Health Education Council

Social Connection Through HECs Social Connection program, graduates from Peers Helping Peers hosted two project cohorts at the Wellness Hub. A Meditative Watercolor cohort was held in winter 2024 with 15 participants, and a spring program, Creative Art Recycling, reached 10 participants. A partnership with Sacramento States Counseling Center also enabled HEC program participants and the community to receive free counseling services through English-speaking and Spanish-speaking graduate level counselors. Approximately 26 individuals were served. This partnership has continued and will expand in 2025 utilizing tele-counseling services.In addition, the Community Safety Petal hosted their Ladies First SHOP program at the HEC Wellness hub and served 15 youth in summer 2023. The program served youth ages 12 to 20 and included topics in: health education, crisis intervention, and mentorship. HECs Wellness Hub also hosted a Mujer, Salud y Liderazgo (Women, Health & Leadership) program where participants gathered monthly from November 2023 through June 2024 with 35 participants. Adult Education & Certification Programs: In the Spring of 2024, HEC became a certified Med-Cal Peer Support Specialist (PSS) training agency under the oversight of the California Mental Health Services Authority (CalMHSA). HEC pilot tested the PSS curriculum with four HEC staff members and plans to pilot test the curriculum again in the Fall of 2024 with individuals outside of the HEC team.

Community Safety HEC supports programs and collaborates with partners dedicated to improving community safety and connectedness to revitalize neighborhoods and gathering points that drive increased health and well-being.Safety, Health, Opportunity, and Practice (SHOP): SHOP partners with Greater Sacramento area middle and high schools to engage and mentor struggling students. SHOP uses healing-centered approaches to help youth process and move beyond the adverse childhood experiences in their lives. Through mentorship and group sharing, youth learn to better manage anger, stress, and anxiety as well as build skills in the areas of financial literacy, work readiness and communication. Youth learn about the social and environmental causes of trauma that influence and limit their life choices, building an understanding of the need for social justice. This year SHOP hosted 15 six-to-eight-week SHOP Cohorts across 4 sites in Yolo and Sacramento County serving 207 diverse youth between the ages of 12-20 years old. The program provided over 2,163 hours of health education, crisis intervention, and mentorship.Sacramento Youth Violence Prevention Collective (SYVPC): This coalitions mission is to prevent youth violence by creating a true web of support for youth in Sacramento. Member organizations representing law enforcement, public health, education, health care and community organizations work to achieve documented improvements in criminal justice, health, and education outcomes among minority youth in Sacramento.Strengthening Partnerships and Collaboration: The Community Safety Team actively outreaches to and collaborates with partners who seek to address the social determinants or drivers of health that impact safety and predispose communities to harm and violence. Currently, SYVPC reaches over 100 key partner contacts including: law enforcement; school districts; hospital systems; health departments; community-based organizations; faith organizations; and universities, among others. As the backbone organization, HEC is responsible for organizing monthly convenings and providing space for partners to share solutions, initiatives, and insight to help reduce violence in Sacramento. HEC hosts 12 SYVPC meetings per year, providing training and educational opportunities to partners and residents to provide support in strengthening their capacity to serve communities who are experiencing violence, establishing a coordinated approach across agencies to improve access to services and concrete resource linkages, and utilizing an established logic model to actionize our violence prevention efforts as a collective. Youth Commissioner Practicum: HEC has intentionally created opportunities for community members, particularly youth, to share their experiences and take lead in developing SYVPC programming. This effort includes formalizing our Youth Commissioner Practicum, which combines hands-on learning with evidence-based theory, allowing participants to apply their skills in public health intervention. Four Youth Commissioners have engaged in a series of professional development activities focused on civic engagement, leadership, and advocacy to advance the collective's mission. As part of their cumulative experience/practicum, these youth planned and developed a three-part participatory research project aimed at understanding safety and security within their neighborhoods. The first phase involved conducting 8 listening sessions with 113 youth across Sacramento and Yolo County to gather their perspectives on community safety and security. This feedback led to written recommendations for future programming and opportunities to better meet community needs. Currently, the second phase is underway. The commissioners have created a Key Informant Interview guide to gain insights from service providersorganizations and individuals dedicated to addressing and reducing violence. The third phase will be a summative report that maps the landscape of violence prevention services, identify gaps in perspectives and programming, and explores how to implement written recommendations and approaches to enhance the reach and impact of existing youth violence programs.Live Well South Sac: Coalition members work to drive a culture of change in South Sacramento - promoting access to healthy food, physical activity opportunities, safe streets, and educational resources. Live Well South Sac envisions a healthier and happier community for everyone who lives, works, plays, prays and shops in South Sacramento. The coalition focuses on healthy food access and walkability. This year HEC hosted 6 collective meetings with over 12 community partners and residents.Increased opportunity and presence within the community: This year, HEC concentrated on strategic engagement in key neighborhoods, including the Lemon Hill and Oak Park areas, to foster greater community involvement. HEC deepened connections with residents and local organizations to ensure their voices guided the coalitions efforts. The collective group developed one Request for Advocacy (RFA), a mini-grant series aimed at empowering local groups to advocate for infrastructure improvements, such as better crosswalks, streetlights, and community events that promote safety and walkability. The mini-grants seek to award a total of $25,000, with individual grants ranging from $2,000 to $5,000 based on the scope of the proposed projects. This initiative encourages small community groups, non-profits, and small businesses to take an active role in shaping safe walkability of their neighborhoods.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 funding was available to train adults from two counties outside of Sacramento, including Solano and the city of Lincoln (Placer County). The funding in Solano County was provided by the countys Department of Public Health and in Lincoln, funding was provided by America Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). This year HECs lay mental well-being program trained 76 individuals and supported over 200 residents with the subsequent graduate community projects.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 40 individuals during this year. On average, individuals met with the crisis counselor for 5 sessions with each session being one hour long. Individuals who received crisis counseling reported a positive change in their outlook of their situation. CalHope: HEC offered services through the CalHope as part of funding that started in January of 2023. HEC offered individual crisis counseling, group support activities, and outreach in three target populations: the Aghan refugee community, the Latinx community, and youth. During this fiscal year 2023-2024, HEC served 204 with individual services, 6,136 with group services, and participated in 301 outreach events. 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 Park in North Sacramento, Swanston Park in Arden-Arcade and Elkhorn Park in West Sacramento, the Walk with Friends groups serve an average of 100 individuals per week. Walk with Friends also incorporates regular health education topics including information on mental health, emergency preparedness, financial education, self-care and nutrition lessons paired with food demonstrations and learning more about healthy eating and fruits and vegetables. During this year, HEC distributed approximately 39,000 pounds of fresh produce to Walk with Friends participants courtesy of the Yolo Food Bank and Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services.

