damian trujillo: hello, and welcome back to "comunidad del valle," i am damian trujillo. and today, dual language or two language immersion, is it working on your "comunidad del valle." ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ damian: we begin today with community health partnership and some important new developments regarding medi-cal, and other medical services. with me are jesse castaneda, cecilia taison, and melissa trujillo here on "comunidad del valle." folks, welcome to the show. melissa trujillo: thank you. damian: thank you for being here. we'll start with you, melissa, tell us first about community health partnership and the mission y'all have there. melissa: yeah, thank you damian. so yes, my name is melissa trujillo with community health partnership. i'm one of the health coverage program managers here along with my colleagues and i'll have them introduce themselves too. jesse castaneda: so i'm jesse castaneda, also a health coverage program manager. cecilia tyson: cecilia tyson. damian: all right, well welcome. yeah, go ahead melissa. melissa: thank you. and so community health partnership also known as chp,

is an association of different health centers throughout santa clara and san mateo county. many of the health centers provide primary care services along with other services such as dental services, mental health services, prenatal and case management services. and the mission of community health partnership is to advocate for quality, affordable, accessible, and culturally competent healthcare systems that demonstrate respect and compassion for our diverse communities. and at community health partnership, we do have five priority areas that we work in so we have different teams that work on different areas. we have an advocacy team and in that advocacy team is a patient's rights team that provides resources on patients' rights that will help patients regardless of what coverage they have or what provider they have, to learn about their patient's rights and accessing healthcare services. we also have a workforce development team that offers workforce training, internship for students and staff training.

we have a community engagement team that leads work in preparing the community for emergencies through workshops and outreach on how to prepare for emergencies. we have a population health team that conducts quality improvement programs at our member clinics and health centers to improve health outcomes for our patients. we also have a committee programs team which is a team that jesse, cecilia and i are in that conducts outreach and education on health around diabetes. damian: well, it looks like. you froze a little bit there melissa. a lot of work being done by community health partnership but it's important news jesse, that it came out at the beginning of the first of this year. tell us about that change regarding medi-cal. jesse: so what happened as of january 1, 2024, was there was an adult medical expansion. so anyone between the ages of 26 through 49 that lives in santa

clara county or throughout the state, can apply for medi-cal if they don't already have medi-cal, and now there's no immigration status. there are income limits and also another big thing that happened with medi-cal, there's no asset limitations. before there were previously, there were asset limitations that a lot of people didn't qualify for. so it's important for members of the community if they've applied in the past and for some reason they weren't eligible, they should reapply. if they need help applying they can always call us at our helpline which is 408-579-6028 and we can help them in the process and also referring them to one of our clinics. damian: so to sum it up, a lot of people did not qualify last year for medi-cal benefits, this year they do. jesse: yes, one of the big things is the immigration status. so in 2016, there was a senate bill 75 that passed that allowed children under the ages of 19 to qualify for medi-cal,

their lower income limitations, and it was regardless of their immigration status. and then january 1 of 2020, it was expanded to 26 years and younger. and then the one previous was 50 adults, 50 plus, that was may 1 of 2020. and now this one includes adults 26 through 49. and the big change, like i say, is there's no immigration status needed. so previously anyone who had medi-cal was on restricted medi-cal. so they're very limited to services they receive. now with the full scope medi-cal, it's more comprehensive. they will be assigned to one of two different insurance plans in santa clara county. damian: so i have just a quick, yes or no answer. are there other changes to medi-cal that people should know? and i'll get to that in our next segment. just curious if there are any other changes that people should be aware of. jesse: yes, well, the big thing is the immigration status

and no asset limitations. damian: okay, great. now we'll get to that in our next segment and expand on that a little bit. and cecilia we'll start with you in our next segment. but for more information, again, this is the community health partnership. they're right here in the south bay, they do help all of these community health clinics with advocacy and whatever else they need. there is their website on the screen for more information. we'll be back with community health partnerships, stay with us. ♪♪♪

