About a free community health fair.
For the past six weeks, the groups Causa Justa:Just Cause, Communities for a Better Environment, Oakland Community Organizations, and Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment have sent teams of workers like Shanklin out to knock on doors every day talking to Oakland residents about healthcare and an upcoming community fair being held at Laney College. Their goal is to enroll poor and working-class people in healthcare coverage thats newly available to them under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Obama Administration healthcare law passed in 2009. Im Kimberly from Causa Justa:Just Cause, and were giving out information for a free community health fair this May 19. Twenty-seven percent of African Americans and Latinos receive health coverage through Medicaid, compared to 11 percent of white people, according to a report from the Alliance for a Just Society.
The ACA also entails a large shift of resources toward expanding health infrastructure and services, with $9.5 billion allocated over five years and $1.5 billion for community health centers, which disproportionately serve people of color and uninsured or underinsured patients.
But one of the biggest challenges, advocates say, will be educating the people who need it most about the ACAs benefits and laying the groundwork for their enrollment in health coverage.
Through the East Oakland Building Healthy Communities project, part of an initiative funded in 14 cities by The California Endowment, Oaklands health advocacy and social justice communities are working to harness ACA resources and direct attention toward the deep problems of East Oakland.
To be effective at both saving lives and holding down costs, healthcare must be accessible, consistent, and preventive elements emphasized in the ACA through provisions such as the Community Transformation Grants that focus on place-based social and environmental determinants of health. Inside the gymnasium, a team of multi-lingual workers are waiting to enroll as many people in health coverage as possibleif they can hit 150 enrollments, it will be a big success since, so far, only handfuls have been able to enroll out of the thousands of people who arrive without the documents needed.
East Oakland Building Healthy Communities has brought together organizations working on a range of issues from multiple disciplines, including the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Youth Uprising, Urban Peace Movement, TransForm, East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, First 5 Alameda County (a commission for childrens health), the public health department, churches, and the school district, among others.
The groups and community members are working with a definition of health that revolves around priorities such as affordable housing, ending gun violence, access to fresh food, transit improvement, and jobs creation. Its a tall order for a collaboration, and when asked what he thinks will be most significant for the 10-year initiative to achieve, Dawn Phillips, a longtime Oakland organizer, says, If we can make any concrete impact on the community strengthening health access in East Oaklandthat would be significant. You should come out to a free community health fair, get you some health insurance.
