Press Releases
LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, EDUCATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES
FY 2010 APPROPRIATIONS REQUESTS
Agency: Department of Labor
Project Title: East Bay Green Jobs Initiative Workforce Development Program
Recipient: City of Oakland
Location: 1 Frank Ogawa Plaza, Oakland, CA 94612
Amount Requested: $1,000,000
The cities of Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and Emeryville have joined with the University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to create an “East Bay Green Corridor” Partnership, to support new and emerging sustainable industries and alternative energy research. This is a valuable program to taxpayers, as it provides much-needed employment opportunities in the beneficial and burgeoning field of clean, renewable energy.
A key focus of the Partnership is training a specialized workforce for these industries. These funds will be used to continue development and job training programs targeting high school and community college students from disadvantaged communities in these Bay Area cities.
Project Title: East Bay Parks Conservation and Fire Crews Training Programs
Recipient: East Bay Regional Park District
Location: 2950 Peralta Oaks Court, Oakland, CA 94605
Amount Requested: $1,000,000
The East Bay Regional Park District manages 98,000 acres of parkland in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, including many wilderness areas. The District is requesting federal funds to add two crews of seasonal employees to work on labor-intensive projects for fuels reduction and conservation. This program serves to benefit taxpayers by providing much-needed employment in this important field and reducing hazardous fuels that could otherwise lead to fires that would potentially cost money and lives.
The Fire Fuels Management Crew will be supervised by a Park District fire captain, and trained to national standards as a Firefighter Type II. After an 8-month training and work period, the District will assist graduates in pursuing wildland firefighting jobs with federal or state agencies. The Conservation Crew will work on renovations to hiking and fire trails, rehabilitation of shoreline barriers, and invasive plant removal.
Project Title: Los Angeles Youth Opportunity Movement Workforce Development Program
Recipient: City of Los Angeles
Location: City Hall, 200 North Spring Street, Room 303, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Amount Requested: $500,000
The Los Angeles Youth Opportunity Movement is an initiative to increase the education and employment rate of fourteen- to twenty-one-year-olds in the empowerment zones of Boyle Heights, Watts, and Pacoima. This program serves to benefit taxpayers by helping many of the City’s neediest and at-risk young adults obtain a high school degree and employment training, which can put them on a path to upward mobility rather than more high-risk behavior.
Participants in the program are offered remedial classes, GED preparation, job skills training, and intensive case management. The case managers make home visits, school visits, and meet regularly with the youth. For 2008, the program had a 74 percent employment or education placement rate. These funds will allow the City to maintain its program, and provide these services to 400 youth.
Agency: Department of Health and Human Services
Project Title: Healthy San Francisco Health Care Access Plan
Recipient: City and County of San Francisco, Department of Public Health
Location: 101 Grove Street, San Francisco, CA 94102
Amount Requested: $1,000,000
Healthy San Francisco is a city-run health care access program for the uninsured, which was started in 2006. Half of San Francisco’s 70,000 uninsured residents have enrolled. This is a valuable use of taxpayer funds because insured individuals are more likely to receive the preventative care they require to reduce the costs associated with unaddressed health problems and emergency room visits.
The City is seeking federal funds to evaluate the current program, addressing the questions of who participates and who does not; how the program improves health care access, quality, satisfaction, and use; and its cost and sustainability. The City is also preparing to create electronic health records for participants, which will be available at all 23 Department of Public Health locations across the City. Evaluating this unique program will provide beneficial information that is applicable to the ongoing national health care reform debate. Investing in electronic medical records will benefit taxpayers because it will allow for a more efficient use of taxpayer funds for the program, with improved care coordination between health care providers, a reduction in duplicative health care services and better outcomes.
Project Title: Institute for Irritable Bowel Syndrome Research
Recipient: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Location: 8700 Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90048
Amount Requested: $1,000,000
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is seeking to create an Institute to study the impact and cause of, and to develop a cure for, inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome. Irritable bowel syndrome is a common disorder characterized most commonly by abdominal pain and bloating. While most people can control their symptoms with diet, stress management, and prescribed medications, for some individuals it can be disabling. This is a valuable use of taxpayer funds because as many as 20 percent of the adult population, or one in five Americans, have symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, making it one of the most common disorders diagnosed by doctors.
