Emilia Reyes, CEO of Fresno County Economic Opportunities Commission announces the partnership with the County of Fresno to bring relief to rural populations. Screen capture via Fresno County EOC Facebook.

Fresno County Board of Supervisors gathered in downtown Fresno to announce the approval of contracts with community organizations to combat the spread of Covid-19 on Tuesday.

The Fresno County Economic Opportunities Commission (EOC) partnered with the county to oversee the project and bring its expertise and existing network of community based organizations (CBOs) to help reach underrepresented populations, reinforce critical medical investigation and to support testing and contract tracing capacity to aid the fight against Covid-19 throughout the county.

With funding from the CARES Act, the contract will provide enhanced education, outreach and case management in the farming and farmworker communities, as well as support the county’s medical investigation, testing, and contract tracing capacity.

Present were Fresno County Board of Supervisors including Nathan Magsig, Brian Pacheco, chairman Buddy Mendes, and Fresno County Administrative Officer Jean Rousseau.

Some of the CBOs involved include Cultural Brokers, the Fresno Metro Black Chamber of Commerce, Fresno Building Healthy Communities, and the Central Valley Health Policy Institute. There are more CBOs to be determined depending on the target population.

There will be an allocation of $1.6 million for the African-American community and an allocation of $3.9 million for immigrant and refugee communities for outreach efforts.

“This partnership with the county and our 17 CBOs is a step in the right direction towards providing our community the education and resources needed to prevent furthering the spread,” said EOC CEO Emilia Reyes. “This work will help bridge the gap in our Black, immigrant, and refugee communities and our members.”

The EOC, along with the other organizations, will work to mobilize and deploy community health workers to reach the most vulnerable members of the community. There will be an additional 300 contract tracers brought on to provide more services.

One of the proposals with the country from the EOC is to go to field and farm workers, as well as packinghouses to conduct testing and to provide support for quarantine services. Exposed individuals will be transported home to get necessary items and get taken to a hotel where they will be provided with food and case management for unemployment benefits and to make sure the individuals family is supported.

The efforts will be able to be implemented immediately. Future contracts with the CBOs can be voted on retroactively.

“Contract tracers are already trained,” said country board supervisor Brian Pacheco. “The contracts will come to the board in another week or so, but we are going to implement these programs immediately. They will provide all the services that we in the rural parts of the county have a difficult part obtaining. We believe there is a disconnect between the county health team and the everyday people—we are hoping that these CBOs will help to bridge that gap and provide the outreach.”