Summer 2022 - Dorothy's Place

Streets To Homes Encampment Outreach Supports King City Consumers

by Amy Narlock, Dorothy’s Place

The Streets To Homes (STH) team continues to build on their impactful work in reaching our unsheltered consumers in encampments and at the Drop-In Center. Since January of this year Streets To Homes has supported 119 consumers in connecting to services like healthcare, vocation and education strategies, social service programs, and housing assistance based on the goals of the consumer. On May 25th, there was a tragic fire in an encampment area along the Salinas River in King City. A week after the fire, King City’s city manager and staff reached out to Monterey/San Benito Counties Coalition of Homeless Service Providers for assistance in creating their first emergency shelter and services. Dorothy’s Place joined in the effort to offer resources and case management. The STH Encampment Outreach team immediately swung into action and initially committed three days a week to help the fire survivors, four families comprised of eight adults and ten children. These families are led by one adult elder, as is the Oaxacan tradition.

The families have been provided temporary housing in four travel trailers received from Monterey County located on a hot asphalt parking lot in an industrial area. There’s barely enough electricity to power the lights and minimal appliances. Although they are led by an elder, these families have individual needs and concerns surrounding healthcare, education, employment, and difficult task of recovering of vital immigration information lost in the fire. During initial conversations, STH Encampment Outreach discovered their most crucial and immediate need for these families was food. They had started with daily support from a local agency, but that ended with little warning, and they had no way to purchase food in that remote location. Just as these families have different needs surrounding medical, legal, and education needs so do they have different nutritional needs. Did you know that the zinc oxide in canned food can cause problems for digestion? Many widely available studies show that lack of fresh food will cause malnutrition and learning problems in children. These families needed fresh food now and Dorothy’s Kitchen was there to help.
With STH Encampment Outreach already working on connecting the families to legal aid and to our outreach doctor for medical needs, an urgent call was made to Julieta, our Kitchen Director at around 9:00pm in the evening. Literally overnight,

After a long pandemic and constant adjustments to the way we serve our consumers, we were finally able to open our doors to seated meals in June. Thanks to our great Kitchen team and volunteers we never missed a day during the two years of modified service. We are thrilled to have our consumers back in a social and welcoming environment and provide breakfast and lunch in the company of others.

We are also excited to announce that we have been accepted into Monterey County’s Edible Food Recovery and Food Scrap Recycling that will allow us to feed even more people in our community experiencing extreme poverty and homelessness. The programs were developed to comply with California’s SB1383 legislation that aims to reduce organic waste in landfills by 75% and requires 20% of currently disposed edible food be recovered for human consumption in the next three years. It’s incredible to be a part of state and county led initiatives that will have a direct impact to better our environment and provide more for our most vulnerable consumers.

Dorothy’s Kitchen is the largest producer of no- cost meals served in Monterey County providing an average of 400 meals daily to our consumers. The logistics of serving this amount of food depends heavily on the capacity to safely store perishable and non-perishable ingredients. The Kitchen, including food storage must pass regular inspections by the Monterey County Environmental

Partnering for Success

Dorothy’s Place is proud to partner with Central California Alliance for Health on CalAIM. As described from their July 25th Community News post, ECM and CS are new initiatives that have pushed the boundaries of a traditional health care delivery.

By incorporating the impact of Social Determinants of Health and acknowledging the importance of partnerships amongst community providers for improved health outcomes for the highest-risk members. In partnering with The Alliance, our case managers and social workers are evolving into enhanced healthcare managers. With access to appointments, prescriptions, and other medical information we can help our consumers manage their healthcare better.

The Alliance has done an amazing job of providing on-going accessible training and provider support allowing us to serve our consumers in a much more comprehensive way. We are grateful for their support and leadership with these new programs.

