Forum helps ID health needs
When El Centro resident Monica McCain had voluntarily sought treatment for her substance abuse problem about five years ago, she said she had run into trouble finding out information about locally available resources.
After weeks of online searches and phone calls, McCain eventually came to the conclusion that resources here were lacking, prompting her to ultimately seek help at a non-faith-based inpatient treatment facility in San Diego.
“That program saved my life,” McCain said.
Yet, as helpful as the treatment program was, it had also distanced her from her support network, which typically plays a crucial role for individuals undergoing alcohol and substance abuse treatment.
“If the programs are working for San Diego, why can’t we bring those programs here?” she said.
McCain, and the nonprofit New Life Possibilities she recently founded, is hoping to do just that, and establish the Valley’s first non-faith-based inpatient treatment facility.
Her concerns were just one of many that local stakeholders had shared during a listening and funding forum hosted by the Alliance Healthcare Foundation on Wednesday in El Centro.
The well-attended forum was the second one that the San Diego-based nonprofit had hosted in the Valley in recent years. The forums have served to help identify local health and wellness needs and ensure local organizations are aware of the foundation’s funding opportunities.
Since 2012, the foundation has awarded about $1 million in grants to local organizations who focus on health and wellness, said Nancy Sasaki, AHF executive director.
Last year, the foundation had awarded a total of $3.3 million to organizations in the San Diego and Imperial counties through its series of grants.
Previously, the foundation had a tendency to provide grants to San Diego-based organizations that had made promises of bolstering health and wellness initiatives in the Imperial Valley. But when it became apparent that many of those initiatives were not being fully implemented in the Valley, the foundation began to dedicate a portion of its grant funding solely for Valley-based organizations, Sasaki said.
“We want to make sure that what we’re investing in isn’t going to go away,” she said.
Participants at the forum had no shortage of concerns about the lack of resources available to the Valley’s most vulnerable populations.
Longstanding concerns about the shortage of local primary care and specialty care physicians were noted, as were the high rates of chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity and asthma. Emerging and immediate needs among the local gay and transgender community have also come to light in recent years as well.
However, the Valley is also home to an enhanced level of partnership and trust that has allowed local stakeholders to collaborate on a variety of health and wellness projects and programs.
Since becoming the executive director of the Sister Evelyn Mourey Center in 2013, Karen White said she has been impressed by the level of collaboration here.
“That’s another awesome thing that’s happening in the Valley that you don’t generally see everywhere else,” said White, who had moved here from the San Diego area.
As part of a $25,000 grant the Mourey Center had received from AHF in 2014 to help develop its food pantry, the foundation also provided networking opportunities as well as strategic planning sessions. Nor are such supporting resources available solely for local organizations that have been the recipient of a grant.
“AHF is different because they keep us engaged whether they have funded us or not,” White said.
El Centro Mayor Jason Jackson was also on hand during the listening forum at the Old Eucalyptus Schoolhouse to present the foundation with a plaque from the city of El Centro recognizing it for its efforts to promote and fund health and wellness in the Valley.
Particularly impressive was AHF’s constant engagement with service providers, which stands in contrast to other organizations that typically will cut a check and run.
“It speaks a lot about your foundation,” Jackson said.
With the application period for mission support grants starting in September, the foundation was hoping that local stakeholders would help spread the word of their availability.
“We can’t help you solve your problem if we don’t know about it,” said AHF program officer Michele Silverthorn.