City of Gonzales
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT & STRATEGIC
PARTNERSHIPS
ACTIVITY REPORT
TO: Honorable Mayor Rios and City Council
DATE: January 17, 2023
FROM: Carmen Gil, Community Engagement & Strat. Partnership Dir.
THROUGH: Carmen Gil, Interim City Manager
SUBJECT: Community Engagement & Strategic Partnerships Activity Report Gonzales Youth Council
The Gonzales Youth Council continued to meet during the months of November and December. In December they took the Holidays off and will re-engage at the beginning of January.
Gonzales Youth Commissioner Sherlyn Flores-Magadan was interviewed along with Interim City Manager Gil on Dec. 19 by Telemundo regarding mental health, the youth’s work on it and the GYC’s plans for their future project especially regarding stigma reduction.
COVID-19 and Community Engagement
In November and December, the Community Health Workers (CHW) stayed busy as COVID-19 testing picked up slightly. In November the CHWs tested 38 people and in December they tested 43 individuals.
The CHWs also supported some of the local food distributions including the Brighter Bites distribution at La Gloria Elementary School and the Salvation Army’s where they saw over 280 community members.
During the distributions they also passed out information regarding available resources and events.
AGENDA
ITEM
7 On December 3rd the CHWs assisted the Recreation Department at the Holiday Lights event held at the Fairview Middle School Gym.
The CHWs, in collaboration with Blue Zones, have also been learning how to host Cooking Demos and on Dec. 5
th at the Taylor Farms Clinic they hosted their first trial one. Five families participated, including 5 adults and 12 kids. The purpose of the cooking demos is to gain the capacity to continue hosting cooking demonstrations throughout the community to help teach families about healthy food alternatives.
This effort aligns with the City’s vision regarding health and wellness and helps in the prevention and fight against diabetes.
On December 16th, in collaboration with the Monterey County Health Department, the Community Health Workers hosted a Mental Health Forum at the Gonzales High School Cafeteria. Nineteen people were in attendance and there are plans to host a follow up forum regarding suicide prevention.
For the 3rd year in a row, we received a generous donation from the Knights of Columbus of 50 jackets to distribute to local children. The CHWs went out and identified children who could benefit from having a warm jacket during the winter and distributed them on Dec. 22nd and 23rd. The families and children were very grateful, and we are thankful that the Knights of Columbus continue to choose us as their distribution site.
On Dec. 8th the City held a press conference announcing the Capital Campaign kick off for the Gonzales Community Center. It was a great event. Over 30 individuals were in attendance. Everyone was very excited to get to this point. We had state and local elected officials join us as well as children from our Kid Power program. At the event staff announced that over $5million dollars of private contributions have been raised for the community center. The press conference got great media coverage and was highlighted on Telemundo, KION, KSBW as well as the local print media.