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Introducing IVROP Project RISE
Bordering on Mexico, Imperial Valley youth work towards a better future. In a county with a 21% unemployment rate, and where agriculture accounts for 49 percent of all employment, the Imperial Valley Regional Occupational Program (IVROP) is a public education service that introduces students to new career opportunities and teaches them technical and life skills. It was formed by seven unified school districts in collaboration with the Imperial County Office of Education. One of IVROP’s projects, Project RISE (Relationships Inspire Success and Excellence), aims to create an asset building culture that contributes to the educational developmental of young people. They do this by engaging schools, social services, health care organizations, and businesses in Imperial County. In January 2015, with support from Vesper Society, Project RISE surveyed over 1,100 Imperial County high school freshmen attending Brawley Union, Central Union, and Southwest. The survey, the Developmental Assets Profile (DAP), was developed by Search Institute and has been administered to more than 5 million diverse children and youth to date. It identifies a set of skills, experiences, relationships, and behaviors that enable young people to develop into successful and contributing adults. As a result of Project RISE’s survey in Imperial County, a group of freshman students created the Brawley High School Asset Ambassadors “Wild Cats in Action” after attending a three-week Leadership Asset Training course. Their projects included attending the Brawley Parks and Recreation Summer Camp in 2016, where they were each assigned a group of young people to mentor and were able to apply their leadership skills in group activities. Vesper Society believes that the future well-being of our communities lies in the hands of our youth. Tomorrow’s leaders need support and encouragement to make maximum impact on our communities. With support from Vesper Society, IVROP’s Project RISE has established long-term... Read More
Women’s Community Clinic
At Vesper Society, we seek out overlooked communities and help them devise ways to create a healthy future. One of the ways we do this is by supporting the Women’s Community Clinic (the Clinic) in San Francisco. Though San Francisco is known as a thriving and prosperous city, many of its residents—especially low-income, homeless, and marginalized women—have limited or no access to preventative healthcare. The Women’s Community Clinic, founded in 1999 by a group of volunteer graduates from the UCSF School of Nursing, believes that preventive, educational care is essential to lifelong health and that all women deserve excellent healthcare, regardless of their ability to pay. The Clinic works hard to ensure that each client feels comfortable and safe in a warm and welcoming environment. Their treatments are culturally sensitive, evidence-based, and tailored to each client’s needs and circumstances. The Clinic provides a full range of client-centered clinical services including acute and chronic primary care, reproductive health services, integrated mental health counseling, and referrals to onsite prenatal care. In San Francisco’s Western Addition neighborhood, the Clinic’s work addresses some troubling statistics; 25% of Western Addition residents use the emergency room as their primary source of care and only 6-9% are receiving preventative healthcare. In San Francisco’s Mission District, the Clinic’s Outreach Program provides health education services to homeless and marginalized women. The Mission’s Workforce Development program and the Western Addition’s Health Training Program, which focuses on African American women, provide valuable training to the next generation of healthcare providers, leaders, and advocates, and keeps the offered services affordable for all. Today, the Clinic serves more than 4,000 San Francisco women and girls over the age of 12, of which 91% are uninsured and most are living at or below the Federal Poverty level. Vesper Society’s support allowed for the... Read More
Modoc Medical Center’s Tele-Diabetes Care Program
Located in the rural northeastern portion of California, Modoc Medical Center (MMC) has seen to the healthcare needs of its community since 1951. A 16-bed, critical access hospital providing family practice medicine, emergency services, and physical therapy, MMC serves the residents of Alturas and the surrounding area, covering about 4,500 square miles. MMC also operates a skilled nursing facility and provides other ancillary services. MMC’s mission is to elevate the provision of healthcare by creating a partnership with its patients, employees, businesses, and community. Embedded in this mission statement is the fundamental belief that success depends on the ability to provide quality healthcare services to patients and establish the processes and culture that puts patients at the center of the work. In a community with very limited resources in helping patients manage chronic diseases, MMC developed the Comprehensive Diabetes Care Program. Vesper Society supported MMC’s expansion of this program by providing group telehealth diabetes education classes that include a diabetic educator, a dietician, and a pharmacist. This comprehensive educational approach provides patients with the knowledge they need to manage their diabetes. Through this program, MMC and Vesper sought to improve the health and well-being of Modoc County residents and to give them the tools to continue helping... Read More