Project Title: Kaweah Delta Health Care District Facilities
Recipient: Kaweah Delta Hospital Foundation
Location: 216 South Johnson Drive, Visalia, CA 93291
Amount Requested: $500,000
The Kaweah Delta Hospital is Tulare County’s major medical facility, serving a regional population of over 400,000, with 78,000 annual emergency room visits. The Hospital’s Foundation is pursuing funds to build a helipad in order to facilitate the transfer of trauma patients to and from the hospital. This project is a valuable use of taxpayer funds because it will greatly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of medical service and increase the probability of a patient’s survival.
Today, Kaweah Delta is unable to accept trauma victims who are airlifted, requiring a 40 or 80 mile trip to the nearest Level I trauma hospital. Also, many patients at Kaweah Delta require a higher level of care, available in Los Angeles or the Bay Area, at least a four-hour drive. The construction of a helipad will also provide better service to visitors to Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. Almost 25 percent of Kaweah’s trauma patients are transferred to other hospitals.
Project Title: University of California, Riverside School of Medicine
Recipient: University of California, Riverside
Location: 900 University Avenue, Riverside, CA 92521
Amount Requested: $1,000,000
The University of California, Riverside is planning a new School of Medicine to address a regional physician shortfall, forecast to be over 50 percent by 2015, in the Inland Empire. This is a valuable use of taxpayer funds because it will produce more physicians in an area of high growth and a lack of medical personnel. As one of the nation’s most diverse campuses, and a Hispanic-Serving Institution, the University is equipped to train a diverse physician workforce and to develop innovative health care delivery programs to improve the health of medically-underserved populations.
These funds will be put toward capital improvements required to open the medical school: expansion and renovation of existing biomedical sciences instructional space and construction of a new health sciences building. State General Obligation Bonds, financing, and campus-raised funds are providing approximately $45 million. The first incoming class of medical students is projected to enroll in fall 2012.
Agency: Department of Education
Project Title: LA’s BEST Afterschool Enrichment Program
Recipient: City of Los Angeles
Location: 200 North Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Amount Requested: $1,200,000
LA’s BEST – Better Educated Students for Tomorrow – is an afterschool program at 180 elementary schools in Los Angeles. The program provides safe, supervised afterschool education, enrichment, and recreation activities to more than 28,000 children. This program is a valuable use of taxpayer funds because it provides youth with a productive academic outlet after school that will keep them in structured, educational activities rather than unsupervised or alone at home.
Participating students in the LA’s BEST program are offered homework support, language tutoring, and cognitively-based activities including science, math, and reading, as well as sports, visual and performing arts, field trips, and weekend activities. The program is a partnership between the City of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Unified School District, and the private sector, with fundraising and private donations contributing over $3 million annually.
Project Title: Monterey County Silver Star Gang Prevention and Intervention Program
Recipient: County of Monterey
Location: 1422 Natividad Road, Salinas, CA 93906
Amount Requested: $1,500,000
In 2005, the City of Salinas and Monterey County established a joint gang task force to address a serious escalation in gang activity in the Salinas Valley. Salinas is far from major urban centers, but has become a central battleground in a turf war between gangs, due to its location in the State. Federal investment is beneficial to taxpayers by enhancing public safety through combating gang-violence, reducing law enforcement’s costs associated with gang activity, and providing an alternative path for youth before they are recruited into gangs, through the Silver Star’s mentoring and education programs.
The task force combines gang suppression activities by local law enforcement with prevention and early intervention efforts intended to reduce gang involvement. The requested funding will be used for the prevention and intervention components of Monterey County’s anti-gang program, assisting the County in providing mentoring, education, job training and counseling services for youths between the ages of 6 and 21 at the Silver Star Resources Center in Salinas.
Project Title: San Jose Early Childhood Education Improvement Program
Recipient: City of San Jose
Location: 200 East Santa Clara Street, San Jose, CA 95113-1905
Amount Requested: $300,000
The City of San Jose is implementing a rating and improvement system for childcare services within the city. Federal funding will support the development, implementation, and evaluation of a pilot program for fifty childcare sites in predominantly low-income San Jose neighborhoods, to train and license more childcare providers. This is a valuable use of taxpayer funds because it will increase the prevalence of licensed childcare providers, and enhance the pre-school development of children in their care.
There are 282 licensed childcare centers and 959 licensed family childcare homes within the City, serving 37,000 children, and another 30,000 children who receive unlicensed childcare services. The goal of this program is to evaluate the level and efficacy of childcare services being provided to the most high-need communities of San Jose, and identify weaknesses. When shortcomings are identified, caregivers should be provided the information and resources necessary to help their wards develop the cognitive, language, and social skills necessary for academic and social success when they begin kindergarten. The City will provide the match for this $500,000 program.
