverage, and thus services to them cannot be covered under CAP's existing public contracts.  With funding, the CAP Training Center will also be able to continue providing CAP workshops in Alameda County, including the Ashland, Cherryland, and other Eden area communities, reaching a minimum of 3,500 youth, families, school staff, and community providers through the full scope of their services.

 

The Davis Street Family Resource Center Eden Wellness Project will deliver primary and acute health care services, acute dental care, and physical therapy to 2200 families in the Eden area, including Castro Valley, Cherryland and Ashland.  The three main areas of their focus is the holistic approach to health care services, which are 1) access to primary and acute health care services for uninsured, underinsured, low-income and working poor families; 2) access to and assistance with enrollment in health insurance programs; especially for children; and 3) access to additional family support services, including, but not limited to, food and clothing, child care, employment assistance and housing resources, prevention, counseling services, and information and referral services.

 

Emergency Shelter Program, Inc.
Community Health Outreach and Shelter Services for Women and Children
Emergency Shelter Program, Inc. (ESP) is a 35-year old nonprofit organization with an Alameda County-wide constituency.  ESP provides many services to women and families who experience abuse and need protection, education, and other transitional services.  Among the transitional services they provide are: emergency shelter, case management, child care, employment preparation, housing counseling and referral, counseling and workshops on violence prevention, anger management, mental health, substance abuse counseling, and similar topics.  ESP serves low-income women and their children who come directly from abusive situations.  ESP provides multi-lingual, multi-cultural health and related services to low-moderate income women and children in Hayward, including health insurance assistance, counseling for mental and substance abuse issues, general case management and referral to social and health services, legal assistance, advocacy, information about food and shelter, education/prevention/safe exit regarding domestic violence and child abuse, job preparation assistance, and women’s support groups.
Grant Awarded:  $30,000

 

Tri-City Health Center                           
“Out There” HIV Care
Tri City Health Center’s mission is to promote, through culturally sensitive education of individuals and the community, the value of preventative health care, early detection and treatment of diseases and family planning and to make all healthcare services accessible to low-income and medically underserved individuals and families.  Tri City Health Center has been providing quality medical care to medically underserved and indigent populations in Alameda County since 1970.  Their services include adult primary care, pediatrics, prenatal care, family planning services, an immunization outreach project, parent education classes, homeless assistance program, HIV and Hepatitis prevention, care and testing, health screening for seniors, and community-wide educational programs.  As the sole provider of comprehensive HIV services in South, Central and East Alameda County, Tri-City Health Center’s HIV Care Program is a fresh new intervention to bring people living with HIV from the Eden area into HIV care and assure that they remain in care.  The service delivery model creates a multidisciplinary team that brings medical and psychosocial assessment directly into the field.  This team meets newly diagnosed and established clients where they feel most comfortable – in their homes, homeless camps, and motels.  This manner of building trust and rapport, while providing services, addresses barriers and challenges that result in a higher number of people living with HIV accessing and remaining in care.
Grant Awarded: $40,000

 

Service Opportunity for Seniors, Inc./Meals on Wheels
Targeting High Risk Clients and Initiating Volunteer Meal Delivery Routes
Service Opportunities for Seniors (SOS)/Meals On Wheels delivers hot, nutritious meals every day to frail, homebound seniors in the Eden Area.  They also provide a daily check in, and social service support and referral.  SOS has a significant waiting list for meals, and funds from the Eden Township Healthcare District help to support the driver position for three delivery meal routes for high risk, low income seniors.  With the funding received from Eden Township Healthcare District, SOS will be able to serve all high priority seniors within a week of their request for meals.  In addition, funding will initiate and evaluate the addition of select volunteer delivery routes to supplement paid driver routes.
Grant Awarded:  $37,756

 

Be A Mentor, Inc.
Alameda Countywide Youth Mentoring Initiative
Be A Mentor supports at-risk, disadvantaged and underperforming young people throughout the district with screened, compatible adult mentors.  Mentors and mentees meet one to two hours each week to provide crucial value and self-worth for the youth.  Be A Mentor believes that all children should thrive; however, circumstances frequently inhibit many from doing so, whether from broken families of origin, poverty, social ostracism or simply lack of opportunity.  Instead, these youth make choices that put themselves into situations of inherent danger, whether via drugs/alcohol, physical violence or sexual exploitation.  Through mentoring, young people from difficult circumstances get the opportunity to see the world and themselves from a different perspective; hope, dream and plan for their futures; and pursue opportunities that their circumstances often prohibit.  Be A Mentor recognizes that it does indeed take a village to raise a child, and consequently, have entered into strategic partnerships with Hayward Schools, youth service providers, Alameda County and other organizations to support as many youth as possible to ensure their health, safety and productive futures.
Grant Awarded:  $5,000

 

