Health Education Council

Program Area: Health Access HEC supports programs and collaborates with partners dedicated to ensuring everyone has access to culturally relevant and supportive health programs and environments regardless of zip code.Invest Health Roseville (IHR): As one of ten Invest Health cities in the country, Roseville engages HEC to serve as the lead organization for this multi-sector collaborative effort to improve the quality of life and community well-being in Downtown Roseville's core neighborhoods through projects resulting in positive health outcomes for residents of those neighborhoods. The Invest Health Advisory committee meets monthly to leverage resources, partnerships and bring new investments to improve health. New funding will launch an Accountable Community for Health in Placer County, building on the successes of IHR.West Sacramento Accountable Community for Health (ACH): HEC serves as a backbone organizer for this multi-sector alliance of health, local government, social services, and residents working to promote healthy, happy hearts in West Sacramento. It brings together sector and community leadership to align systems/resources and to embed equity in a multi strategy approach to reduce West Sacramentos high cardiovascular disease rates. New funding will expand the ACH beyond West Sacramento to all of Yolo County.Healthy Food Access: Since the pandemic began, HEC has worked to address food security needs across the communities within the region. HEC strengthened partnerships with the local food banks in the tri-county region, including Placer Food Bank, Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services, and the Yolo Food Bank. In Sacramento County, HEC hosts a bi-monthly food distribution at the Mack Road Valley. Hi Community Center in South Sacramento. HEC partners with Twin Rivers Unified School District to increase access points for healthy and culturally diverse foods for Afghani families living in North Sacramento. HEC conducted focus groups with Afghan parents, launched a cooking class for Afghan parents and began a monthly food distribution at several school sites within the district, serving 4641 residents.In Placer County, HEC offers a monthly food distribution across four senior communities in the City of Roseville: Woodcreek Terrace Apartments and Maidu Village Senior Apartments I, II and III. In Yolo County, HEC partners with the Center for Land Based Learning to support their mobile farmers market program across four sites in low-income communities within West Sacramento. Additionally, HEC supports families with low-cost healthy recipes, healthy eating on a budget, food literacy and has developed food resource lists distinct to each county and offered during distribution and outreach events. Across all health food access programs, HEC distributed almost 200,000 pounds of free food.West Sacramento Housing: HEC provides services to improve health, social support and connection, and financial well-being of West Sacramento low-income residents who live in subsidized apartment communities managed by the West Sacramento Housing Development Corporation in the citys oldest neighborhoods. HEC works with residents to increase availability and access to community resources, provide education on nutrition, financial literacy, mental health, and other topics. Monthly newsletters were printed and posted on the doors of all 271 units, reaching over 600 residents each month.HEC is also working in partnership with the Yolo County Children's Alliance and the UC Davis Lighting & Techology program to solicit resident feedback and recommendations for the exterior lighting systems that will be installed in their West Sacramento community. HEC has received input from 300 low-income residents.HEC worked in conjunction with Yolo Food Bank, HEC hosts food distributions across six low-income housing complexes in West Sacramento. From July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022, HEC served approximately 800 households and 2070 total individuals. Ventanilla de Salud (VDS): Through VDS, the Health Window at the Mexican Consulate in Sacramento, HEC staff provide information and services to the Mexican Community, averaging 180 to 200 individuals a day. The team provides resources to people looking for health services like family medicine, dental services, vision, mental health, and, in some cases, surgery. HEC also provided general health education sessions to over 30,000 visitors to the Mexican Consulate and tailored navigation services to 7,300 residents.Healthy Air Quality (Placer & Sac): In Placer County, HEC continued its partnership with Placer County Air Pollution Control District (PCAPCD) to increase public engagement in district goals which include education of the district efforts, promotion, coordination, community input on district incentive programs, and provide the community with health education and further learn from residents to inform district education materials. HEC conducted outreach in Placer County reaching over 5500 community members with information on air quality and local resources.In Sacramento County, HEC collaborated with several partners as part of a Sacramento Environmental Justice Community Air Monitoring Project with Valley Vision, United Latinos and Breathe Californias Sacramento Region. This project seeks to establish an air-monitoring network in priority disadvantaged communities to assess public health and environmental impacts due to vehicle emissions focusing on environmental justice communities within the City of Sacramento. HEC and its partner, Mutual Assistance Network, have surveyed and educated over 600 residents in the North Highlands and West Arden Arcade neighborhoods. Healthy Vacaville: HEC collaborates with the City of Vacaville to engage community members in City Council District 3 to advise the city where to make future investments to create a thriving neighborhood. District 3 is an underserved neighborhood with a diverse population and high levels of poverty compared to the rest of the city. HEC has engaged over 1,000 residents through a neighborhood leadership group, community workshops and with navigation support. HEC hired a neighborhood resident as Community Health Leader providing neighborhood-based support.Connected Community Networks: HEC serves as the backbone organization for the Greater Sacramento Connected Community Network in Sacramento County, Placer County, and Yolo County. Together with the program funders, including Kaiser Permanente and Dignity Health, HEC works with other community-based service providers to explore strategies for greater collaboration of resident services. The Sacramento effort is focused on work readiness coordination; the Yolo groups is focused on collaboration across diverse data platforms and the Placer group is focused on coordination of mental well-being resources. Covid Outreach: HEC continues to address the disproportionate impact of COVID 19 in communities of color, particularly the Latino community, through coordination of free testing clinics. HEC collaborated with UC Davis Health (UCDH) on their Move It Up (Mobilizing Organizations Via Equitable Immunization and Testing through Unified Partnership) initiative to provide community testing clinics across Yolo and Sacramento County. The clinics were free of cost to anyone with or without insurance. Our team of community health leaders assisted the nursing team by helping provide translation services in Spanish and Faris, assisting with registration, passing out incentives, and providing navigational resources for other health needs community members might need such as food security or health needs. During this period, the project administered over 6,000 tests. HEC also collaborated with UCD on the ORALE project in Yolo County. The ORALE (Organizations to Reduce, and Lead for Equity against COVID-19) program offered free COVID19 testing focused on rural California, targeting farm workers and their families. During this period, the ORALE project tested almost 200 individuals in Yolo County.