FY 2010 APPROPRIATIONS REQUESTS
Agency: Department of Labor
Project Title: East Bay Green Jobs Initiative Workforce Development Program
Recipient: City of Oakland
Location: 1 Frank Ogawa Plaza, Oakland, CA 94612
Amount Requested: $1,000,000
The cities of Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and Emeryville have joined with the University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to create an “East Bay Green Corridor” Partnership, to support new and emerging sustainable industries and alternative energy research. This is a valuable program to taxpayers, as it provides much-needed employment opportunities in the beneficial and burgeoning field of clean, renewable energy.
A key focus of the Partnership is training a specialized workforce for these industries. These funds will be used to continue development and job training programs targeting high school and community college students from disadvantaged communities in these Bay Area cities.
Project Title: East Bay Parks Conservation and Fire Crews Training Programs
Recipient: East Bay Regional Park District
Location: 2950 Peralta Oaks Court, Oakland, CA 94605
Amount Requested: $1,000,000
The East Bay Regional Park District manages 98,000 acres of parkland in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, including many wilderness areas. The District is requesting federal funds to add two crews of seasonal employees to work on labor-intensive projects for fuels reduction and conservation. This program serves to benefit taxpayers by providing much-needed employment in this important field and reducing hazardous fuels that could otherwise lead to fires that would potentially cost money and lives.
The Fire Fuels Management Crew will be supervised by a Park District fire captain, and trained to national standards as a Firefighter Type II. After an 8-month training and work period, the District will assist graduates in pursuing wildland firefighting jobs with federal or state agencies. The Conservation Crew will work on renovations to hiking and fire trails, rehabilitation of shoreline barriers, and invasive plant removal.
Project Title: Los Angeles Youth Opportunity Movement Workforce Development Program
Recipient: City of Los Angeles
Location: City Hall, 200 North Spring Street, Room 303, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Amount Requested: $500,000
The Los Angeles Youth Opportunity Movement is an initiative to increase the education and employment rate of fourteen- to twenty-one-year-olds in the empowerment zones of Boyle Heights, Watts, and Pacoima. This program serves to benefit taxpayers by helping many of the City’s neediest and at-risk young adults obtain a high school degree and employment training, which can put them on a path to upward mobility rather than more high-risk behavior.
Participants in the program are offered remedial classes, GED preparation, job skills training, and intensive case management. The case managers make home visits, school visits, and meet regularly with the youth. For 2008, the program had a 74 percent employment or education placement rate. These funds will allow the City to maintain its program, and provide these services to 400 youth.
Agency: Department of Health and Human Services
Project Title: Healthy San Francisco Health Care Access Plan
Recipient: City and County of San Francisco, Department of Public Health
Location: 101 Grove Street, San Francisco, CA 94102
Amount Requested: $1,000,000
Healthy San Francisco is a city-run health care access program for the uninsured, which was started in 2006. Half of San Francisco’s 70,000 uninsured residents have enrolled. This is a valuable use of taxpayer funds because insured individuals are more likely to receive the preventative care they require to reduce the costs associated with unaddressed health problems and emergency room visits.
The City is seeking federal funds to evaluate the current program, addressing the questions of who participates and who does not; how the program improves health care access, quality, satisfaction, and use; and its cost and sustainability. The City is also preparing to create electronic health records for participants, which will be available at all 23 Department of Public Health locations across the City. Evaluating this unique program will provide beneficial information that is applicable to the ongoing national health care reform debate. Investing in electronic medical records will benefit taxpayers because it will allow for a more efficient use of taxpayer funds for the program, with improved care coordination between health care providers, a reduction in duplicative health care services and better outcomes.
Project Title: Institute for Irritable Bowel Syndrome Research
Recipient: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Location: 8700 Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90048
Amount Requested: $1,000,000
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is seeking to create an Institute to study the impact and cause of, and to develop a cure for, inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome. Irritable bowel syndrome is a common disorder characterized most commonly by abdominal pain and bloating. While most people can control their symptoms with diet, stress management, and prescribed medications, for some individuals it can be disabling. This is a valuable use of taxpayer funds because as many as 20 percent of the adult population, or one in five Americans, have symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, making it one of the most common disorders diagnosed by doctors.