The Alliance is a regional Medi-Cal managed care plan established in 1996 to improve access to health care for nearly 400,000 members in Santa Cruz, Monterey, and Merced counties. Find out more at: www.theAlliance.health

Enhancing our Consumer Care

In January of this year, Dorothy’s Place joined the California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal initiative (CalAIM) as an Enhanced Care Management (ECM) and Community Supports provider (CS). CalAIM is a multi-year initiative from the Department of Healthcare Services to improve the quality of life and health outcomes for Medi-Cal beneficiaries. ECM is a benefit available to select high-need consumers providing them with comprehensive clinical and non-clinical needs. Consumers will have access to a single case manager or social worker who will coordinate care and services. As a Community Support provider, consumers will be assisted in services to address social drivers of health, regardless of their eligibility for ECM. What exactly does that mean for our consumers and our organization?

First, and most importantly it means we can better serve our consumers by being more efficient and effective when connecting them to healthcare, social services, and housing. We can also better assist then in managing all the different parts. Imagine this: you have been sleeping in a tent, you are exhausted from the stress of keeping yourself safe, finding food, and you struggle to make it through the day with pain of chronic illnesses and injuries. From that place, figure out how to make a doctor’s appointment or how to find more sustainable housing. Remember you might not have a phone, you might not have insurance and if you do, where are your identifying documents? How will you keep track of appointments? How will you approach potential landlords? Don’t forget your tent could demolished by a City “sweep” at any time. By becoming and ECM and CS partners Dorothy’s Place can further break down the barriers to healthcare and housing by extending these benefits to community members experiencing complex needs. This includes high utilizers of benefits, chronically unsheltered, and those with mental illness and substance use disorders.

Second, it meant we had to learn what felt like an entirely new language that consisted of medical codes, endless acronyms, and multiple new applications to ensure our consumers were getting maximum benefit. As with every new challenge our Executive Director, Program Directors, and their teams dug in to get the systems into place. Through the CalAIM initiative, we can assist consumers and help them manage the web of comprehensive medical care and housing supports. We can meet and work with the consumer on the street, at the Drop-In Center, or in their home. By participating in the initiative, we hope to reduce health disparities and increase housing supports for our most vulnerable community members.

From the Department of Healthcare Services, dhcs.ca.gov:

• Over half of Medi-Cal spending is attributable to the 5 percent of enrollees with the highest- cost needs.
• Enrollees with complex needs must often engage several delivery systems to access care, including primary andspecialty care, dental, mental health, substance use disorder, and long-term service and supports.

• Medi-Cal enrollees with complex health needs and unmet social needs are at high risk of hospitalization, institutionalization, and other higher cost services.
• During a pilot program Los Angeles County saw a 71 percent reduction in hospital readmissions and 24 percent reduction in emergency department visits from the use of psychiatric and recuperative care services.

2021 Donors

PREMIER

Buddhist Churches of America
Central California Alliance For Health
Fort Ord Memorial Post 811
Lauralie and J Irvine Fund of the Community
Foundation for Monterey County Monterey County Department of
Social Services
Salinas Community & Economic
Development Department, Encampment Outreach

VISIONARY

Monterey Regional Waste Management District

ANGEL

1st Church of Christ Scientist
Haynes Charitable Foundation
Order of Malta Western Association USA

LEADER

Susan Barron
Robert Brandewie
Vicki Broome
Budget Inn Motel
Douglas Fouts
Beverly Hamilton
K.A.R.
Marina Motorsports
William McNett III
Monterey County Probation Department David & Judith Mora
Rita Muller
Mr. O’Farrell
Jesse & Portia Reyna
Deane Rustad
Salinas Toyota
Salinas Valley Community Church Santa Fe Mercados Inc
William Saunders

Shirley A and Wayne R Moon Foundation
Gary Sprader
St Joseph’s Parish
Starbucks Foundation
Toyota Motor North America Unitarian Universalist Church of
the Monterey Peninsula Walter G Canipe Foundation Patricia Walworth