here on "comunidad del valle," and cecilia, we'll start this segment with you. so there are a lot of the community clinics, gardner for one, that maybe when they need some help in other areas they'll rely on you. tell us how that works. cecilia taison: yeah, so we work with a lot of the centers in here in santa clara county and san mateo. and the names are aaci, asian american for community involvement, gardner health services, indian health center

santa clara valley, planned parenthood mar monte, ravenswood family health network, school health clinics of santa clara county, rotacare bay area, and peninsula healthcare connection. so our health centers support the underserved population in their neighboring communities by hosting or attending outreach events where they share information about the expansion and the other resources that they specifically offer. there are certified enrollment counselors at the centers that complete new and renew applications for those who need health coverage. you can view which centers are nearest to you by going to the website at chpscc.org and select the health access tab and select clinic list and you can enter your address and find the nearest health center nearest to you. anyone who has questions or needs a referral to a center can call chp's health coverage line at 408-5796-028 depending on what fits their needs, preferred location and services offered,

they will be referred to one of the health centers mentioned. damian: how much do these health clinics, community health clinics rely on you and your services and your advocacy? cecilia: i would say that we all support each other so, i think we utilize the health coverage line a lot. so they don't always come in for referrals for an application or to renew their health coverage but it could be like troubleshooting, it could be like asking for resources, maybe within the community or clarifying questions. so i would say we rely on the health coverage line a lot for community connection and if we need to troubleshoot that to the other centers, we provide that information to them. damian: so advocacy, how big of a role is advocacy melissa, when it comes to the partnership that you have? melissa: yeah, advocacy plays a big role in advocating for,

you know, the expansions is different, laws and talking to different board of supervisors and political figures to advocate for these new laws. and yeah, just advocate for patients to have the care that they need. damian: so instead of gardner going to sacramento and advocating because they don't have the people power to do it, they rely on you and you'll advocate for them. that's sounds like a good model. melissa: yeah, we all work together. yeah, i would say we all work together in advocating together for the different issues. damian: makes sense and jesse, with these new groups that are now eligible, i mean, i think it's no secret if it wasn't for this they'd end up in the emergency room, and two things happen there, their complications become exacerbated and then it costs taxpayers even more now. jesse: exactly. as you may have known, i recently retired from the

emergency room with the county 27 years and exactly, that's one of the big things, a lot of these people when they had to get refills, is they didn't have primary care physicians would end up to the emergency room or urgent care at one of our hospitals. and so now they will be assigned or they will choose between santa clara family health plan as a medi-cal managed care, or anthem blue cross where they will have their own primary care physician at one of these community clinics that we work with. damian: how many of these, well i don't know if any of you three know what percentage of folks roughly are not getting that medi-cal service because of fear, fear of immigration, even though as you mentioned, that's not taken into consideration anymore. but there's gotta be so many folks out there who just don't wanna risk it. jesse: yeah, there's a big issue in our community because of also the issue of public charge. many people think that if i go on to services from the

government, that when i go to adjust my status become a resident, that it's gonna affect me. but medi-cal will not affect anyone based off of the law, public charge. only if they receive monetary funding or if they go, they're receiving medi-cal and using services at a health clinic. damian: i mean, even and i can think it out loud here, what about the dacasta's who are, you know, you have to apply every year to renew your daca status? there's gotta be some fear there. "what am i gonna do now? should i do it, should i not do it?" jesse: yeah, and that's why we're here. i mean, we're here to reassure them about immigration. we have contacts in the community and you know, we're doing trainings for our staff at the different clinics, that's one of the things i was hired for. and you know, to inform them about immigration laws and what's going on. and you know, we are not here as immigration officers, we're here

to serve the community. we mentioned advocacy, i just wanna mention our ceo is dolores alvarado, many of you may have know her in the community and she's one of our big advocates with us as a team as well as with all the centers. damian: well, she is a huge pillar in this community. we thank you all for sharing all this valuable information on community health partnership and on the changes to medi-cal, thank you all so much. jesse: thank you. melissa: thank you. damian: again, for more information we're gonna show you the website for community health partnership. there it is on your screen. log on for more information on these new medi-cal changes and also on just the important work of community health partnership. up next here on "comunidad del valle," the success of two language immersion programs, stay with us.

