As we enter July, it is becoming abundantly clear that we must continue to develop our community response to COVID-19. Since March, Inland Empire Community Foundation (IECF) and the Center for Social Innovation (CSI-UCR) has committed to hosting a regular set of community updates via a Zoom webinar as a response to COVID-19. Similar to previous meetings, there were updates on the COVID Relief Fund, data insights, government/community updates, and more. Today’s meeting on, Wednesday July 1st, the IE Covid-19 Response was able to host a variety of panelists from Health Begins, El Sol, and Loma Linda University Health. Webinar #16 dived deeper into community health workers and promoters in the Inland Empire and the many dimensions of their work. We were thankful to be able to hear from Rishi Manchanda, MD, MPH from Health Begins, Alexander Fajardo, Executive Director from El Sol, and Juan Carlos Belliard, Ph.D., MPH from Loma Linda University Health, panelists for this week’s meeting. We welcome updates on COVID-19 response from any community leader—from government agencies and elected offices, businesses, and nonprofits—that can directly help our nonprofit partners. For more updates, be sure to visit https://iecovidresponse.org. 

Learn more about this week’s partners:

Health Begin is an organization whose mission is to drive radical transformation in health by inspiring and enabling upstream care. Health Begin establishes their three core values, growth, joy, and equity, within their work through health systems, membership organizations, and learning collaboratives. To learn more visit their organization website here

El Sol Neighborhood Educational Center is a grassroots non-profit organization founded in 1991. Their mission is to empower their community to lead healthy and comfortable lives with access to health care; safe, affordable housing; opportunities for education; and the leadership skills to eliminate disparities. In doing so, El Sol's goal is to provide culturally and linguistically competent services that promote and maintain the well-being of the community. To learn more, visit their organization website here

Juan Carlos Belliard (Ph.D., Claremont Graduate University, M.P.H., Loma Linda University) teaches in the areas of culture and health, traditional, complementary and alternative medicine, ethnographic research methods, health disparities, and migrant health. His administrative duties include his position as Assistant Vice-President for Community Engagement and Diversity and Director of the Institute for Community Partnerships (ICP) at Loma Linda University Health.