Programs

Residents of northern Alameda County have big reasons to smile!

The Foundation Board of Directors, along with Medical Center Aministration and Medical Staff, engages in a careful process to determine Foundation fundraising priorities by identifying the pressing needs facing the community and the resources of the Medical Center.

These program priorities have been selected for 2009-2011.

• Cancer Services Program

• Youth Violence Prevention Project

Addressing the Whole Person, Not Just the Disease, through the Cancer Services Program

The Cancer Services Program, in collaboration with the American Cancer Society, offers cancer education and one-on-one informational and counseling sessions. The Foundation’s support of the Cancer Services program enhances patients' quality of life as they go through the difficult physical and overwhelming emotional challenges that are associated with cancer disease.

In Alameda County, cancer is the second leading cause of death (after heart disease). A cancer diagnosis is a devastating thing to hear, causing confusion, anger, grief, and a sense of helplessness.  That is why the Cancer Services Program of the Alameda County Medical Center is so important to a cancer patient and their family.

The Cancer Services program helps patients understand what's happening to them so they can regain a feeling of control when it seems there is none. The program links patients to the community and medical center resources they might need and, most importantly, help them find the courage to heal.

The program is a unique project that provides personalized assistance and emotional support to newly diagnosed cancer patients, who are uninsured or underinsured. The Navigators will coordinate diagnoses and treatment services to help these patients through the often confusing maze of specialists, testing sites and therapy centers with which they are confronted. By providing comprehensive care at the onset of diagnosis, we hope to improve the patients' decision-making and coping skills, recover periods and overall well-being.

The program, in collaboration with the American Cancer Society, offers cancer education through print/media material and one-on-one informational and counseling sessions. The Foundation’s support of the Cancer Services program enhances patients' quality of life as they go through the difficult physical and overwhelming emotional challenges that are associated with cancer disease.

Your support toward this award-winning program will help sustain the current program.

Stopping the Cycle of Violence through the Youth Violence Prevention Project

The Youth Violence Prevention Project (YVPP) is a partnership between the Alameda County Medical Center and Caught in the Crossfire, an intervention program of Youth ALIVE!, an agency  dedicated to preventing youth violence. This partnership works to prevent violent injury reoccurrence and retaliation among youth between the ages of 12 and 20 who are being treated at Highland Hospital for violent injuries. Caught in the Crossfire is a pioneering hospital visitation program in which young adults, from the same communities as the injured youth they serve, are trained and hired to work intensively as models, mentors, and case managers with the youth and their families for up to one year. The program has been able to provide services to over 800 youth since its inception in 1994.

Youth Violence is a chronic epidemic in Alameda County in general and in Oakland in particular. Alameda, the largest Bay Area County, has more than one in three youth living below the poverty line, significantly higher than the Bay Area average of 15%. It also has the highest assault victimization rate in the region.

In addition to the emotional and social costs, it is estimated that the average financial costs of treating a gunshot wound victim is over $40,000 and 60-80% of these costs are paid by the public. The Alameda County Medical Center (ACMC) Highland Hospital Campus sees more than 400 youth victims of violence each year.  The need for comprehensive services to break the cycle of violence is greater than ever.

A “revolving door” of violence: after youth are injured and hospitalized, they and their friends often retaliate, causing even more injuries or death, arrest, and incarceration. One violent act leads to another . . . and another . . . and another. The violent cycle continues.

Your support of the YVPP has enabled us to encourage youth participants to re-enroll in school, receive mental health counseling and job training, secure part-time and full-time employment and find relief from crisis situations involving housing, food, transportation and health care. We are all stakeholders - either directly or indirectly, violence affects everyone.  Therefore, your support of our Youth Violence Prevention Project will go a long way to reduce retaliation, re-injury and arrest; and to promote positive alternatives to violence.