Clinicas de Salud del Pueblo
In the rural desert of southeast California’s Imperial County, one in five children are affected by asthma—a percentage higher than the national average. Thankfully, the community is home to Clinicas de Salud del Pueblo. Clinicas’ mission is to improve the health and well-being of Imperial and East Riverside counties by providing direct access to affordable, comprehensive, quality primary and preventive health care for high-risk and underserved residents, all in a manner consistent with their dignity and identity. Recognizing a community need, Vesper Society supported Clinicas in starting a comprehensive pediatric asthma program that includes asthma education, environmental assessments and remediation, chronic care coordination, and home visits by Community Health Workers or “Promotoras.” Vesper’s funding support allowed Clinicas to continue their important work improving the health and well-being of Imperial and East Riverside Counties and enabled them to tackle the very important issue of pediatric asthma in the community. Click here to read a summary of the Respira Sano Asthma Toolkit they developed and that is available for distribution. In August 2015, with Vesper’s support, Clinicas is developing telemedicine services, especially as part of their new integrated behavioral health... Read More
California Lutheran University Interns
California Lutheran University (CLU) educates leaders for a global society who are strong in character and judgment, confident in their identity and vocation, and committed to service and justice. Vesper Society knows that communities and institutions can be transformed when people are approached with respect, hope, passion, and inspiration. CLU’s Interfaith Allies presented an opportunity for Vesper Society to create the CLU intern program in memory of Vesper’s co-founder Bob Cummings who served on the CLU Board of Regents. Vesper’s support made it possible for five students and three faculty members from CLU’s Interfaith Allies to attend Interfaith Youth Core Leadership Institutes in 2012. Since then, the program has blossomed. Interfaith Allies values pluralism, tackles stereotypes, supports faith formation, and develops interfaith competencies for leadership. Service learning, internships, off-campus study, and experiential education provide students with opportunities to build civic leadership skills. Joining other universities in Water to Thrive’s push to spread awareness about the global water crisis, CLU’s water-wise campaign culminated with a weeklong challenge for students to track their water usage and consumption. Participants only drank tap water and donated the money they would have spent on other beverages to build a well in Ethiopia. By linking arms with student and faculty leaders at California Lutheran University, Vesper Society is part of a growing network that helps facilitate change to establish long-term solutions for overlooked communities all over the world. Visit CLU Interfaith Allies’ Facebook page... Read More
Connecting to Care Telehealth Services
In 2011, the Health Resources and Services Administration stated that, compared to urban and suburban Americans, rural Americans with behavioral health disorders are significantly less likely to receive any type of treatment for their behavioral health due to lack of resources. And, in an era of increased poverty levels, travel costs are an even greater barrier to rural residents receiving specialty services not locally available. Connecting to Care (CtoC) provides charitable health services using innovative technology to connect underserved populations to care and promotes the health and well-being of individuals regardless of their economic status. Medical providers in a number of rural sites in Northern California reported that telepsychiatry and telebehavioral health programs were unavailable or unaffordable. With support from Vesper Society, these programs are now operational in eleven clinics in Plumas, El Dorado, Modoc, Nevada, and Shasta Counties. CtoC has provided over 1,000 telebehavioral health visits to rural partner sites since the program’s inception. Connecting to Care, located in Grass Valley and Redding, California, also provides remote specialty bi-lingual physician-level adult/child psychiatric care and the services of licensed clinical psychologists, nurse practitioners, and licensed clinical social workers. They conduct programs on-site in their Redding office as well as remotely in rural health clinic sites. Vesper Society knows that rural areas need more attention. Connecting to Care’s Telebehavioral Health Services Program has clearly created long-term solutions that improve the health and well-being of the medically underserved, rural, and frontier Northern California... Read More