By Greg Archer | Contributing Columnist
For El Sol Neighborhood Educational Center, offering necessary resources to a community of health workers and its advocates is vital in supporting local families. A recent grant from Inland Empire Community Foundation through the Riverside County ARPA Fund is helping to make huge strides on that front.
“Funding like this helps us tremendously,” said Alexander Fajardo, executive director of El Sol Neighborhood Educational Center, which has operated in the region for more than 35 years. “We work with community workers and promote other people from the community. The neighbors coming to our programs get support so they can go back to their own communities and share many resources.
“We also help them find the person available for them whenever they need it,” Fajardo said.
How that works is noteworthy.
El Sol Neighborhood Educational Center, based in San Bernardino, came to life in 1991. Fajardo, who has been with the organization for 23 years, helps to fuel its success alongside devoted teams. Focusing on vulnerable communities in the Inland Empire is key, with an emphasis on Spanish speakers, immigrants, and residents with limited-English proficiency.
The center offers more access to health care, safe and affordable housing, and educational opportunities. A push to boost leadership skills helps to eliminate some disparities.
The nonprofit is engaging and deploying skilled lay workers as community health workers. One term, promotores de salud, stands out as these “promoters” endorse the effectiveness of health workers in various areas.
Those areas include improved prenatal care, reduction in child abuse prevention, and enhanced social support. Strengthening referral systems also comes into play as does a commitment to improving self-esteem and basic psychological functioning.
Fajardo points out some of the organization’s significant programs.
One of them is to create community partnerships in education. At one point, the organization partnered with Loma Linda University Institute for Community Partnership and San Bernardino City Unified School District and the result found community health workers and “promotores” to assist with the most in-risk families of children struggling to meet attendance requirements.
The result increased engagement with families, assisted in increasing vaccination compliance for school readiness, and developed action plans for more than 250 students to improve school attendance.
Developing partnerships in economic development and addressing the social determinants of health also are in the mix. On that front, one key initiative was to increase access to safe parks.
The organization’s consulting arm is equally noteworthy; it opens the doors to explore partnerships and raise awareness about community health workers and “promotores.” The nonprofit is quick to showcase best ways to implement El Sol’s successful models.
“I love the philosophy of community transformation,” Fajardo said. “We will be making our website more interactive moving forward, but I always encourage locals who want to get involved to reach out to me directly.”
Learn more at www.elsolnec.org
Inland Empire Community Foundation works to strengthen Inland Southern California through philanthropy. Visit iegives.org for more information.
