♪ know i can't deny... ♪ that i got a new feeling ♪ deep inside... ♪ [ female announcer ] with five perfectly sweetened whole grains... you can't help but see the good. welcome to "beyond the headlines." i'm cheryl jennings. today we have a special roundtable discussion in honor of national hispanic month. it celebrates the history, cultures and contributions of american citizens who ancestors

came from spain, mexico, the caribbean and central and south america. leann is here to lead an in-depth conversation with local leaders about what's currently influencing our communities. >> thank you very much. hispanic heritage month spans until october 15 and this is part of abc 7's commitment to celebrating the rich diversity we share here in the bay area. now, joining me in the studio is the executive director of sacred heart community service in santa clara county. jane garcia, ceo of this company in the east bay, and the san francisco foundation board of trustees vice chair. also professor at u.c. berkeley school of social welfare. thank you, all of you. and what i want to do is talk to each of you about your organization and what you're

doing. i would like to start with you. sacred heart community service has been helping families since the '60s. last year you helped 70,000 people, how? >> what's interesting about sacred heart, we are a grassroots foundation founded really to respond to local conditions and what we have grown to become is really the heart of the safety net for the valley and especially for latino families, poor families in our community. it is about creating an opportunity for families, but i think what we look at, like somebody recently described our work in a unique way, come to sacred heart and do one of three things. you want to change your life or change your community. we do elements of all three of those by providing basic needs like food, clothing and emergency assistance to tens of thousands of families, but also giving you opportunities to change your lives, to learn

english or help find a job or being able to access different financial resources and learn how to budget and do some other things, start a business, being able to do different things like that, access public benefits, but also gardening and create programs to help create long-term efficiency and help interrupt domestic violence as well. >> that depends so much on society. let me ask you, what are some of the biggest challenges? >> well, some of the biggest challenges we face are really that a lot of families want to, not only want to be able to create greater opportunity for themselves, but they want to give back in different ways. they want to get involved in conditions that are happening in their communities, whether it is education, in their kids' lives, being able to create a long-term, increase their long-term job prospects by being able to look at some of the issues going on with them and their employment things and there's a lot of underemployment in our community. >> we'll talk about underemployment, which is how they maybe find a part-time job here and another part-time job here, but it is not enough for

these families. and we see a lot of that. i was reading perhaps as high as 38% of latinos are underemployed. how does that affect the families and how does it affect the communities? >> well, i think it's a huge issue because we see so many families working hard and sometimes working two or three jobs just to be able to make ends meet in the high cost of living bay area. and so you're having families doing whatever they can to struggle and they are living two or three families per household and really trying to struggle to get by and finding creative ways to do something, but one of the challenges people face is the lack of social networks to help them find other opportunities, whether it is employment opportunities or being able to create businesses or being able to kind of work together to solve problems together. that's one of the challenges we are struggling with at sacred heart as we bring people together from the community, but we bring together over 10,000 individual volunteers throughout our community to help those in need and create new mechanisms

for people to reach out and create other opportunities for themselves. >> i want to talk a little bit about education because education is so important to the latino community. people really want their and ha better life. and how do you help and are people really who, for instance, may have the language barrier, do they really know what questions to ask at school to help their children? and how do you help? >> that's a really important concern, because we have an after school program, we are working with a number of children from a bunch of different schools, but really the focus, we decided about five years ago that the focus really needed to be about the parents and giving them the tools so they can be champions of their kid's education. understanding the rule school system, working out, how to interact with parents and how to read, how to interact with the teachers in the school system, understand a report card, and be advocates for children and start

preparing for college in first and second grade. they are thinking about and understanding what savings are and understanding what their role is to be leaders for their children. we are able to work with the kids 12 hours a week, but nothing provides that kind of championing support for their long-term education futures than getting the parents involved. and parents have started getting involved in organizing to change conditions at the school district club, which is really exciting. >> how do you support families who, for instance, the mother works long hours, let's say, and the father needs to work, of course, as well. and so the kids come back and the parents are there, is this really a better life where the parents are working so hard and, you know, the kids find that, where are my parents? where is the support network? >> i think a better life is relative at some level, because families have sacrificed a lot. particularly when it comes to immigration, a lot of families have sacrificed a lot to come to this country to create the

opportunity for their children to get a better quality of life and better education, and we are there to create the support systems for. getting parents involved, not just in their kids' futures but creating the network of parents looking out for each finding finding ways. we have been training a network of parents helping people learn english, doing zumba classes and other things to get people as a network of a community. even if you have come thousands of miles to another place -- >> so you're saying it's worth it, to build that community. we need to take a short break. we'll be back, of course, with our hispanic roundtable on "beyond the headlines." we'll be back.

