SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Thousands of people from the San Joaquin Valley area rallied at the California State Capitol Wednesday.
It was all part of the 8th annual Equity on the Mall event.
The Center at Sierra Health Foundation and the San Joaquin Valley Health Fund hosted the event. The goal was to raise awareness about the importance of protecting and strengthening equity in all aspects of life, primarily for people in historically marginalized groups and underserved communities throughout the San Joaquin Valley.
The Equity on the Mall event came with an all-day agenda. It featured a list of guest speakers, like Reyna Villalobos. She's the managing director of regional programs at the San Joaquin Valley Health Fund.
The San Joaquin Valley Health Fund is managed by The Center at Sierra Health Foundation. It was created with a vision "to strengthen the capacity of partner organizations and vulnerable communities by supporting advocacy, community organizing, capacity building, leadership development, networking, and policy and systems changes that promote community health, racial equity and racial justice for all."
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For Villalobos, equity is more than words. It's also about taking the necessary action to create a positive change. Villalobos, who's from the San Joaquin Valley, says she's participated in the Equity on the Mall event twice.
During the event, Villalobos, along with other guest speakers, shared their experiences with health, environment, education, tech, housing and immigration inequities.
"It's really about ensuring that no one is left behind," Villalobos said. "It's also about creating environments, where everybody has an opportunity to thrive. It's meaningful to me because I actually came from a family of immigrants. My parents were farmworkers and they toiled the fields of the San Joaquin Valley for six decades. So, I know the struggles and hardships."
The Center at Sierra Health Foundation works "to promote health, racial equity and racial justice in communities throughout California with local, state and national partners."
The Center created a list of recommendations for holding policymakers accountable to address racial and health disparities. Outside of dedicating more state funds to equitable programs and services to support disadvantaged communities, The Center is also advocating for other steps, including:
- Educate agencies, decision-makers, and the public on the need to extend broadband internet services into San Joaquin communities.
- Ensure that the San Joaquin Valley grantees in the California Community Schools Partnership- Program are improving school responsiveness to student and family needs and organizing school and community resources to address barriers to learning.
- Ensure that all California residents have a direct role in the decision-making process to design and implement the environmental and social policies that impact them.
- Increase and expand investments in culturally and linguistically appropriate primary care that is effective, equitable, understandable, respectful, responsive, and no-cost to community members of diverse backgrounds, practices, gender identification, of low-income, immigration and housing status.
- Actively address segregation by securing true housing choice through incentivizing development in growth areas to facilitate and incorporate housing opportunities for all.
- Secure robust public and private investments to facilitate COVID-19 economic relief and recovery, and access to economic wellbeing for all families and small business owners regardless of immigration status.
"We love our great state of California," Chet P. Hewitt, CEO of The Center at Sierra Health Foundation, said. "But we know that health and wellness is not equally distributed. It looks much better on the coastal communities than in our inland communities. If California is going to be great, it has to be great for everybody."
During the rally, the governor's office welcomed The Center and residents of San Joaquin Valley to the State Capitol to let all participants know that their voices were heard. Some lawmakers from the California State Assembly attended the event too.
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