We hope this message finds you healthy and safe, and perhaps vaccinated!

It does “take a village” as the saying goes whether it’s to raise a child or rally a population to action. The Covid-19 vaccination rollout efforts are no exception. In this month’s report, we are sharing some of the effective work being done by a number of our partners in the campaign to get people vaccinated against Covid-19. We are also thrilled to share that we welcomed new Fellows and committee members to the Alliance team (meet them below!), as well as a big milestone reached by one of our impact investees.

New Fellows and Committee Members

Vivian Aluoch – Evaluation Fellow

Vivian is passionate about working to remove the gap in opportunities that some face simply because of where and to whom they were born. She is currently a third year Economics Ph.D. student at UC San Diego in the fields of development, labor, and macroeconomics where she studies the impact of female bosses on female subordinates’ career success. For Alliance, she will be supporting us as we evaluate some of our strategic initiative programs that aim to advance economic mobility and security through an explicit racial equity lens in San Diego County.

 

Joshua Mbugua – Impact Fellow

Josh brings experience in corporate finance, project, and process management and assessment of market opportunities to his work with Alliance from the various roles he has held at Illumina, Inc. in Finance and Marketing/Corporate Strategy. Josh also works as a scout for GVC Partners, an investment firm in the Bay Area, and as a volunteer analyst for Tech Coast Angels San Diego, a prominent angel funding group in the region. He is passionate about investing in companies and organizations leveraging technology to expand access to healthcare, financial and education resources to those who have historically been deprived of resources and opportunities.

Alethea Arguilez – New Member of Alliance’s Program Committee

Alethea Arguilez, M.A. is the Executive Director of First 5 San Diego, the region’s primary organization for promoting the health and well-being of children 0-5 years of age and their families. Alethea has dedicated the past 20 years to the field of early childhood education, starting her journey in the field as an infant and toddler Master Teacher. She currently serves on the San Diego County Child Care and Development Planning Council as co-chair of the public policy committee.

Dale Fleming – New Member of Alliance’s Program Committee

Dale Fleming has over 30 years of varied experience in public sector health and social services administration. She retired from the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency in 2018 after 33 years of service, including 20 years serving in an executive capacity. During her career, some of Dale’s roles included strategy officer for an agency of over 6,000 employees; director of self-sufficiency services. and executive director of the Community Action Partnership, a federally funded program for economically disadvantaged communities. She was also a synergistic force for Live Well San Diego, helping to expand this vision with communities that are not always heard or understood.

Deborah Higgins – New Member of Alliance’s Finance Committee

Deborah (Deb) M. Higgins is the President of Higgins Capital Management, Inc. She has spent more than 35 years in institutional fixed income trading and investment management. Deb is a member of the Investment Advisory Committee for the City of San Diego. And, she currently serves on the California Municipal Treasurer’s Association Investment Policy Certification Committee. In addition to numerous past and current board positions, Deb is a founding member of the Miracle Circle’s Auxiliary for San Diego’s Miracle Babies, providing direct and supportive services for families of critically ill babies in the neonatal intensive care unit.

Kimberly Davis King – New Member of Alliance’s Impact Investment Committee

Kim Davis King is an accomplished professional in prospecting, managing and mentoring technology investments, including software, wireless and networking companies. She is results-focused and has effectively served on 15 boards with a successful track record of liquidated portfolio companies. Currently, Kim is a Partner with San Diego’s Launch Factory, a venture studio for which she helps entrepreneurs launch new businesses from the ground up. She is also a lecturer for multiple classes at UCSD Rady Business School and SDSU incorporating real-world experience, business models and student mentorship.

Partner News

Congratulations to Concert Health one of AHF’s impact investees for a recently completed $14 million Series A financing round for its Collaborative Care Management (CoCM) model, giving providers and patients immediate access to high-quality behavioral health support in primary care. The importance of supporting a primary care physician’s capacity to address behavioral health is a game changer for the nearly half of Americans with behavioral health conditions who currently receive no treatment, as well as a step toward re-architecting America’s behavioral health system. The financing round was led by Vertical Venture Partners.

Vaccine Acceptance – Regional Leaders & Trusted Community Messengers

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), vaccine hesitancy is among the top 10 threats to health on a global scale.

As we work with our partners to overcome racial and healthcare inequities, we know the critical importance of trusted messengers within disproportionately affected communities. Addressing language barriers, distrust of the healthcare system, and inadequate access to information are just three examples of gaps that can uniquely be filled using a community-based trusted messenger model.

Here are just a few examples of what’s being done to improve vaccine acceptance by our partners on the ground. Please join us in acknowledging their efforts and assisting them however you’re able!

With leadership by Alliance Trustee Dr. Rodney Hood, Multicultural Health Foundation has been convening trusted messengers and community leaders from the black / African American community along with other minority groups disproportionately represented in COVID19 deaths to develop strategies to fight the virus. The roundtable has been successful in advocating for equitable COVID19 testing, vaccine distribution and contact tracing, and now works in close partnership with the county-led San Diego Regional COVID-19 Equity Task Force. In addition to leading these efforts, the Multicultural Health Foundation also holds a contract for Community Health Workers for COVID19 outreach, and with some funding support from Alliance Healthcare Foundation and The San Diego Foundation, has invested in targeted media campaigns and messaging for hard-to-reach communities.

 

The Chicano Federation, serving as the backbone organization for the San Diego Latino Health Coalition has been playing a strong leadership role in coordinating efforts to get the word out to the Latinx/Hispanic communities about Covid-19 safety prevention and now vaccine acceptance. With a grant from Alliance which was matched by The San Diego Foundation the San Diego Latino Health Coalition is prioritizing culturally and linguistically appropriate vaccine messaging to Latino and Spanish-speaking communities.

“This support from Alliance Healthcare Foundation and The San Diego Foundation has been instrumental to developing culturally relevant vaccine messaging and expanding the reach of The San Diego Latino Health Coalition in our efforts to ensure that Latino and Spanish-speaking communities across San Diego County have access to up-to-date information. With our Latino population making up such a large segment of San Diego County’s population, investments in expanding outreach and education to Latino and Spanish-speaking communities are not only important, they are critical to our fight against COVID-19.” – Nancy Maldonado, CEO, Chicano Federation

 

San Diego Refugee Communities Coalition | UCSD School of Medicine’s Center for Community Health Refugee Communities Coalition is a collective made up of 11 ethnic community-based organizations (ECBOs) mostly serving the refugee populations in San Diego. UCSD Center for Community Health provides organizational backbone. The Coalition has done several research projects at the grassroots level to highlight specific needs and gaps experienced by refugee populations as a result of Covid-19. For the first time, member organizations of the Coalition have received contracts from the County of San Diego for Community Health Worker Covid-19 outreach efforts led by United Women of East Africa.

 

In addition to a variety of COVID19-related emergency assistance efforts, Somali Family Service of San Diego is also leading a team of Community Health Workers for COVID19 outreach, prevention, and vaccine education.

 

 

In partnership with the County of San Diego Health and Human Services, Champions for Health is working closely with the County on the vaccine rollout. They are currently focusing on health disparity zones, faith-based institutions, and low-income senior housing complexes and partnering with community providers such as Father Joe’s Village and Jewish Family Service of San Diego on the vaccination of eligible 65+ including homeless outreach. Additionally, patients from the Champions for Health Project Access program will receive vaccinations at the events. To meet the vaccination demand, Champions for Health has been rallying its medical partners for training and vaccinations so they’ll be able to support the community COVID vaccination efforts. As of February 11th, Champions for Health has trained and vaccinated over 1,000 healthcare personnel on the administration of the Moderna vaccine.

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