too small. too soft. too tasty. [ both laugh ] [ male announcer ] introducing progresso's new creamy alfredo soup. inspired by perfection. [ female announcer ] at 100 calories, not all food choices add up. some are giant. some not so giant. when managing your weight, bigger is always better. ♪ ho ho ho ♪ green giant

♪ turn around ♪ every now and then i get a little bit hungry ♪ ♪ and there's nothing good for me around ♪ ♪ turn around ♪ every now and then i get a little bit tired ♪ ♪ of craving something that i can't have ♪ ♪ turn around, barbara ♪ forever i've been praying for a snack in my life ♪ ♪ and now i have a brownie ending all of my strife ♪ ♪ i finally found the right snack ♪ ♪ and well come back to "beyond the headlines." we are talking with hispanic community leaders about challenges and opportunities in our communities. jane garcia is ceo of one of my favorite organizations. i love covering you guys.

you offer high-quality culturally appropriate, accessible health care to families in the east bay counties of alameda, contra costa, and tell us about your services because you offer a lot of services. >> well, we are happy that this past year we celebrated our 42nd year in operation. from the very beginning, we've provided the full gamete of primary care services. so we do a lot of prenatal care or delivering over 140 babies every month. we do lots of pediatrics, family medicine, and of course, a lot of work with our seniors as well. but we also look at the body as a complete work in progress, so we cover dental optometry and health care as well. >> do you find that health care is at the top of the list in terms of priorities for latino families? >> absolutely. that and education. if you don't have your health,

then everything else is compromised. and we're at a very exciting point with the affordle care act rolling out as of yesterday. >> that's right. let's talk about that, the affordable health care act, how does it affect your organization? how does it help? >> well, we are very excited. in fact, the latino community is the community that is most likely to benefit from the affordable care act. there's 6 million uninsured californians and 60% of them are latinos. that means one in every third person are latinos, and we estimate that 1.7 million latinos will be eligible for medical and another 1.2 million will be eligible for subsidies under california. what that means for us is the families that have perhaps been on our scale pay a portion of what it costs for us to deliver the care will now be eligible for these programs, and that

means that we're made financially whole for many of the services that we provide. >> washingthat's going to happe those who are not eligible for the affordable care act? what's the impact on our economy? >> well, i think that there are always going to be a number of people who are going to remain uninsured, whether it's their immigration status or whatever other factors are out there. that's for the community health centers to come into play. we are committed to providing services regardless of the ability to pay. and we offer a scale that charges a family or patient based on their ability to pay. but i think people are often underestimating that there are a number of programs, certainly they vary by county, but many state programs and federal programs that they do qualify for, even when they are undocumented. >> okay. so let's move on to a few other

issues, like, for instance, diseases and those that affect the latino community. for instance, like heart disease, hispanics, of course, face higher risk than other populations. how are you dealing with that, and in terms of giving them information, providing them with the information to take better care of themselves? >> you know, everything comes down to diet, water and exercising. childhood obesity, all the chronic diseases, you can trace it back to, you know, what you're eating. and we are fortunate to have dietitians on staff as well as nurses and health educators. so often it's as simple as showing people what a reasonable portion of food on a plate would look like. we've also, in the past, have solicited recipes from some of our community members and taken those recipes and made them more nutritiously sound. and that's been a big hit. >> sometimes the problem,

though, is that it costs more to go to, for instance, a fast-food place or restaurant than to actually cook a healthy meal. and that's one of the things that we face in the hispanic community. >> it's absolutely that. it's also that many supermarkets won't locate in underserved communities, so often our communities live in what we call food -- we access fruits and vegetables and get the food that is nutritious for them and is difficult for them to get. so we do a lot of education around those -- that kind of information. >> good information, thank you. we have to take another break. we will be back with our leaders in our hispanic community. thank you. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ i ♪ know i can't deny...

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welcome back to this roundtable special edition of "beyond the headlines." we are talking about issues affecting hispanics. we have a california professor in the school of social welfare here. and he's vice chair on the board of trustees of the san francisco foundation. thanks again for being here. you wear many tasks, what do you do? >> we train social workers, but we also train them at the ph.d. level to be researchers. and we have undergrads. then at the foundation, that's a community foundation that's dedicated to the nine bay area

communities. and we do grant making on education, the art, health, environmental justice issues, the foundation's been here for over 60 years. >> right. >> and over the last decade, we've provided about $800 million in grants to different organizations. >> and so you're also an author, two books, "solving latino psych and social health problems." i want to talk about hiv among the hispanic community. still a stigma among latino men, is it getting better? >> you know, we are starting to shake it loose. and we're starting to discover that -- >> it's been a while. >> yes. yes, hiv is more than a bio medical or behavioral problem. it's a family, it's a community problem. and when we intervene at those levels, we can prevent hiv. latino men who have sex with men are still in the highest risk group. and in my book, i try to

