When people have access to health care services, we all benefit.

Pam Marino here, expressing gratitude for Monterey County’s community health workers. These are the folks who are connecting some of our more vulnerable community members to resources that can make all the difference in being able to live a healthy life. 

In recent months, CHWs have been active in a Monterey County Health Department program called CORE, or Community Reaching for Equity. CORE seeks to connect residents with services for physical and mental health care, as well as other social services. All CORE services are free.

Currently they are offering workshops in English and Spanish at the Soledad Family Resource Center. The workshops are relaxed, with prize drawings and free produce to take home. Last week they offered a workshop on how to prepare for doctors’ visits and ask questions of health care providers. This coming Wednesday there’s a workshop on nutrition. By October there will be more workshops in Greenfield and Castroville, according to Jennifer Rivas, a management analyst with the Monterey County Health Department, who spoke during a media briefing on Sept. 11. 

CHWs have been around since 2021, but it wasn’t a sure thing they would get off the ground. I remember the Monterey County Board of Supervisors meeting in December 2020, as Covid-19 was surging, when board members were asked by COPA, Communities Organized for Relational Power in Action, to consider a six-month pilot program that would allow nonprofit organizations to hire CHWs so they could reach out to Latino neighborhoods, where Covid was hitting especially hard, and connect people to services.

There was concern over spending money on a new pilot program when there were other spending priorities. There was also concern that the pilot program might become a permanent program that the county would have to continue to fund, amidst a sea of other important spending priorities.

In the end, the board voted 5-0 for $5 million to fund the pilot and what became known as the VIDA Project was born. More money flowed from other sources, and the program was able to continue past six months and evolve into a successful initiative that helped get 4,600 people vaccination appointments. CHWs administered 13,000 Covid tests by March 2022. 

The Covid emergency orders are over (although Covid is still very much with us) and the community health workers have evolved. Thanks to the California Community Reinvestment Grants Program through the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, CHWs are still at work through the Monterey County Health Department and CORE using a $3 million grant during the 2022-2023 funding period. 

Any Monterey County resident aged 18 or older is eligible for the CORE Program, so if you know someone who could use its services, such as navigation toward health care or mental health treatment, they can get connected by calling 831-809-9870 or emailing coreprogram@countyofmonterey.gov. You can also self-refer at bit.ly/COREMCHD.

The nutrition workshop is at 4:30pm this Wednesday, Sept. 18, at the Soledad Family Resources Center, 441 A Main St., Soledad. Doctors Su Park and Ginger Tissler from Natividad will be presenting on nutrition and cardiovascular health. 

I’m glad CHWs are still connecting people to important health services. When all members of the community can get access to health care and mental health services, we all benefit.