{"id":55420,"date":"2022-12-21T10:31:19","date_gmt":"2022-12-21T18:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=55420"},"modified":"2022-12-21T10:31:19","modified_gmt":"2022-12-21T18:31:19","slug":"the-funding-pyramid-needs-to-be-transformed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=55420","title":{"rendered":"The Funding Pyramid Needs to Be Transformed"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By<\/span>Sunita Sohrabji<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A grassroots organizer in Stockton, California says funding strategies during the pandemic left community based organizations like his scrambling.<\/em><\/h4>\n

Editor\u2019s Note: This is the first in a series of conversations with leaders of community-based organizations (CBOs) across California that EMS will be publishing about their experiences on the frontlines of fighting the COVID 19 pandemic. The series will look at how grassroots organizations responded to the public health emergency, and what impact that effort had in helping narrow the gap in healthcare access for vulnerable populations. (Above: Vaccine clinics like this one, organized by the CBO APSARA, provided critical access for Stockton\u2019s large Cambodian community.)<\/em><\/p>\n

STOCKTON, CA.<\/strong> \u2014 Sothea Ung directs programs for a 33-year-old nonprofit organization in Stockton, a suburban enclave 90 miles east of San Francisco, which proved indispensable in getting COVID 19 vaccines to that city\u2019s sizable Cambodian refugee community.<\/p>\n

What keeps Ung up at night, he says, is that his agency, APSARA, was excluded when local civic leaders met to plan an emergency vaccine rollout campaign to reach Stockton\u2019s increasingly diverse and underserved populations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a small agency that wasn\u2019t invited to the strategic planning sessions at the start,\u201d Ung recalled. The result was a top-down campaign where funds were disbursed to the largest nonprofit agencies and only slowly trickled down to grassroots groups that often have the most direct ties to the communities that need to be reached.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe voices of the small CBO\u2019s need to be heard. We need to build prevention paths that will ease the burden on the health care system over the long term,\u201d Ung stressed.<\/p>\n

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Sothea Ung speaking during an EMS media briefing in August on vaccination efforts in San Joaquin County.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

He added there needs to be more transparency in how federal funds get allocated. The funding for COVID 19 was short term and not an investment in long-term infrastructure, leaving structural disparities in health care access unaddressed.<\/p>\n

Although Stockton was eventually successful in raising the county\u2019s vaccination rates and bringing down infection rates\u2014from among the state\u2019s highest to among its lowest\u2014Ung warns that without a shift in strategy, the county will have to repeat the cycle all over again when another pandemic hits.<\/p>\n

How APSARA helped Cambodians navigate through the pandemic offers a case study in how hundreds of CBO\u2019s across the state\u2014fragmented and under-resourced\u2014nevertheless provided the backbone for reaching the state\u2019s most underserved populations.<\/p>\n

The lesson looking forward according to Ung: \u201cWe need to reshape the funding pyramid from the bottom up.\u201d<\/p>\n

APSARA was founded in 1989, when a group of 35 residents of the Park Village housing complex decided to do something about its rapidly deteriorating unsafe conditions.<\/p>\n

Four years later they purchased the Apsara Park Village complex from the federal Housing and Urban Development agency for $1 and transformed it into a verdant oasis of buildings rimmed with small garden plots of Asian vegetables, fruit, flowers and palms.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur main purpose was to help immigrants overcome poverty and live safely,\u201d said Ung, who joined APSARA in 2012 after immigrating with his family from Cambodia where he had worked as a community organizer.<\/p>\n

When the COVID pandemic hit in March of 2020, APSARA became a lifeline for its more than 2,500 clients, most of whom arrived as refugees fleeing a mass genocide, the Killing Fields and are now in their late 60s and 70s. Most do not speak English and lack access and the knowhow to navigate the internet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a huge communications barrier, as people navigated through the complex systems of support services,\u201d said Ung.<\/p>\n

The mandated social distancing protocols meant that many families were separated from loved ones who might have been able to help. As the virus spread, many people in the community lost their jobs, largely in the agricultural sector or warehouses. Some were left homeless.<\/p>\n

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A buddhist monk attends a vaccination clinic organized by APSARA in Stockton, California. (Photo courtesy of APSARA.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThe pandemic changed everything,\u201d Ung explained. \u201cThe community lost its balance. There was no peace anymore\u2014people were reluctant to walk anywhere after dark.<\/p>\n

\u201cAPSARA used our existing programs to bring knowledge to people to help them access the services they needed,\u201d Ung said.<\/p>\n

The organization launched a phone line with volunteers who spoke Khmer, Thai, French and Spanish. It also offered interpreter services for patients who needed to speak to their physicians. \u201cWe wanted to make sure that people were getting the answers they needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

As early as March of 2021, Ung began organizing vaccine clinics at the Apsara Park Village apartment complex, successfully vaccinating a large percentage of residents. Buoyed by its success, it began putting out the word on social media about its second COVID vaccine clinic in May. The team told people at public parks during weekend picnics and did outreach via cell phone and blog posts. Friends told friends.<\/p>\n

The grassroots strategy worked: at the second clinic, entire families as well as dozens of elderly refugees came from as far as Lodi, more than 16 miles away, Modesto, French Camp and even Merced.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey came to our clinic because we were the only place with a Khmer translator and where they felt comfortable,\u201d Ung said. \u201cPeople could ask questions about the vaccine, and our staff could translate them for the medical personnel. We didn\u2019t want to persuade them\u2014we wanted them to get vaccinated based on their own knowledge, and to help other families make that decision for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout 2021 and 2022, APSARA organized vaccine clinics every other month which to date have collectively vaccinated more than 2,100 people.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would see 100-120 people at every clinic,\u201d said Ung, including many from outside Stockton drawn by the in-language services. The organization teamed up with larger regional organizations like El Concilio and Catholic Charities to get the necessary vaccines.<\/p>\n

Ung says rescue funds only became available towards the end of 2021, and even then, it was the bigger organizations that received the lion\u2019s share. APSARA and other grassroots groups had to rely on trickle down funds. Grants that they were able to raise came with three- or six-month timelines, which made it difficult to hire staff and sustain initiatives.<\/p>\n

Despite that, APSARA continued its COVID 19 vaccine clinics which today focus on updated boosters. But interest in the boosters has been low, Ung says. People hesitate, wondering why they should get the vaccines if they might still get COVID.<\/p>\n

What worries Ung most is a shadow pandemic in the Cambodian refugee community that COVID 19 exposed and exacerbated. Many of those who escaped the Killing Fields suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and other mental health issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur mental health needs are enormous,\u201d said Ung, who hopes to get his voice heard about the need for mental health services for his community.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have to understand the system, but the system is not easy to understand,\u201d Ung concluded. \u201cI\u2019m not scared of COVID. I\u2019m scared the system is not prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n

EMS Executive Director Sandy Close contributed reporting for this story.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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BySunita Sohrabji Dec 19, 2022 A...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ca-local","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55420"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55421,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55420\/revisions\/55421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}