NEIGHBOR

Arturo Adlawan
American Supply Company Patricia Asmus
John Beardshear
Nic Bianchi
Rosalyn Blachowicz
Mark Botelho
Teri Breschini
Michael & Ann Briley Geralyn Budenholzer Camaldolese Hermits of America
Marcia Caruso
Richard Castello
Chevron Matching Employee Funds CHOMP United Way Monterey County Campaign
Community Church of the Monterey
Peninsula Women’s Association Kathy Cosaert
Costco United Way Monterey County Campaign
Annette Culcasi
Bonnie Daniel
Kathy Dawes

Geraldine Dorney
Thad Evans
Tom & Rosemary Favazza Richard Foster
Rene Ganaden
Margaret Gerba
Hans Gerritsen
Kenneth Gorczyca
Wendy Grainger
Marilyn Harter
Robert Honnors
Italian Catholic Federation of CA,
Branch 25 Nostra Signora Del Sasso Amber & Mitchell Kastros
Elizabeth Kramer
Roselyn Lambert
James Linder
Marjory Lord
Carol Lowrey
Marsha Lubow
Benjamin Luna
Lutheran Church of the Good
Shepherd
Sandra Martinez
Thomas May
Laura McCord
Roberto & Birthe Melendez
Tom Miller
Gertrude Moore
Donald Murray
Sam Norris & Colette Erreca-Norris Northminster Presbyterian Church
Deacon Fund
Maria & Robert O’Farrell
Pacific Gas & Electric Company
Employee Giving Nayan & Nimisha Patel PG&E Employee Match Thomas Prelle
Joseph Puentes
Ruben & Yolanda Pulido Clem Richardson
Carol Schmeh
Karen Shender
Gaylord Smith
Jim and Rose Smith
Mary Soria
Spreckles Rummage Sale James & Joan Stembridge Sharon Stengel
Bradley Tarp
Judy Tatelbaum Suzanne Taunt
Marc Tunzi
United Way California Capital Region
United Way Monterey County Edward Wong
Pak-Mui Yip

Looking for Ways to Support Us?

Check out the Get Involved Section on our website for easy donation information!
https://www.dorothysplace.org/get-involved/

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https://www.dorothysplace.org/donate/

Success Story: Update on Eric Meza

You first met Mr. Meza in our Fall 2021 Newsletter. Thanks to your support and generosity we are pleased to give you an update on his success.
Submitted By HOP Social Worker Misty Flores

Mr. Eric Meza entered House of Peace on September 21, 2021, and when he came into our program, he had been clean and sober for more than 10 years. He regularly attended NA/AA meetings, and he is also a sponsor to others who are maintaining sobriety. Mr. Meza took his sobriety seriously and was always willing to give others a
ride to meetings. He was also always willing to give a ride to someone in need.

Mr. Meza informed me at our first weekly Social Worker meeting, that he wanted to attend bus driver school and he was aiming to achieve a Class B Driver’s License in bus driving. So, we here at HOP did what we do best and found him some school- ing with Michael’s Transportation in Watsonville, California and he went and regis- tered for classes. He also registered with Monterey County Work Force Development and they paid for his schooling.

Mr. Meza was an excellent student at Michael’s Transportation, so excellent that when he completed his online schooling and practical, they offered him a job through Michael’s Transportation driving for Monte Vista Christian School. Mr. Meza gladly accepted the offer. Mr. Meza at times was weary and discouraged, as he had to go through lengthy background checks and complete lots of testing and in the middle of all of this, his closest brother passed away, but we here at HOP continued to encourage him and enlighten his mind when he felt like giving up. He pushed through all his challenges with a stable place to live.

He successfully completed his program and now is a permanent employee at Michael’s Transportation. He also was able to move out of HOP and move into the

Guest Quarter of a ranch house with his own full bathroom on 20 acres with eleven cows! He says that they like him and he likes them!
Mr. Meza has a goal to save money for a half year and then buy a house with his daughter, who is also attending Michael’s Transportation for her Class B Driver’s License. Mr. Meza has thanked me for all my help, guidance and assistance along with all HOP team members for making his transition into stability possible. HOP Transitional Living Program works when you WORK it!