By: Annie Puckett, Program Manager
Community Health Trust of Pajaro Valley
In an effort to achieve lasting outcomes in the health and wellbeing of our community, Community Health Trust grantmaking has historically focused on four priority areas: diabetes and contributing risk factors, oral health, access to health care, and the advancement of health care careers. And while our consistent investment and collective efforts in these areas have delivered resources to nearly 300,000 underserved individuals, these challenges have continued to persist in our community.
Fast forward to 2020, and it is clearer now than ever that the challenges to which we have remained so steadfast—chronic disease, lack of access to health-improving services—are rooted in a greater system of social and racial inequity that enables disparities in health and health outcomes to persist.
Accordingly, in the upcoming 2021 grant cycle, we are committed to making larger, longer-term investments in efforts that center around equity and emphasize the need for collaboration across community sectors to break down systematic and structural barriers that prevent individuals from accessing wellness-promoting activities and choices.
Thanks to a year that has tested us with a pandemic, civil injustice, and environmental disaster, we have strengthened our capacity to be responsive, and, with a renewed sense of purpose, look forward to growing the partnerships necessary to move the needle on issues impacting our community.
For more information on Community Health Trust’s upcoming 2021-2022 grantmaking cycle, please visit https://pvhealthtrust.org/programs/grantmaking/.
