I’m more bird-brained than usual this week because instead of our typical in-depth news, we’re running our annual 55 Fiction contest winners. It’s a highlight of the year for our publication, to be sure, and it gets me all inspired to be shorter and more to the point in this column. So bear with me.
Success?
On July 23, the county rolled out a farmworker resource program to take information to workers in the fields, instead of making them come to a center. It’s got $1 million and one year to make an impact. How will that be measured? Will the public know if it works before the funding is yanked?
Above, beyond
Employment, education, financial, and health services are the mobile center’s main goals, plus connecting to growers.
“I plan on working with local growers to build that relationship,” said program coordinator Cesar Guerrero. “It definitely goes with our growers and that’s an area we want to work on. They are just as important as our farmworkers.”
Under the bus
The aforementioned mobile pilot program hit the streets July 23 in a county-purchased bus. What will the county do with the vehicle at program’s end? The county will have to throw itself under said bus eventually; even if it coughs up $1 million next year, inevitable budget woes will lead to cuts down the road.
Granted
There’s a flaw in funding schemes. Besides being finite, grant funding has urgency. Deadlines. Strings. Thus plans get rushed. Foresight is forgone. The county, nonprofits, recipients, can ride the one-year wave, but with no guarantee that there’ll be another grant to sustain what they’ve made. Then new money must be found to solve old problems.
Nuts and bolts
“I’m hoping … that we find what’s effective because you don’t really know until you start doing it,” 5th District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino said. “I’m just hoping … we figure out an effective way to do this that’s not going to cost $1 million every year because honestly that’s not sustainable.”
The other hand
How else would the government step in to address problems that agencies lack political will and bottomless budgets to solve? Grants, whether from the state (i.e. the farmworker resource program) or federal government, help counties get stuff done. They’re lifesavers. Literally.
Impact
Headlines scream immigration problems, policy breakdowns, overcrowding, injustice, inhumane treatment of thousands of farmworkers in this state alone. A grant allows one bus, one year. “You will make no difference helping only one at a time.” But advocates know: “We’ll make a difference to that one.” And that one, in turn, may help many.
Bottom line
Decisions must get made. Opportunities must get taken or disappear. “One thing I do know is there is a need in the community … and we need to make sure we go out there and get those referrals to those who need it the most,” said program coordinator Guerrero. Best of luck to you!
The Canary’s ready for six-word stories. Send comments to canary@santamariasun.com .
This article appears in Jul 27 – Aug 6, 2023.