Edhat Reader
By Dignity Health
Dignity Health Central Coast is proud to announce it has awarded $424,496 in funding to nine unique community non-profit partnerships in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara County. Representatives from each organization were invited to a breakfast award ceremony on January 16, 2024 to acknowledge their service in providing critical health and human services to San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara County residents.
Grants are awarded through a Community Health Improvement Grants Program created by the Dignity Health parent company CommonSpirit Health. The intent of the annual Community Health Improvement Grants program is to help non-profit organizations with an interest in building healthier communities by improving health and living conditions. Criteria for this funding cycle were based on the following priority areas identified in the hospitals 2022 Community Health Needs Assessment: Educational Attainment, Access to Primary Care including Behavioral Health and Dental Health and Health Promotion and Prevention.
This year, the Dignity Health Community Grants were awarded to the following local nine Accountable Care Communities:
Minimizing community health impacts from air pollution, pesticide exposure and extreme heat in Guadalupe and the Santa Maria Valley
This project will address health disparities in vulnerable populations by enhancing community awareness of specific health conditions, their relationship with environmental conditions (air pollution, extreme heat, and pesticide exposure) that contribute to or exacerbate those health conditions, and how to understand and reduce their risk of experiencing compounding health impacts when conditions for exposure overlap.
Fiscal Agent: Community Environmental Council
One Community Action (OCA)
This project will address the need for substance abuse prevention and youth mental health among low-income, Indigenous, and farm-working youth in Santa Barbara County. In partnership, OCA will engage up to 60 youths in various workshops on substance abuse prevention, health relationships, and other workshops related to youth well-being. OCA will conduct surveys, and assessments to measure the success of each workshop. Ultimately, addressing youth mental health will increase the graduation rate among high school youth.
Fiscal Agent: One Community Action
Food Prescription Program
The Foodbank, in partnership with Mission Hope Cancer Center, will improve the nutritional security of low-income cancer outpatients in the Santa Maria area by removing barriers to food access and providing regular access to nutrient dense foods.
Fiscal Agent: Santa Barbara Food Bank
The Cecilia Oral Project
The project will provide funding for critical dental treatment (comprehensive evaluation, radiographic images, scanning, extractions, implants etc.) that is urgently needed by certain individuals prior to initiating cancer treatment. We will partner with Mission Hope Cancer Center and community dental providers to address the gaps in financial resources and help provide access to dental treatment for approximately 25 uninsured, under-insured and low-income individuals in North Santa Barbara County.
Fiscal Agent: The Cecilia Fund
805 Street Outreach
The project will address the need of bringing showers to two major unhoused populations in San Luis Obispo County, which are in Atascadero and Morro Bay on a weekly basis. As for the rest of the week, outreach will be done throughout San Luis Obispo County, as well as going out twice a month to the Salinas Riverbed/Santa Maria with Dignity Health Street Medicine Outings. Octavia will be used during all of this to help with referrals and data tracking.
Fiscal Agent: 805 Street Outreach
Grief Awareness Treatment and Education Project (GRATE)
The Community Counseling Center, Hospice of SLO County, and the Alzheimer’s Association of the Central Coast are partnering to address grief related behavioral health needs in our community (GRATE: Grief Awareness Treatment Education.) CCC and HSLOC’s clinical counseling programs will collaborate to enhance grief therapy capacity and market affordable, professional clinical services to the community. HSLOC and the Alzheimer’s Association will partner to offer community workshops and group therapy for anticipatory grief.
Fiscal Agent: Community Counseling Center (CCC) of San Luis Obispo County
San Luis Obispo Sobering Center
The San Luis Obispo Sobering Center (SLOSC) is a partnership with San Luis Obispo County Behavioral Health Department, who will be providing space for the new 10-bed facility at their campus in San Luis Obispo. GSS is proposing to provide full staffing and program support to work with participants in linking them to treatment and shelter options upon discharge, and also provide direct transport to their next program with a warm hand off.
Fiscal Agent: Good Samaritan Shelter
Comprehensive Healthcare for Survivors of Sexual Assault and Intimate Partner Violence in Rural San Luis Obispo County
This project will expand and increase access to Lumina Alliance services for SA/IPV survivors in rural and underserved areas of San Luis Obispo County. An Advocate will accompany the Center’s mobile health unit to address physical and mental health needs related to sexual and intimate partner violence (SA/IPV). Project collaborators will engage in cross training to strengthen existing referral and screening systems to ensure patients countywide receive timely wrap around care.
Fiscal Agent: Lumina Alliance
The Salvation Army Street Outreach
The San Luis Obispo Corps’ Street Outreach program engages individuals and families experiencing unsheltered homelessness in the county of San Luis Obispo. The Salvation Army works alongside its partners to connect individuals and families to services and eventually become housed. Teams work out of a van fully equipped to provide case management where individuals are living. Case managers provide basic needs, document obtainment assistance, and referrals to other community resources including health information.
Fiscal Agent: The Salvation Army
About Dignity Health Central Coast
Dignity Health Central Coast is comprised of three award-winning hospitals, all recognized for their quality of care, safety and service, primary care offices, premier ambulatory surgery centers, technologically advanced imaging centers, outpatient services, and comprehensive home health services. Hospitals in the Dignity Health Central Coast market include Arroyo Grande Community Hospital, French Hospital Medical Center in San Luis Obispo, and Marian Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria. Each hospital is supported by an active philanthropic Foundation to provide additional funding to support new programs and services, as well as to advance the community’s access to health care. For more information, visit dignityhealth.org/centralcoast.
