Census day is one year out from today and to officially kick-off outreach efforts the Kern Complete Count Committee (KCCC) held a press conference this morning in front of the Beale Library.  The campaign hopes to achieve a complete an accurate 2020 Census by encouraging Kern residents, particularly Hard-To-Count communities to respond to the questionnaire.

A fair count is critical to the well being of Kern because the count will determine the number of seats we have in the U.S. House of Representatives for the next ten years as well as how millions of federal dollars will be distributed to communities.

This is money for schools, hospitals and roads. This is money for updating our infrastructure and enhancing quality of life. The more accurate the Census count, the better it is for Kern.

Join the Kern Education Justice Collaborative on January 17  6 p.m. for a Community Forum regarding Kern High School District (KHSD) and learn how you can help ensure all students are treated fairly and get the education they deserve.

Come and learn about what the Kern High School District is doing regarding:

  • Positive Behavioral Intervention & Supports (PBIS)
  • Hiring and Training of Diverse Staff
  • School Climate

The meeting will be held at Millcreek Church, 1660 S St., Bakersfield, CA 93301. For more information, please call California Rural Legal Assistance at (661) 725-4330.

Bakersfield, Calif. – Organizations, advocates, students and families delivered a simple message during a recent press event at the Liberty Bell: health is more than health care and everyone, particularly the most vulnerable members of our community, is at risk.

As an example, residents, in partnership with Building Healthy Communities South Kern including Faith in the Valley, Dignity Health’s Community Health Initiative, Clinica Sierra Vista, Vision y Compromiso, California Partnership, say that the expansion of Medi-Cal has helped boost the regional economy by creating new jobs and providing people with basic preventative services. Specifically, in Kern County, if life-saving health coverage were to be reduced or dramatically cut, we could:

  • Lose health insurance for about 160,000 children, seniors and working family members;

  • Get rid of about 14,700 jobs and;

  • Rip about $305 million from our local economy

“We want to educate our fellow Kern County residents about what it means to create a healthy Kern County,” said Lorena Lara of Faith in the Valley Kern. “Cutting health care will hurt real families directly and hurt all of us indirectly by crushing our economy.”

Family financial stability advocates also say that the proposed changes currently being considered to our tax system would have devastating consequences for the economic health of our communities. For example, abolishing deductions for state/local taxes and itemized charitable deductions, which would sharply raise Californians’ tax bill, will hurt our capacity to invest in the things that matter most to us.

“We already know that over 80% of all donations made nationally come from individuals—not foundations or corporations,” said Jill Egland, Vice President of Community Impact, United Way of Kern County. “Those same numbers hold true for us here in Kern. Furthermore, we’re not just talking about contributions from the very wealthy. We’re talking about the bulk of charitable investment coming from working- and middle-class incomes. Reducing or abolishing these deductions? We’ll feel it here, most definitely, in our loss of ability to invest in our parks, our schools, our places of worship, our emergency relief efforts. We need to empower communities. Not cripple them.”

BHC-SK is a broad collaborative of community groups and organizations, public agencies, residents, and youth leaders who are partnering and advocating towards community and health equity in Kern’s underserved communities.                                     

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 14, 2017

Media Contact: Reyna Olaguez, Building Healthy Communities South Kern
(661) 817-3577, reyna@healthysouthkern.org

Hundreds of Residents Are Expected to Attend Screening of ‘American Migrant Stories’

Building Healthy Communities South Kern is proud to present a special screening of ‘American Migrant Stories’ to a special audience today at CSU Bakersfield (CSUB).

We are thrilled to present this documentary to the folks who may share a similar story to the stories told in this gripping production that exposes the pain that families face in their search for prosperity.

BHC-SK will be busing in residents from Delano, McFarland, Arvin, Lamont, Weedpatch and Greenfield to watch this riveting documentary produced by CSU Bakersfield’s Center for Social Justice with financial support from BHC-SK.

The community is welcome to attend this free screening today, Dec. 14 at CSU Bakersfield’s Dore Theatre, 9000 Stockdale Hwy. in Bakersfield, CA at 6:30 p.m. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with local attorney’s David Torres, H.A. Sala, Win Eaton, Xochitl Garcia and Bakersfield Chief of Police, Lyle Martin.

BHC-SK is a broad collaborative of community groups and organizations, public agencies, residents, and youth leaders who are partnering and advocating towards community and health equity in Kern’s underserved communities.

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