Project Title: Kaweah Delta Health Care District Facilities
Recipient: Kaweah Delta Hospital Foundation
Location: 216 South Johnson Drive, Visalia, CA 93291
Amount Requested: $500,000
The Kaweah Delta Hospital is Tulare County’s major medical facility, serving a regional population of over 400,000, with 78,000 annual emergency room visits. The Hospital’s Foundation is pursuing funds to build a helipad in order to facilitate the transfer of trauma patients to and from the hospital. This project is a valuable use of taxpayer funds because it will greatly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of medical service and increase the probability of a patient’s survival.
Today, Kaweah Delta is unable to accept trauma victims who are airlifted, requiring a 40 or 80 mile trip to the nearest Level I trauma hospital. Also, many patients at Kaweah Delta require a higher level of care, available in Los Angeles or the Bay Area, at least a four-hour drive. The construction of a helipad will also provide better service to visitors to Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. Almost 25 percent of Kaweah’s trauma patients are transferred to other hospitals.
Project Title: University of California, Riverside School of Medicine
Recipient: University of California, Riverside
Location: 900 University Avenue, Riverside, CA 92521
Amount Requested: $1,000,000
The University of California, Riverside is planning a new School of Medicine to address a regional physician shortfall, forecast to be over 50 percent by 2015, in the Inland Empire. This is a valuable use of taxpayer funds because it will produce more physicians in an area of high growth and a lack of medical personnel. As one of the nation’s most diverse campuses, and a Hispanic-Serving Institution, the University is equipped to train a diverse physician workforce and to develop innovative health care delivery programs to improve the health of medically-underserved populations.
These funds will be put toward capital improvements required to open the medical school: expansion and renovation of existing biomedical sciences instructional space and construction of a new health sciences building. State General Obligation Bonds, financing, and campus-raised funds are providing approximately $45 million. The first incoming class of medical students is projected to enroll in fall 2012.
Agency: Department of Education
Project Title: LA’s BEST Afterschool Enrichment Program
Recipient: City of Los Angeles
Location: 200 North Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Amount Requested: $1,200,000
LA’s BEST – Better Educated Students for Tomorrow – is an afterschool program at 180 elementary schools in Los Angeles. The program provides safe, supervised afterschool education, enrichment, and recreation activities to more than 28,000 children. This program is a valuable use of taxpayer funds because it provides youth with a productive academic outlet after school that will keep them in structured, educational activities rather than unsupervised or alone at home.
Participating students in the LA’s BEST program are offered homework support, language tutoring, and cognitively-based activities including science, math, and reading, as well as sports, visual and performing arts, field trips, and weekend activities. The program is a partnership between the City of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Unified School District, and the private sector, with fundraising and private donations contributing over $3 million annually.
Project Title: Monterey County Silver Star Gang Prevention and Intervention Program
Recipient: County of Monterey
Location: 1422 Natividad Road, Salinas, CA 93906
Amount Requested: $1,500,000
In 2005, the City of Salinas and Monterey County established a joint gang task force to address a serious escalation in gang activity in the Salinas Valley. Salinas is far from major urban centers, but has become a central battleground in a turf war between gangs, due to its location in the State. Federal investment is beneficial to taxpayers by enhancing public safety through combating gang-violence, reducing law enforcement’s costs associated with gang activity, and providing an alternative path for youth before they are recruited into gangs, through the Silver Star’s mentoring and education programs.
The task force combines gang suppression activities by local law enforcement with prevention and early intervention efforts intended to reduce gang involvement. The requested funding will be used for the prevention and intervention components of Monterey County’s anti-gang program, assisting the County in providing mentoring, education, job training and counseling services for youths between the ages of 6 and 21 at the Silver Star Resources Center in Salinas.
Project Title: San Jose Early Childhood Education Improvement Program
Recipient: City of San Jose
Location: 200 East Santa Clara Street, San Jose, CA 95113-1905
Amount Requested: $300,000
The City of San Jose is implementing a rating and improvement system for childcare services within the city. Federal funding will support the development, implementation, and evaluation of a pilot program for fifty childcare sites in predominantly low-income San Jose neighborhoods, to train and license more childcare providers. This is a valuable use of taxpayer funds because it will increase the prevalence of licensed childcare providers, and enhance the pre-school development of children in their care.
There are 282 licensed childcare centers and 959 licensed family childcare homes within the City, serving 37,000 children, and another 30,000 children who receive unlicensed childcare services. The goal of this program is to evaluate the level and efficacy of childcare services being provided to the most high-need communities of San Jose, and identify weaknesses. When shortcomings are identified, caregivers should be provided the information and resources necessary to help their wards develop the cognitive, language, and social skills necessary for academic and social success when they begin kindergarten. The City will provide the match for this $500,000 program.
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