United Seniors of Oakland and Alameda County
Eden Area Senior Action Project (EASAP)
United Seniors of Oakland and Alameda County (USOAC) is dedicated to empowering Eden Area older adults through a community organizing model.  USOAC has targeted Eden Area because of its unique nature and circumstance, with a large needy senior population with many of Hispanic origin, and the only multi-purpose senior center which is located in Castro Valley.  The Eden Area Senior Action Project builds upon the work of the Ashland/Cherryland Senior Organizing Project and the Eden Area Leadership Development Project.  Through those efforts a Local Organizing Committee was formed, older adult leaders surfaced, issues were identified, and leaders developed confidence and experience.  The Eden Area Senior Action Project is a natural evolution of their community organizing work over the last few years to empower seniors in the Eden Area.  The project will launch an organizing campaign to plan strategy and tactics, take action, and debrief the efforts for the development of a multi-purpose Community Center with a senior focus in Cherryland.  The organizing campaign is action oriented and will address the need for a center not only for older adults, but for the greater Ashland/Cherryland community.  This strategic approach adheres to the United Seniors of Oakland and Alameda County motto of “empowering seniors, enriching youth, enhancing community”.
Grant Awarded:  $5,000

 

Boys and Girls Club of San Leandro
Growing Healthy Kids
The Boys and Girls Club has been providing after school activity programs to the Ashland community since 1999.  In 2005, they received a four year grant from Team Up for Youth to provide quality after-school sports programs for the children in the Ashland area.  In 2007, the San Lorenzo Unified School District selected the Boys and Girls Club to run their state funded After School Education and Safety (ASES) Program.  In August 2008, they began ASES services to the San Leandro Unified School District.  The ASES Program provides youth and their parents with a safe and stimulating program immediately after school every day.  With their Marina Main Unit, they serve 1,400 boys and girls daily at 12 sites in San Leandro, San Lorenzo, unincorporated Hayward, Cherryland and Ashland.  The ASES program provides youth and their parents with a safe and stimulating program immediately after school every day.  The program includes sports, cooking, gardening, science, homework assistance, drama, computer training and arts and crafts.  These services are provided on-site at 11 San Leandro and San Lorenzo schools.  
Grant Awarded:  $35,000

 

CV High School PTS Association
Sober Grad Cruise 2009
Every year high school students are injured or killed as a result of graduation night drinking/drug use and driving.  Sober Grad Cruise 2009 will provide a safe and fun activity to celebrate graduation day for the 2009 seniors.  This activity provides a positive, healthy environment for one very important night for the 2009 graduating seniors of Castro Valley High School.  The funding provided by the Eden Township Healthcare District will help offset the student fee, enabling more students to participate. 
Grant Awarded: $3,800

 

Magnolia Women’s Recovery Program, Inc.
Magnolia Therapeutic Child Care and Clinical Services
Magnolia Women’s Recovery Program, Inc. is the only residential program in Southern Alameda County treating pregnant and postpartum women for chronic substance abuse.  Magnolia’s mission is to assist pregnant and postpartum women to heal emotionally, physically, and spiritually from the devastating effects of drug and/or alcohol addiction and co-occurring mental health disorders, and to thereby decrease the incidence of harm to the children as a result of the mother’s addiction.  The Eden Township Healthcare District funding will provide therapeutic child care to children ages 0-5 of mothers who are enrolled in Magnolia’s Perinatal Residential Substance Abuse Treatment Program in Hayward.  In conjunction with the substance abuse treatment that the mothers receive, this cross-disciplinary service is designed to provide support and trauma resolution for the children of addicted mothers, and to increase the parenting skills of mothers as they begin a new life without alcohol, drugs and tobacco. 
Grant Awarded:  $40,000

 

Building Futures with Women and Children              
Helping Women in Crisis to End Homelessness and Abuse
Through the San Leandro Shelter and their other shelters and supportive housing serving mid Alameda County, Building Futures serves women in crisis, helping them to end their homelessness and family violence.  The San Leandro Shelter has been serving women from the Eden Area who are part of this at-risk, underserved population since its founding in 1988.  In addition to providing shelter and food, the San Leandro Shelter provides opportunities for their clients to address their barriers to permanent housing and rebuild their lives.  Their supportive services have been designed to help each of their residents identify and resolve housing barriers and to reach a greater level of self-sufficiency.  Case management services include support groups, parent education, resource referrals and other services that address the multiple issues their clients face.  These issues may include family violence, mental illness, substance abuse, and unaddressed medical conditions. 
Grant Awarded:  $30,000

 

Associated Community Action Program
Bayfair Employment Training Academy (BETA)
The Bayfair Employment Training Academy (BETA) is a 6-week job readiness program serving youth aged 14-24 who live in the unincorporated Eden area.  This program provides the basic soft skills education that youth desperately need to find and keep a job, as well as a safe place for youth to receive supportive services.  With gender specific case managers, mental health professionals available, and a multitude of referral resources, BETA students and alumni receive the assistance that they need to move forward in their lives.  The BETA program has also evolved to serve youth and young adults who are on probation/parole.  “Pro-BETA” is designed to deal with the barriers and risk factors that these students face, while simultaneously teaching them employability skills.  Case managers and the Re-Entry Coordinator work closely with each Pro-BETA student to successfully get them through the course and onwards toward employment and healthy lifestyles.  Their BETA Plus program for youth are between 18-24 years of age addresses the needs of older, out-of-school youth who are disconnected from services.
Grant Awarded:  $30,000