Time to back AB 1038, which steers services to hard-hit Latino, immigrant communities

Although the health impacts of the pandemic are subsiding, the devastating socioeconomic impacts on Latinx and immigrant communities are still present and will continue to be unless the state invests in California’s public health infrastructure.

An immediate solution is for the Legislature and Governor to pass Assembly Bill 1038 (AB 1038) championed by Assembly member Mike Gipson, D-Carson, to create the California Health Equity Fund.

AB 1038 calls for a one-time budget allocation of $180 million to launch and implement the California Health Equity Fund. This fund will provide much-needed resources to reduce health inequities by using policy, systems, and environmental change strategies.

Through the fund, grants will be awarded to community based organizations (CBOs), clinics, tribal organizations and local health departments already working to assist California’s most impacted communities in their pandemic recovery. Uses of the fund will address the social determinants of health, including housing, healthy food access, and economic stability, among others.

CBOs such as the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California (LCHC) have stepped up to address the health, economic, and social impacts of COVID-19 in Latino communities throughout the state.

Last year, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, LCHC launched a series of virtual “Platicas” with community leaders and direct service organizations to provide rapid-response information that is in-language and in-culture on COVID-19 related issues like economic stimulus and rent relief for Latinx households, including in the hardest-hit regions like the Central Valley.

This year, LCHC partnered with the California Department of Social Services and the California Community Foundation to launch the “Pasa La Voz: COVID-19” series, training and facilitating promotores/community health workers in Los Angeles, Orange, and Ventura counties to increase access for and build trust with community members to receive their COVID-19 vaccines.

The Health Equity Fund will provide needed, ongoing investment to support CBOs and build partnerships with local health departments to create more resilient communities in California.

As the only statewide Latinx-led health policy advocacy organization, LCHC is proud to support AB 1038 and is pleased to join our partners – the California Black Health Network (CBHN), Asian Pacific Partners for Empowerment, Advocacy, and Leadership (APPEAL), Public Health Institute (PHI), and Roots of Change – in sponsoring this legislation.

Working in unity, we will make great progress in lifting historically disenfranchised communities out of this pandemic.

This year’s historic budget surplus offers California a pivotal opportunity to resource our communities for health equity with a dedicated stream of funding to help address and shift the root causes of poor health.

Community-based organizations have been essential to our recovery from this global health pandemic and will continue to be part of public health as trusted messengers and experts of their own communities.

Now is the time to fund community-determined, innovative solutions to bring about health equity and racial justice for our most impacted communities.

This story was originally published June 1, 2021 at 4:00 AM.