March 2017

San Diego Youth Development Office (YDO) is an intermediary organization driving systems and policy changes that improve health, education and employment outcomes for children and young adults ages 0–24 in San Diego County. YDO provides expertise, data, technical assistance, services and products that support positive youth development by focusing primarily on prevention. YDO addresses that inequity by recognizing the pivotal activities, situations and barriers young people face and...

The San Diego Coffee Training Institute (SDCTI) seeks to empower and elevate vulnerable populations to self sufficiency through the advancement of coffee. By offering certified training programs in specialty coffee, at-risk populations simultaneously acquire marketable skills in a highly-regarded trade that elevate the quality standards and understanding of the industry overall, while also acquiring more confidence, higher self-esteem, and general professional workforce skills that translate...

Oceanside is leading the way in San Diego County with a pilot program to send home kitchen scraps such as spoiled fruit and leftover pasta to the compost pile. About 1,600 households are participating in a two-month trial that, if successful, will be expanded permanently to about 40,000 Oceanside homes in a year or two, city officials said. The project is driven by state laws requiring cities and counties to reduce the flow of organic waste into landfills, a major source of the air-polluting...

On Wednesday, March 1, 2017, the first job fair in a San Diego County jail was held for participants of East Mesa Reentry Facility ’s (EMRF) culinary training program and Reentry Works San Diego job center . Fifty-six inmates who are within a year of release attended the job fair, holding portfolios containing their résumés and pointers from the San Diego Second Chance Program , the operator of the job center that organized the job fair along with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department .

A recent poverty report found that one-third of working families in San Diego, California, more than 1 million individuals, live with incomes too low to cover their basic needs. These stark figures are reflected in the city’s skyrocketing homeless population, which has risen nationally from the twelfth largest in 2007 to third in 2016, according to US Department of Housing and Urban Development. A report published in January by the Center on Policy Initiatives (CPI), Making Ends Meet,...

In early January, California released the updated version of its pollution-screening tool, CalEnviroScreen. The new data indicate that Barrio Logan, Logan Heights and National City remain among the top five to ten percent of communities in the state most impacted by pollution. Environmental Health Coalition (EHC), the only environmental justice organization in the San Diego region, says the most up-to-date information spotlights the neighborhoods that have long lived with an unfair burden of...

Four grants worth over $32,000 were awarded from Hand to Hand to San Diego County women’s nonprofit organizations. Hand to Hand, a giving circle at Coastal Community Foundation, directs resources to programs that empower change and self-sufficiency in women. This giving circle is composed of 60 women who contribute funds and then choose worthy recipients. The Foundation builds philanthropy in San Diego north coastal communities by offering donors a wide variety of options for giving -...

The prescription drug abuse problem in this country has reached such epidemic portions, treatment centers around the nation, including in San Diego, now have entire facilities or programs geared specifically toward opioids. OxyContin started to flood the market in 2000, since then 3,492 San Diegans have died of opioids, according to the most recent report from the San Diego County Medical Examiner. The McAlister Institute in El Cajon is one of the largest substance abuse treatment centers in...

Vincent J. Felitti, M.D., Co-Principal Investigator, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study, Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, Fellow, The American College of Physicians, Internist, Kaiser Permanente Please click here to view the one hour video of Dr. Felitti's presentation on February 3, 2017 at the Rady Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Grand Rounds.

In all of medicine, it is important to understand that there are only three sources of diagnostic information: patient history, physical examination, and laboratory studies.  While patients overwhelmingly assume that diagnosis derives from lab...

After Daniela Vargas’ recent arrest, the future for DACA’s more than 750,000 recipients is more uncertain than ever. They need political support, but also safe spaces to process their anxiety. A study published last year in the Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health found that young immigrants who received DACA felt relief from increased access to services and opportunities, such as health care, work placement, and expanded support networks. If Palacios loses DACA, she could no longer work...

The San Diego County Office of Education, in partnership with the International Bullying Prevention Association and working in collaboration with the San Diego County Suicide Prevention Council’s School Collaborative presents: "Inclusion through Kindness and Compassion" One-day summit supporting our LGBTQ youth. 8am - 4pm, Friday, April 28, 2017 Marina Village Conference Center San Diego, California Topics include: • Culture Change Strategies for Addressing Bias • Suicide Prevention among...