By Dianne Anderson

For some nonprofits in Orange County, funding has been pouring down through the Equity in OC Initiative to help spur capacity building for BIPOC organizations with grant opportunities, including a Power Building Fund, Organizational Participation Grants, and Social Determinants of Health Implementation Grants.

Last year, NAN OC, Rev. Sharpton’s organization, received the first round of the Power Building Fund for $50,000. This year, Darlene Futrel’s organization Second Hand Smoke Matters applied for the power grant, which closed on April 12.

Getting through the application process has not been difficult, she said. It helps with infrastructure, to pay employees, and dealing with other costs that quickly add up. That grant was focused on infrastructure support for small organizations with annual operating budgets under $500,000.

“Most of us have [various annual software] and monthly things, our websites, and promotional products. If you pay for the whole year, at least you know that you’re good for a year. Meanwhile, we can continue to do the work, and hopefully, we’ll get more income,” said Futrel, also president of the Orange County chapter of the National Action Network.

Futrel was also part of a group of Black health professionals that applied for the $500,000 Implementation Grant, but did not receive that award. To her knowledge, no other organization that exclusively services the Black community received the grant.

“I believe that other minority groups should receive help, but Black folks have been marginalized from the beginning. We continue to get the short end of the stick,” she said.

The initial 2021 funding comes by way of $23 million from the Center for Disease Control to help serve BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) and the underserved community. However, many Black health advocates express concerns that for the most part, BIPOC funding is not proportionately addressing equity gaps in services for the Black community.

Even as funding has increased in recent times for BIPOC communities, the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy finds that too often the additional funding is short-term and not meeting the need.

“This is not a new conclusion and not a new ask from communities. Countless other reports have noted how if foundations are not targeting funding to specific BIPOC communities with racial equity expertise, then they are not doing enough to address the underlying conditions of structural racial injustice or inequity,” according to NCRP.

Because the Black community has specifically endured targeted historic racism and barriers within health systems, Futrel feels the damage done requires proportionate targeted equity services to the Black community.

“We just want to see our culture get the money. For the next round of $500,000 grants, we’d like to see one of them go to the Black community. That would be great,” she said.

Hieu Nguyen, who serves as the OC Health Care Agency’s first Director of the Office of Population and Health Equity, said they funded 12 Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) Implementation Projects at $500,000 each for 18 months.

“Funding updates are presented by United Way OC, our grant administrator for the Equity in OC Initiative, during all Equity in OC Partnership meetings. However, the majority of the upcoming meeting will focus on CalAIM and the opportunities that exist for our community. The presentation will be presented by CalOptima Health,” Nguyen said in an email.

CalAIM, California Advancing and​ Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM), is a five-year initiative led by California Department of Health Care Services, looking to service millions of vulnerable Medi-Cal recipients with behavioral health and physical programs, including mental health services, substance abuse, disabled seniors, foster children and youth, the homeless, those in transition from the justice system back to the community.

Through that program, PATH, a five-year $1.85B initiative, has funding that hopes to scale up the goals and services of CalAIM, including support for Enhanced Care Management and Community Supports​, and Justice-Involved Planning and Implementation. The program focuses on historically under-resourced organizations, to helps advance health equity and address social drivers of health.

Now open with Round 2 funding, the Capacity and Infrastructure Transition, Expansion, and Development (CITED) Initiative is calling eligible applicants, including counties, cities, local government agencies, hospitals and health care providers and Community Based Organizations.

In a CITED Fund informational webinar, among the uses of funding discussed includes projects that increase provider workforce, support capacity, evaluate and monitor enhanced care management and community supports, and assess gaps.

“Funding can support developing a plan to conduct outreach to those populations who are traditionally under-resourced or underserved and help engage them in care and get them engaged,” the presenter said.

So far, California Department of Health Care Services has awarded total funding for CITED Round 1 at $207 million. The CITED Round 2 application window opened on February 28 and will close on May 31. Other funding, such as the Justice-Involved Capacity Building Program, is also upcoming.

“As PATH funds serve to strengthen capacity statewide, particularly among providers and CBOs that have historically been under-resourced, the initiative will help California advance health equity, address social drivers of health, and move towards an equitable, coordinated, and accessible Medi-Cal system,” the state’s website says.

For more funding opportunities, see CalOptima

https://www.caloptima.org/en/About/CurrentInitiatives/CalAIM.aspx

For more information on CalAIM Justice Justice-Involved Initiative

https://www.dhcs.ca.gov/CalAIM/Pages/Justice.aspx

For more information on deadlines for CalAIM CBO funding, see https://www.dhcs.ca.gov/CalAIM/Pages/CalAIM-PATH.aspx

To learn more about Equity in OC, see

https://www.unitedwayoc.org/how-we-are-doing-more/equityoc/