Supes approve pilot outreach program
The Board of Supervisors approved a program that will hire and pay for 100 community health workers.
SALINAS >> A pilot community outreach and education program using “trusted messengers” to target Monterey County’s poorest communities hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic will go ahead as the virus continues to spread at an accelerated pace.
During a special meeting on Monday, the Board of Supervisors approved a six-month, $5 million program that will hire and pay for 100 community health workers in collaboration with community-based organizations to encourage testing and provide access to services in poor, largely Latino neighborhoods dubbed “communities of color” where the vast majority of local COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths have occurred.
As of Monday morning, nearly 80% of all local COVID-19 cases were from Salinas and South County, including nearly 55% from just three ZIP codes, and Latinos represented more than 63.5% of all local cases. In all, the county had 23,582 cases as of Monday, 1,009 more than on Sunday, as well as 166 COVID-19 patients currently in the hospital and 178 people who have died with the virus.
The program, which is slated to start on Jan. 1, would spend most of its budget on administrative costs including paying the community health workers $25 an hour with benefits to conduct the outreach efforts at COVID-19 testing sites and elsewhere. The program will also pay for seven program coordinators and seven data analysts, as well as administrative, operating and travel expenses.
Little funding would be devoted to the resulting demand for services such as temporary housing before and after testing for quarantine and isolation, cash assistance, food, and medical care, which would presumably rely on existing funding.
The program will include tracking of the number of contacts through the outreach and education efforts, the needs and challenges to addressing them, and actual access to resources, and is also expected to contribute to COVID-19 vaccination distribution.
It would be funded by cannabis tax revenue, which will cover about $3 million, as well as contingencies and reserves, which would cover about $1 million each.
County staff recommended a three-month, $2.3 million pilot program that they said would be quicker to implement, but county supervisors indicated they believed the program would need more time to be as effective as possible.
Overseen by the Community Foundation of Monterey County
in collaboration with the county administrative office and health department, the program will work with nearly a dozen community organizations including COPA, Building Healthy Communities, Mujeres en Accion, Center for Community Advocacy, Centro Binacional para el Desarrollo Indigena Oaxaqueno, California Rural Legal Assistance, Bright Beginnings, Lideres Campesinas, the city of Gonzales, Central California Alliance for Health and Action Council.
Proposed at last week’s county board meeting by COPA, the program is based on the Fresno County Equity Project and adapted to local needs, and is linked to county health’s disparate impact report as a recommended strategy. It also follows collaborative efforts led by the Community Foundation involving a range of community organizations with the same goal that started last month.
There are 45 community health workers already trained and mobilized with another 55 to follow, according to a staff report.
County supervisors, staff and supporters of the program noted the program could provide a framework for providing services to “underserved” communities even after the pandemic is over.