Wellness Education HEC supports programs and collaborates with partners dedicated to providing free resources and tools to increase understanding of priority health conditions and cultivate healthier behaviors to combat them. Nutrition Education Obesity Prevention (NEOP): NEOP strives to advance student and family health and well-being across schools and districts in Sacramento County in efforts to reduce childhood obesity and prevent chronic disease. HEC delivers nutrition education lessons to 1st 6th grade students in Twin Rivers Unified School District, Robla School District and Sacramento City Unified School District with support from California State University Sacramento nursing student interns. The Harvest of the Month introduces students to new fruits and vegetables, providing teachers with monthly tasting kits and lesson plans for hands-on activities in their classrooms. HECs Parent Workshops partnered with Tomorrows Kitchen to provide a virtual cooking-centered workshop series with an engaging nutrition lesson and family cooking demonstration. HECs annual virtual School Wellness Summit was hosted at the end of September 2022 with the theme Mind, Body, and Soul: Connecting the Whole. The summit featured a keynote address and panel presentations on whole student health as well as school wellness policies, nutrition, physical activity and social, emotional learning. HECs Wellness Education Team also leads Dont Buy The Lie (DBTL), a contest engaging youth in grades 6-12 in the greater Sacramento area in the use of artistic expression to share their concerns about how Big Tobacco targets youth and communities of color. Contestants were invited to submit their creation with their preferred form of media (artwork, dance, skit, music, poetry, spoken word, etc.) Winning prizes range from $580-$1000. The contest is supported with funding from Kaiser Permanente. During the last year, the Wellness Education programs served 91,842 low-income students and their families.

Social Connection HEC supports programs and collaborates with partners dedicated to strengthening family and community connections in order to remove stigma and boost support related to addressing mental and physical health issues.Lay Mental Well-being Support (Peers Helping Peers/Facilitadores Communitarios): Created in 2020 with a grant from Sacramento Countys California Mental Health Services Authority and the Division Behavioral Health Services through the voter approved Proposition 63, Peers Helping Peers (PHP) has a three-fold mission to train and activate Spanish speaking adults to 1.) decrease mental health stigma throughout Sacramento County 2.) increase social connection and the ability of participants to serve as mental health supports for their peers, and 3.) introduce participants to entry-level mental health jobs. PHP also trains youth in strategies to support mental well-being among peers. This year HECs lay mental well-being program supported over 700 residents.Mente Sana, Vida Sana: Located at the Mexican Consulate in Sacramento, this HEC program promotes early detection, prevention, and treatment of mental health conditions in the Latino community. Utilizing culturally and linguistically appropriate depression risk screening tools and counseling services, Mente Sana provides direct services to the Spanish-speaking community and works to decrease the stigma associated with mental health. Two Spanish-speaking crisis counselors provided crisis counseling to 297 individuals during this year. On average, individuals met with the crisis counselor for 5 sessions, each session was one hour long. Individuals who received crisis counseling reported a positive change in their outlook of their situation. Walk with Friends: HEC community-centered walking groups across the Sacramento region are designed to increase active living and social connection among residents by utilizing local parks and walking trails. Operating at Robla and Elkhorn parks, the Walk with Friends groups serve an average of 100 individuals per week who this year collectively walked 1680 miles. Walk with Friends also incorporates a monthly nutrition lesson into the program where participants get to view a food demonstration and learn more about healthy eating and fruits and vegetables. During this year, HEC distributed 57,512 pounds of fresh produce to Walk with Friends participants.