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Two Silicon Valley Foundations Launch $10 Million Effort to Support Local Latinx Communities

“Silicon Valley is a region known for its great innovation, world-class technology and – as this past year has again reminded us – crushing disparities,” said Carmela Castellano-Garcia, president of Castellano Family Foundation. “The pandemic ravaged communities of color, especially Latinx communities, who faced unbeatable odds as essential workers, devastating losses as small businesses, and whose children were disproportionately impacted by the digital divide. Philanthropy has an opportunity to help correct systemic imbalances and get our communities on a better track.”

Read the full press release here: Press Release – May 18, 2021 | Silicon Valley Community Foundation (siliconvalleycf.org)

Latino Leaders Unveil Ambitious National Agenda

The group recommends institutionalizing voter mobilization and education as a government function, increasing Latinos’ access to capital to spur business and job creation, universal health coverage, more equitable COVID-19 testing, contact tracing and treatment, a pipeline for Latinos and other underserved workers into clean energy and the green economy, progressive immigration reform, an immediate and indefinite moratorium on deportations and universal access to preschool.

State Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, AltaMed CEO Castulo de la Rocha, California Primary Care Association CEO Carmela Castellano-Garcia and Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund President Thomas A. Saenz were also part of the group that put together the agenda.

Read more in the Voice of San Diego here.

The new COVID-19 rationing: Testing just got harder to get in California

Some providers, like those at health centers, have been trying to do more of their own testing, but struggle to get tests, said Carmela Castellano Garcia, the CEO of the California Primary Care Association, which represents the state’s health centers.

While some have adequate supplies, she said, health centers in areas like south central Los Angeles have reported having only 10 tests on hand at a time. “That means they’re getting hundreds of calls from people wanting to be tested who they cannot accommodate,” she said.

Read more in CalMatters

REOPENING THE GOLDEN STATE: Safety Unknowns Await Returning Medical and Dental Workers

The California Primary Care Association (CPCA), says its president, Carmela Castellano-Garcia, calculated that more than 205 of California’s 1,300 federally qualified clinics — which serve up to 7 million low-income and immigrant Californians — shut their offices at the start of the crisis, meaning that poor, mainly immigrant patients either had to travel further for treatment or had to make do with phone visits with doctors in lieu of in-person exams.

Read more here in Capital and Main