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. The success of Invest Health Roseville has also helped to secure new funding which launched an Accountable Community for Health in Placer County. In addition, in May 2024, HEC hosted its Invest Health Breakfast to share about the Data Dashboard and local government, business, and education strategies being implemented to support a vibrant workforce. City Health Dashboard Data Challenge: supports small and midsize cities in data capacity-building efforts to review data on 40 health measures to understand the key issues of the City of Roseville to inform neighborhood-specific opportunities around jobs and workforce development.California Accountable Communities for Health (CACHI) initiatives: The California Accountable Communities for Health Initiative (CACHI) supports 37 communities in California to advance local health systems via Accountable Communities for Health (ACH). An ACH is an innovative framework to achieve transformational change through multisector collaboration to create systems alignment, center equity and meaningfully engage the community and partners. HEC serves as a backbone convener for two multi-sector coalitions of health, local government, education, businesses, community-based organizations, and residents. HEC serves as the backbone convener working to align systems and resources through an equity lens.The West Sacramento Accountable Community for Health (ACH): The West Sacramento ACH Initiative is dedicated to the promotion of health and well-being in West Sacramento. The ACH originally focused on reducing the high rates of cardiovascular disease in West Sacramento prioritizing upstream root causes including access to healthy food, physical activity and social connectedness. After the pandemic hit, the ACH swiftly pivoted to provide COVID-19 information, access to testing and vaccines, and food insecurity. One key to building resilience is increased social connection, which supports all identified priority areas. ACH members are committed to integrating social connection into their collective work.Placer County Accountable Communities for Health (ACH): The Placer County ACH Network launched in 2023 as a collaboration with local county partners to improve the well-being of Placer County communities with an emphasis on supporting the implementation of the California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM) initiative. HEC works closely with partners to integrate effective community engagement, expand multi-sector partnerships, and align systems and priorities to decrease health inequities in areas with health disparities and rural communities.CalAIM: As part of the Placer ACH and the greater statewide efforts to expand MediCal services to include additional social services, HEC has deepened its understanding around the Enhanced Care Management benefit and Community Health Worker benefit while also strengthening its partnerships with MediCal managed care plans in the region. This year, HEC submitted its application to receive a MediCal Provider Number and is in discussions with Partnership Health Plan to be contracted to provide Enhanced Care Management services for the justice-involved population. Emergency Preparedness: With funding from the California Office of Emergency Services (OES), HEC provides disaster preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation resources to Spanish-speaking immigrants, older adults, and farmworkers living in Sacramento, Yolo, Solano and Placer Counties. HEC has leveraged different access points to provide individuals with information on disaster preparedness including regular participation in local community events across the region. HEC also provides daily disaster education presentations at the Mexican Consulate in Sacramento, engaging and providing written information to at least 100 community members daily. preparedness peer-to-peer model for Spanish-speaking adults. The training modules were created in partnership with Listos California, using its materials and concepts as well as information important to the low-income Latino community. In April, HEC trained 13 Spanish-speaking community members across the region through a 5-week virtual training program preparing them to educate family, friends, and community members about disaster response, recovery, preparedness, and mitigation strategies. Ambassadors will also support HEC with recruiting and leading local Community Conversations with Spanish-speaking residents to inform strategies to share with local and statewide OES teams. During this period, HEC reached 35,200 community members with disaster preparedness education.