An East Oakland center for young people is an oasis of hope in a community in crisis. It provides counseling, job training, recreation, health care and more. Soon it will host a series of meetings between Oakland police officers and local youth to try to reduce tension between law enforcement and the community.
Dr. Ronald Fong at UC Davis created a weight management clinic that asks patients to take the lead in fighting their own obesity. But Fong walks by their side — literally, in an initial meeting during which he takes them out of the office for a stroll and a conversation.
California advocates for women and children are making a major push for breastfeeding and laying the groundwork for proposals in the Legislature that could require hospitals that deliver babies to reduce the number of newborns fed with bottled formula.
It will be years before the new health insurance exchange at the heart of the federal health reform passed in March rolls out in California. But decisions being made now could shape how that exchange looks and works, the health benefits it makes available to consumers, how much Californians pay for their coverage and the roles played by the government and the private insurance industry.
Victims of domestic violence often fall through the cracks between police, social workers and health care providers. Contra Costa County is fighting that problem by preparing to centralize services for abused women in a one-stop center in Richmond.
In the music industry it’s all about who you know. And contrary to popular belief, not every kid in Orange County has Mickey Mouse on speed dial. An Anaheim program bridges that gap by helping at-risk kids learn music production skills.
The federal health care overhaul signed last month by President Obama will not prompt significant changes in the short term for Healthy San Francisco, the city program that provides medical care for more than 51,000 low-income residents. And even when most major provisions of the federal law take effect in 2014, city officials say, there will still be a need for Healthy San Francisco to serve an estimated 20,000 patients who will not have health insurance under the federal law, including many who are in the country illegally.
A computer model that the Air Resources Board used to justify historic restrictions on diesel emissions from off-road construction equipment may have attributed twice as much pollution to those heavy trucks as they actually produce, according to interviews with ARB staff.
The Sacramento neighborhood of Oak Park is getting its first farmer’s market, highlighting the need for healthy food in one of the region’s most underserved neighborhoods.
Ever since the post-1960s backlash that gave rise to the New Right, welfare has been one of the most unpopular and misunderstood public programs in America – and in California. Now the state is poised to undermine the most successful parts of its program, all but ensuring that more people, not fewer, will continue to struggle with poverty. The 1996 national reform of welfare, which created Temporary Aid to Needy Families, or TANF, pushed states to reduce their welfare rolls and required certain rates of work participation for those receiving grants. Yet despite this reform, welfare remains a popular political target, and California’s program, CalWORKs, came under attack last year in the midst of the budget crisis, resulting in major changes to the program.