County supervisors consider funding to save unique mental health prevention programs.

The Monterey County Board of Supervisors is considering throwing a lifeline to a few community preventative mental health programs amid California’s shifting priorities for addressing behavioral health issues. Since voters approved Proposition 1 in 2024, the state’s focus has turned away from purely preventative programs to those that treat serious illnesses, and toward housing interventions.

That shift left some programs without funding as of July 1, including Alliance on Aging’s senior peer counseling program and The Village Project’s programs aimed at Black clients in need of preventative therapy. The Village Project needs $310,000 to support after-school, therapy and equine healing programs for the 2026-27 fiscal year.

“That dramatically impacts our ability to deliver basic services,” says Claudette Carroll, interim chief operating officer of The Village Project.

Supervisor Wendy Root Askew said on June 16 that she wanted the County to come up with one year of funding for The Village Project, as well as Alliance on Aging and Center for Community Advocacy. Each provides a unique service that should be preserved until new funding for the programs could come about a year from now, she said.

“The Village Project ties directly back to some of the tremendous disparities that exist for our Black community members on the prevention side, when we have arrest rates that are four times higher for our Black residents than we do for other residents. We’re making connections back to mental health needs,” Root Askew said.

The supervisors directed County staff to come back with a proposal to provide bridge funding to the three nonprofits, along with others providing unique services, based on the potential for future funding.

That funding is derived from changes to CalAIM (California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal), which shifts behavioral health services reimbursements to counties away from a cost settlement model to a fee-for-service model.

In theory, the County could save money by delivering services at a lower cost than state reimbursement. The goal, says Melanie Rhodes, Behavioral Health Bureau chief, is to work more efficiently and reinvest the savings back into the system. The total potential savings from this “productivity funding,” as it’s called, is still being worked out.

Of the 22 local organizations impacted by the Prop. 1 changes, 12 were able to be partially funded to the tune of $5.5 million because some of their programs qualified as treatment, not strictly prevention. The remaining 10 groups do not qualify under the new rules.

Agencies that no longer qualify are able to apply for state grants to support behavioral health, with $35 million available this year and $45 million next fiscal year.

The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to consider the bridge funding proposal on Tuesday, July 7.