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How do you improve responsiveness after seeing a significant reduction in your work force? For the Ventura County Health Care Plan leadership, the first step was a call to their IT department. The end result of this collaborative effort was the development of a desktop application that saves time and improves service for customers.

As in most counties across the country, the vast majority of individuals incarcerated in the Santa Clara County Jail are pretrial. And as in most counties, the majority of these individuals are low-income and many would be considered low-risk.  Bail reform has been a hot topic lately; while there has been a lot of discussion but little action, things are different in Santa Clara County.

Manuel Cisneros and his son Adan gently package fruits and vegetables for the week’s veggie boxes. Broccoli, green onions, oranges, grapefruits and avocados are just a few of the items filling the boxes destined for local kitchens. Minutes earlier, the father and son team were picking the fruit and pulling the vegetables out of the rich soil. Fresh indeed – and organic. They are meant for Los Angeles County residents who often don’t have access to fresh fruits and vegetables.

In a perfect world, people suffering from a mental or emotional health issue would be able to access treatment before they were in crisis, but it doesn’t always work that way. They often end up in the hospital emergency department. That’s why a partnership between the Sutter Yuba Behavioral Health Department and Adventist Health/Rideout Hospital in Marysville is making such a big difference. They found a way to significantly reduce the time it takes to evaluate and treat these patients.

Sonoma County was dealing with a housing crisis well before the October 2017 firestorms. Rental occupancy was at 99 percent and people who worked in hospitality and agriculture were traveling longer and longer distances to find housing they could afford. Then came the fires that destroyed more than 5,000 homes in Sonoma County alone.

When we think of firefighting equipment, heavy hoses and axes quickly come to mind. In Tulare County, the Fire Department has added a new tool to its firefighting arsenal: a specialized app that provides valuable and necessary data to crews before they head out to a location, assisting them in saving lives and property.

When it comes to cannabis, Humboldt County has come a long way in the past couple of years. Historically renowned for its illegal grows, the County is now leading the way on working to ensure only permitted cannabis is entering the California marketplace.  While Humboldt is still the epicenter of the “Emerald Triangle,” it became the first government entity in the state to implement a track-and-trace system for cannabis.

Mark Dale became an activist in Marin County after one of his sons almost became a statistic in the opioid epidemic. “I actually identified eight individuals who passed away: six students and two adults that were drug-related or drug driven,” said Dale. “And that’s what really woke me up. I opened my mouth because if my son had cancer, we’d be talking about it, but because there was a drug-dynamic around my son, most families just zip their lip. And that’s not good. The silence has been killing us.”

Meet Katery. Eighteen months ago, Katery was a classic at-risk youth. She would often skip school and had no plans to continue her education beyond high school – if she graduated at all. She had been in trouble with the law, having been arrested for assaulting a police officer.

Now Katery’s on track to graduate a year early and is preparing to start taking classes at the local community college. She is also starting to talk about planning for a career. Quite a turn-around for an individual who at one time saw working in the fields as an adult her only option.