During Ramadan and daily prayer, the Evergreen Islamic Center in San Jose offers a place for spiritual reflection. It also provides a community hub, voting center and supportive services from food to health care. The center is unique in that it not only provides a food pantry and food distribution, it also offers free medical...
Santa Clara County budget cuts to hit mental health services
Santa Clara County officials were in the throes of a mental health crisis four years ago and took action to expand treatment. That progress is about to be scaled back as the county confronts an extreme budget shortfall. The Behavioral Health Services Department faces a $100 million deficit in the coming fiscal year due to...
Shuttered South Bay mental health program charts new course
When a longstanding program offering grief counseling and mental health support services in the South Bay lost funding and had to shut down in December, two women who served the organization for years began making their own plans. “We wanted to figure out a way to continue doing the work,” Janet Childs, who co-founded the...
Santa Clara County nurse navigators triage non-emergency calls
As federal funding cuts put strain on Santa Clara County resources, a nurse navigator program could help buffer some of the losses and expand access to health care. The county began a pilot program in 2024 to triage 911 calls in South County and the West Valley to a nurse call center for non-medical emergencies. Nurses...
Santa Clara County buys site of future health clinic
Don’t lease — buy. The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors adopted that maxim with a unanimous vote Tuesday, opting to purchase the property where the county’s new 10-story Valley Health Center campus is set to open this year on Bascom Avenue in San Jose. The health center will expand California’s second largest public hospital system with...
Heart care expands to South Santa Clara County
South Santa Clara County residents with heart issues just got a better shot at lifesaving care. Officials on Wednesday announced the rollout of cardiology care at Saint Louise Hospital in Gilroy and Valley Health Center in Morgan Hill, in a region that’s historically lacked medical access across South County’s huge swaths of farmland and open...
San Jose cuts drug oversight program days after it restarts
San Jose officials have quietly killed a firefighter drug oversight program just days after reinstating it. This comes after a paramedic drug theft scandal exposed patients to tampered narcotics and sparked backlash against funding cuts that originally dissolved the initiative. The program known as Med 30 was deactivated on Dec. 21, the same month it...
Fed cuts force San Jose farm to reduce food aid
A federal program that brought fresh produce from farms directly to low-income families has ended, stripping local farmers of a significant revenue stream and leaving families with one less option. The Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA) — a U.S. Department of Agriculture initiative started in 2021 during the pandemic — provided $1...
Study shows food insecurity highest in East San Jose
During the last 10 days of every month, Julia pulls together whatever scant meals she can with produce from food banks and canned items until her food benefits renew. The 28-year-old, who didn’t provide her last name for privacy reasons, receives about $600 a month in food stamps to feed herself and three children. She...
Santa Clara County nurses speak out against staffing shortages
Nurses are sounding the alarm on staffing shortages at Santa Clara County hospitals that they say are causing delays in patient care. Nurses rallied at county hospitals Tuesday to protest furloughs and dangerous staffing shortages stemming from President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” which slashed funding for vital services including Medi-Cal and food stamps. Dozens...