Lofgren Secures Community Project Funding Totaling $13.6+M for CA-19 in Government Funding Legislation

$3,000,000

San Ysidro Park, Healthy Living Enhancement Project

The San Ysidro Park, Healthy Living Enhancement Project would provide improvements to and recreational opportunities in this public space for surrounding underserved communities. Communal outdoor spaces that are safe and equipped with family friendly amenities can provide a sense of community and allow for healthy development through a connection to the outdoors. Beautification and safety measures will ensure that San Ysidro Park can be maximized and provide a space for children, youth, seniors, and families.

$1,700,000

Urban Agriculture Garden

The Urban Agriculture Garden aims to bring a new urban farm and enhance the community gardening capacity at Guadalupe Gardens in downtown San Jose. The project, which is part of a larger development concept, Prototype Park, would provide greater access to open space, increase economic opportunity, and promote health equity through food systems resilience. The objectives of the Garden are to foster environment and farming programs, promote civic engagement that highlights the agricultural history of San Jose, facilitate economic empowerment of area residents, and increase food security. This will be done through food production, propagation of seedlings in greenhouses, and public and school programs around farming, healthy living, and the environment.

$1,500,000

Safe Routes to School Initiative

The City of Gilroy has actively embraced and advanced ideas around Safe Routes to School initiatives to promote projects focused on building and planning for current residents and future generations. The Safe Routes to School Initiative, Christopher High School would remove barriers to walking and bicycling to school through improvements to certain infrastructure and facilities as well as education, encouragement, engineering, and evaluation programs. Creating safe routes to and from schools can decrease pedestrian and cyclist related injuries and encourage more sustainable methods of transportation in the community.

$1,000,000

BACH School Based Health Center

Bay Area Community Health (BACH) would build on its existing school-based health centers by adding a team of behavioral healthcare workers to provide immediate and short-term psychological care aimed at assisting school staff, students, and community families through crisis situations. The goal is to help students with mental health concerns achieve psychosocial well-being, provide a safe environment, and maximize student potential to engage in their education attain academic success.

$1,000,000

BACH Rural Gilroy Migrant Health Mobiles

The migrant population in Gilroy, California has demonstrated a historical vulnerability due to barriers that include cost of care and lack of health insurance or transportation. This program is intended to support community members' relationships with their primary care providers to improve utilization of primary and preventive care services, ensure better continuity of care, and sustain health. As compared to fixed clinic sites, which are more expensive and complex to build, mobile clinics offer flexibility and responsiveness to provide trusted community-tailored care to vulnerable populations. The proposed project would address the care gap exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic's disruptions in routine and nonemergency medical care by ensuring services are more accessible to patients.

$1,000,000

East San Jose Specialty Mental Health Family Treatment & Prevention Center

As society moves past the pandemic phase of COVID-19 and into the endemic phase, mental health services have become a greater needed benefit for youth and their families in East San Jose. Poor mental health outcomes resulting from the pandemic have disproportionately affected children of color – a population that was already suffering from higher rates of mental illness and less likely to receive care. The target population for GFHN's mental health programs in East San Jose must address mental health challenges that are often compounded due to socio-economic depressed conditions and other barriers or obstacles but often have difficulty navigating resources or accessing services. GFHN is proposing to meet these needs at the proposed project site and offer the appropriate resources to youth, their families, and the community that are culturally and linguistically sensitive, especially to the dominant Latino and Vietnamese youth populations living in the area.

$914,000

IHCSCV American Indian Alaskan Native Pandemic Relief and Recovery

The Indian Health Center of Santa Clara Valley's (IHCSCV's) Strategic Plan and Community Needs Assessment outlines the importance of this project. National data establishes that AI/AN across the nation have been among the hardest hit by the pandemic due to historic disparities in culturally appropriate health care and community resources. As one of 41 Urban Indian Organizations (UIO) in the United States, IHCSCV is best equipped to address the pandemic relief and recovery needs of the 30,000 American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) living in Santa Clara County by closing the equity gap and providing quality care.