i tried to quit smoking cigarettes probably hundreds of times over the years. two or three days into quitting again. i go get into a vehicle and guess what? there's a pack of cigarettes in there. i mean, i've got the unlit cigarette in my hand and i said to myself, why do i even try to quit? when if i'm going to cave so easily every time. something clicked in my head that told me i can do this?

it's a two-way bilingual immersion school in the oak grove school district of san jose. with me on "comunidad del valle" are patricia mondragón, the principal of the school, and norma corton, who's a school

teacher there at del roble. welcome to the show, ladies. norma corton: hello. patricia mondragón: thank you, thank you very much for having us. damian: thank you for being here. patricia tell us a little bit about your school and what makes it so special. patricia: oh, del roble twbi, we call it twbi in endearing terms. we have about 430 students. currently it's from tk to eighth grade. it was initially established since 2014 by our superintendent, josé manzo, here in the oak grove school district, with the support of assistant superintendent, dr. ivan chaidez. and it is a program, it's a 90-10 program, meaning that 90% of the student's initial instruction is in spanish and as they go through the grade levels, it increases the english instruction. and we have many, many goals, but the major ones are having students being bilingual, biculturalite and also have academic success because they need to be ready for the global workforce.

damian: and you're one of the founders of the program, maestra. tell us what grade you teach and the progress that you see in your students from tk all the way to eighth. norma: of course, yes, i was one of the pioneers that i started in 2015, so right now i'm teaching second grade but i actually started in kinder. so it was so exciting that when i had a chance to teach second grade, those students already reading and writing in spanish and it was exciting to see the progression. and you get to--as you see your students' progress throughout the school year, it continues to see their biliteracy improving year after year. so yes, that would--right now, that's what i'm doing, i'm teaching second grade. damian: all right, is the basis to establish the spanish foundation first and then work your way upward or down from there or how does that work at your school?

patricia: yeah, so we want to make sure that the foundation of the spanish language is very solid. that's why little by little we increase the english because we know that our students are going to transfer the skills learned in spanish directly to english because there's a lot of connections, a lot of cognates, cross-linguistic awareness that they'll be able to develop to be able to do that very quickly. in addition, we have the immense support of our parents because this is a program that requires a lot of support from our parents to be able to support our students because the linguistic demographics of our classrooms are very unique, meaning that at least half of our students have to be bilingual or spanish speaking only, and the other half english only because they need to be able to support each other. we're a two-way bilingual, the two-way meaning that the students learn from the students themselves, the languages, and from the teacher.

so it is crucial that we have that linguistic makeup within the classrooms because we want to go ahead and establish a positive interdependence within the students. for example, if i only know spanish, then i'm going to look at my classmate norma here, to be able to support me with the english instruction. if she's only english, she only knows english, she's going to look at me to be able to support her with the spanish instruction. so we create this interdependence within the classroom that is beautiful to see as a educator that students foster that support within the classroom, and they know that everybody will succeed if everybody supports each other and helps each other with the languages. damian: yeah, i was sold on dual language immersion several years ago, my children obviously are graduating from the program at atlanta in the alhambra school district. so the success--the proof is there in the success of the

students themselves. but isn't it fascinating, maestra, when you see an african american child in sixth grade and a white child in sixth grade speaking fluent spanish? norma: it is amazing and right now i usually have a lot of also vietnamese. it's very diverse, and when we have diversity like that it's also showing respect for each other's culture. and we learn from them and they learn from the latin-america and spain culture, the spanish culture, the different languages. but we do a lot of hands-on, we do our curriculum helps these cultures to be embraced by each other because we get to learn a lot from it. and yes, when we see african americans, we've had different,

