Center for Civic Partnerships

North Sacramento/Del Paso Heights Community Health Alliance

For more information on the Health Partnership's work contact:

Roland Udy, Director of Community Services
1301 H. Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
Tel: (916) 325-1031
Email: RolandU@Kidshome.org

Systems Change

The CHA planned, organized, and implemented the Welfare Summit held in December 1998 to make the welfare reform system work more effectively in the project area.
The CHA participated in a collaborative task force to improve transportation to the project area, which resulted in new shuttle service for North Sacramento and Del Paso Heights.

The CHA has been successful in communicating the project area's teen pregnancy and community health issues to county-wide organizations to develop the Strategic Plan for Teen Pregnancy Prevention.
The Teen Talk program provided an impetus for school districts to change their education around family planning and to be more responsive tp providing services to prevent teen pregnancy.

Sacramento City and County departments provided inkind project management to the CHA.

The Dixieanne Neighborhood Association began through the efforts of CHA youth interns in 1998. DANA is an active and vocal neighborhood organization of residents, business owners, city and county government and elected officials.

CCP Health Partnership Newsbrief: Update 2001

Direct Services

The CHA developed a succesful model, Teen Talk, for communicating to school age youth, the realities of being a teen parent. The Sacramento Parenting Teens are the teachers for instructing their peers on issues relating to teen pregnancy prevention. They have had a first hand life changing experience with their own pregnancy's. SPTs' are actively involved in training and facilitating other pregnancy prevention initiatives by working with the local Boys and Girls Club Project SMART MOVES.

The CHA Fatherhood Development program is delievered by Ministers Against Drugs and Violence. Minister Robert E. Lee, an excellent and well respected role model, worked with hundreds of adult men and boys to increase understanding of their responsibilities, the effects of drugs, and their role in parenting.

The local schools and community-based organizations have welcomed the Community Health Alliance programs with enthusiasm. They have made space available, brought together groups of children and youth for presentations, participated in focus groups to help us improve the program, and generally provided all possible support to the CHA staff and consultants.

CCP Health Partnership Newsbrief: Update 2001

Fatherhood Development Program Flourishes in North Sacramento/Del Paso Heights Area

Anger control, drug/alcohol prevention, parent responsibility and sexual responsibility are key components of the Fatherhood Development workshops conducted by Robert E. Lee. These workshops have served 366 adult men and 662 youth in 2000. Outreach was conducted at Overcomers (a sober living program), Grant East High School, Juvenile Hall and Martin Luther King Jr. Junior High School. A curriculum is being prepared and submitted to conduct a class on fatherhood development at Grant High School. Participant feedback continues to show the high value participants (adult males, substance abusers, high school dropouts and teenagers) place on Minister Lee’s approach, personality and message. Minister Lee’s longstanding dedication and personal commitment to the community is reflected in the Fatherhood Development workshops.

CCP Health Partnership Newsbrief: Summer 2000

North Sacramento/Del Paso Heights Community Health Alliance Supports CalWorks Families

The Welfare to Work Neighborhood Intervention System, operating at the Grant Skills Center One Stop Center, is in full swing providing comprehensive services that support families in CalWorks to obtain and maintain jobs. The One Stop Center offers local residents employment services, access to the Cal Job employment listing, job placement services for refugees, and a small business assistance program.

CCP Health Partnership Newsbrief: Winter 2000

Community Health Alliance Addresses Childcare Issues

Based on the contributions of participants at the December Welfare Summit, the Community Health Alliance (CHA) has developed a childcare task force. The purpose of the task force is to address childcare issues as they relate to teen and adult parents in the North Sacramento and Del Paso Heights communities. Representatives from the Department of Human Assistance (DHA), Child Action, local childcare providers and residents have participated in the development of the task force. Immediate concerns included payment to providers, eligibility of parents who participate in TANF activities and transportation issues. Action steps taken to address these concerns included:

DHA agreeing to send correspondence to all eligibility workers and their supervisors explaining the procedures for payment to full-time childcare providers.
Staff and CHA members are working on grant proposals that will address transportation issues in the community.
The convening of childcare providers, DHA, Child Action, community-based organizations and parents in the development of a childcare action plan that will be submitted to Sacramento's Local Childcare and Development Planning Council.

Ms. Doris Hamilton, an active member of the Alliance Community Council, also serves on the County Childcare Planning Council. She has agreed to be the CHA liaison to this Council.

CCP Health Partnership Newsbrief: Summer 99

Community Health Alliance Holds Successful Welfare Reform Summit

On December 11, 1998, the North Sacramento/Del Paso Heights Community Health Alliance hosted a Welfare Reform Summit. City Council member, Rob Kerth, and County Supervisor, Roger Dickinson, co-sponsored the Summit. Sixty-five service providers, policymakers and community residents participated in the Summit. Participants learned about the challenges of making the transition from welfare to work from a panel of residents. In small and large group discussions, the participants discussed challenges, potential solutions and suggested starting points. A key issue mentioned was childcare, particularly barriers related to transportation and the childcare provider payment process. They also discussed how to improve collaboration among providers to reduce the fragmentation of services.

In response to the call to action put forth by Councilman Kerth and Supervisor Dickinson, who attended the Summit, many attendees pledged to take a significant role in the ongoing collaborative efforts. The Alliance Community Council is following up on the pledges and will continue to convene this group to improve the transition from welfare to work for North Sacramento and Del Paso Heights residents.

CCP Health Partnership Newsbrief: Summer 99

Youth Involvement

Submitted by Dana Lee, Youth Organizer

Some of the Health Partnerships are planning to expand the involvement of youth during the implementation phase. The North Sacramento/Del Paso Heights Community Health Alliance has been involving youth through their paid youth organizer positions. Dana Lee, one of the youth organizers, wrote the following about her experience with the Alliance during the planning year.

I am a Youth Organizer advocating for the health and well-being of the Del Paso Heights and North Sacramento communities. With other collaborating community organizations we support the prevention of teen pregnancy and poverty in our community. We have gone out into the community and conducted public surveys, focus groups and community meetings pertaining to our community. We are actively making our community healthier by working together as partners.

Our focus is teen pregnancy prevention and poverty. Our organization has allowed us, the youth in this neighborhood, to share in this operation. We are highly trained to facilitate and record focus groups. The youth are taking this community into our hands in a positive and productive way. We are getting a chance to better it and make it a healthy place to live.

I enjoyed our youth community planner training, conducted by the Community Service Planning Council. This training taught us how to plan together and set goals in any situation. It also taught us statistics and other research techniques that will help support us in organizing and developing strategies for community change.

CCP Health Partnership Newsbrief: Spring 97