$750,000

Agricultural Resilience Incentive (ARI) Program

The agricultural landscapes of Santa Clara County Valley have historically served as an economic and ecological linchpin for the region and now have the potential to play a key role in the area's future resilience to climate change, providing food, jobs, drinking water, biodiversity, and mitigation of natural hazards. The Agricultural Resilience Incentive (ARI) Program would incentivize adoption of agricultural management practices that help sequester atmospheric carbon and improve soil health, water retention, and irrigation efficiency, which would benefit regional ecosystems, ag operations, and the public at large. The first round of funded projects is expected to span 3,700 acres and capture between 1,860 and 2,400 metric tons of atmospheric carbon per year, equivalent to reducing annual vehicle miles traveled by 6,282,995 miles or swapping out 94,753 incandescent light bulbs for LEDs every year.

$750,000

Mabury Bridge Housing Community

More than 6,000 residents in San Jose are unhoused due to systemic barriers, lack of affordable housing options, and limited shelter space in the city. The need for housing security is greater than ever and investments in permanent or transitional housing will help serve the most vulnerable members of the community. In its first year, the Mabury Bridge Housing Community served 111 individuals with 57 percent exiting the program to stable housing. Keeping the site operational will be important to ensuring that services and basic necessities remain accessible to individuals and families experiencing homelessness.

$750,000

Second Harvest of Silicon Valley Consolidated Operational Facility

Second Harvest of Silicon Valley (SHSV) is the hub of the charitable food distribution system in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, working with a network of 300 community partners at 900 sites to distribute food to underserved communities. Its current facilities were not built to handle the historic level of need that Bay Area communities have been experiencing since the COVID-19 pandemic. This project would allow SHSV to purchase land and build a unified operational facility for Santa Clara County that will provide the infrastructure necessary to meet demand for the next 30-50 years.

$376,000

COVID-19 Recovery and Pathways for Latinas to Return to the Workforce

Currently, there is limited data on the wellbeing of Latinas in Silicon Valley, making it difficult to comprehend the extent of existing inequities. Latinas have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, and the effects are most acute within Silicon Valley. From March 2020 to March 2021, Latinas in the workforce experienced the highest decrease in labor force – 3 times that of their white women counterparts. The 31 million Latinas in the U.S. influence approximately $2 trillion in purchasing power and are creators of opportunity as they are 2 times more likely to start their own businesses. Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley and Latinas Contra Cancer's programs support Latinas get back into the workforce and increase self-sufficiency, therefore decreasing their need for public programs. Assessing and addressing the wellbeing of Latinas is an integral first step of a COVID-19 recovery plan and will be critical to the economy as a whole.

$350,000

Mesa Redonda

Established microbusinesses, established small businesses, and unofficial or homemade food producers have all struggled to adapt and thrive during the pandemic. Training and assistance in digital marketing, website maintenance, and social media platforms can help better equip these businesses and entrepreneurs to succeed. Other services include training programs in food safety, operation deficiencies management, workforce development, credit building, and financial management. There is currently a waitlist of clients eager to join Mesa Redonda programs and an expansion would allow Prosperity Lab to build the capacity and expand its geographical service area to other underserved communities. The project would build self-sufficiency and resilience in the small business and entrepreneurial communities and advance the local food economy.

$212,000

Building a Diverse STEM Pipeline

The Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) is the nation's largest multicultural, multidisciplinary scientific society and has hosted the National Diversity in STEM Conference. SACNAS will operationalize an integrated regional model that links community colleges to four-year baccalaureate and graduate programs and later connects students to professional chapters and employers. The project would equip students from marginalized communities with the support, community, and network necessary to support them in earning advanced degrees in and finding careers in STEM.

$175,000

Diabetes Self-Management Program

In Santa Clara County, 8.6 percent of individuals ages 20 and older have diabetes and 46 percent of adults are estimated to have prediabetes or undiagnosed diabetes. Older adults, people with low educational attainment, and low-income households experience higher rates of diabetes. Chronic diseases have significant health and economic costs. Many hospital visits are avoidable with proper and effective chronic care management and timely primary care. This project would provide the necessary education and tools to allow patients greater autonomy in managing diabetes.

$125,000

Advancing the Well-Being of Youth

Research has shown that teaching youth about respect, challenging unhealthy messages about masculinity and gender roles, and becoming ‘upstanders' are crucial to decreasing unhealthy relationships among youth. Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence's (NDS') programming informs youth about their rights under Title IX and the California Healthy Youth Act (Education Code 51930-5193) that require school districts and schools to address sex-based harassment and provide supportive measures to students. NDS is adding and expanding services to address the needs of youth exposed to domestic violence that are designed to promote healthy, respectful relationships and prevent the harmful and long-lasting effects of domestic violence on individuals, families, and entire communities.