yeah, different groups of korean, it's very diverse, that helps a lot. yes, and it's very interesting that for a lot of them, this is their third language they're adding to and it's a lot easier because their brain is already wired to take another language. damian: oh, it's a great point, wow. i mean, to be trilingual in a valley like this is truly amazing. a credit to your school del roble. well, for more information, they are taking or accepting applications for teachers and students. there is their website, their address, as well as the del roble elementary in the oak grove school district of san jose. we'll be back and wrap it up with this important topic here on "comunidad del valle." stay with us ♪♪♪

at the del roble elementary in san jose and also norma corton is a teacher at del roble. so we mentioned about the success of learning subject

matters in spanish and english. what about the math component? 'cause i think a lot of parents have questions about, do they excel in math and the sciences, does it all relate? patricia: oh, gosh, yes. so currently we're just--we're going to be receiving the seal of excellence award from cabe, the california association for bilingual education because our students are excelling in mathematics, english, language arts, and spanish language arts because we teach through seal. it's a broader early academic language, thematic units, and that's embedding all of the different contents to be able to instruct within the classroom. so we really provide a lot of thematic, a lot of hands-on instruction to our students. so we're seeing how our students in mathematics particularly, like you asked damian, they're able to transfer those cognates

from spanish directly to english. their initial instruction in mathematics is in spanish, and then in the upper grades, it turns to english. but yes, when we are looking at their state tests, they're excelling even compared to other schools that have only received--students who have received english instruction. so based on that data, we are now seal of excellence school from cabe, thanks to the support, immense support of the course of our superintendent josé manzo, our superintendent, dr. ivan chaidez, our assistant superintendent, amy bowles, and of course, our associate superintendent, mark evans. our district really supports us and supports our teachers. we have a awesome induction program for them. so if you're a teacher looking to go ahead and instruct in a very passionate driven motivated district, please come on over because we are showing through data that our students are

succeeding in our two-way bilingual immersion schools. damian: yeah, you're absolutely right. those teachers are the unsung heroes and ms. corton, you're part of the reason for that success. you wanna, invite some other folks to join you as well. norma: yes, i also wanna invite the parents to come and join us bring your students. if you want them to be bilingual, bicultural, biliterate, this is the place. please come, we have an awesome group of parents. they can support you, they can guide you all the way. we have a great team of teachers that also are very supportive to the teachers, to the parents, i'm sorry, and to the students. so, i do invite you to bring your students to us because we'll take good care of them and of course, they'll come out very well prepared for our future century 21.

damian: yeah, they'll--the rising stars will be those students. any final thoughts patricia, before we let you go here on "comunidad del valle?" patricia: bilingualism is the future. so please, please make sure that you're looking for those programs that you seek the support from your districts so we can go ahead and support our students and give them this opportunity to have the skills to be part of the workforce that is bilingual. we need to really enforce that and support our students with giving them that opportunity that they so deserve and need right now. damian: well, it's such a huge asset not only to sell it to you, just the bilingual part of it. being bilingual allows me to do this show in english on nbc and then this show in spanish on telemundo. there's nothing better than being bilingual. if you're trilingual well, even better. ladies, thank you so much for the work that you're doing for our children. norma: thank you. patricia: thank you for having us-- damian: thank you very much. again, they're the del roble elementary.

they are here in south san jose, the oak grove school district. there is their address and their website for more information. they're looking for teachers, they're looking for students, to help them with that success. well, if you wanna get ahold of us "comunidad del valle," you can follow me on instagram. my handle is @newsdamiantrujillo. you can also email me there. that is my direct email. i do respond to your emails if you think you have a topic here for the show. we thank you for being a part of our sunday here on "comunidad del valle," we'll see you back here once again next week. we'll leave you now with a little bit of danza again calpulli tonalehqueh. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ [speaking in foreign language]

[speaking in foreign language] [speaking in foreign language] [speaking in foreign language] [speaking in foreign language] male: we salute the direction of the sun darkness far that was near, the giver of life, light. ♪♪♪ [speaking in foreign language] ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪

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