highlight some of the best interventions out there. there's one by a professor in chicago, and he takes, sometimes alienated gay latino men, young men, bisexual men, and transgender people, and he involves them in community work. not just any community work, but aids work, lgbt rights work and he finds that involvement helps practice same sex behaviors and increases their support and increases the same sex norms among their peers because that kind of work is so relevant. it's transformative for them. >> and that kind of work helps to get the word out there for more people to get tested? which is important. >> absolutely. more people get tested and more people gets aids medication. and also just basic primary prevention. >> uh-huh. let's talk a little bit about

comprehensive immigration reform because you know a lot about that. >> well, my current work is doing hiv prevention at the community level with my day laborers. these are the guys standing out in front of the home depot store or the kelly moore paint shops trying to get work. and what we're finding is, it's not a behavioral problem, it's not that they don't know how to put on a condom or know that hiv -- how this is transmitted, we are talking about people, we are talking about a labor force that is largely undocumented. they're stigmatizes, they're persecuted, they're housing is inadequate and they can't go back and forth. it is their wives and their families, all of these things add up to too much drinking, sexual risk taking, feelings of depression. >> but you do mention, they do that you said they don't go back and forth, but some do go back. and they have, let's be realistic, they have sex with

their wives. and what happens? then you have, then -- >> that's a whole secondary risk factor, you're absolutely right about that. >> so what kind of information do they get to avoid that? to stop doing that? >> well, in the bay area, we do a pretty good job of spanish-speaking agencies getting information out to people, but it's going to take more than that. it's going to take community-level efforts. i have community partners in my work who do weekly soccer games for guys on the weekend, because they have so little to do. they're bored. if they don't get work by the weekend, they're often depressed and can sometimes engage in bing drinking and other kinds of risk taking. and this is -- this is a fabulous intervention. just to have something healthy and recreational to do on the weekends. >> so what is your biggest challenge with regard to that? >> well, you know, you asked about comprehensive immigration reform, i call it so-called immigration reform because we

are not dealing with the real causes of undocumented people coming to the u.s. and that has to do with nafta, the north american free trade agreement, the way we do business in central and north america, we are creating such vast unemployment in these places. then when people come to work here, we don't allow them to come in a documented fashion, so we end up building up these undocumented labor forces. >> okay. i want to talk during the next break about this comprehensive immigration reform with all of you. in the meantime, we'll take a short break and be back with the local hispanic community leaders. don't go away. too big. too small. too soft. too tasty. [ both laugh ] [ male announcer ] introducing progresso's new creamy alfredo soup.

inspired by perfection. [ female announcer ] at 100 calories, not all food choices add up. some are giant. some not so giant. when managing your weight, bigger is always better. ♪ ho ho ho ♪ green giant he loves me. he loves me not. he loves me. he loves me not. ♪ he loves me! that's right. [ mom ] warm and flaky in 15, everyone loves pillsbury grands! [ girl ] make dinner pop! so i should probably get the last roll... yeah but i practiced my bassoon. [ mom ] and i listened. [ brother ] i can do this. [ imitates robot ] everyone deserves ooey, gooey, pillsbury cinnamon rolls. make the weekend pop.

mom swaps one of my snacks for a yoplait. i don't mind, i mean it's orange crème. and when mom said bobby was too edgy... 'sup girl. i just swapped him out for tyler. 'sup girl. mom never questioned bobby again. two can play at this game. [ female announcer ] swap one snack a week for a yoplait. and everybody wins. yoplait. it is so good. and welcome back to the hispanic roundtable edition of "beyond the headlines." i'm leann melendes. we have the sacred heart

community service here, and dr. kurt organesta from the school of berkeley social welfare and the san francisco foundation. we want to talk again about comprehensive immigration reform because it's so important that president obama said his number one priority is to pass it this year. is that going to happen? anyone? >> i think it's surprising that they're still arguing about it, but i think the challenge is to make it truly comprehensive. until we do free trade that is good for mexico and central america, until those economies get better and people can stay in their countries and enjoy the mexican dream, you know, obama talked about that in 2008. and it hasn't been spoken about since then. it's missing some comprehensive -- >> i think the economic imperative is just so critical. we think of what this could unleash for our community, because we have literally 11 million people living in the shadows and shackled from being able to really help make the american dream possible for so many and just think of the

economic activity and the opportunity for kids to be able to get a quality education and really be able to thrive in new and unique ways. all those things are just so important, so i can't see why it should not happen. >> and what does america have to gain from it? america, in general, everybody? >> well, 76% of americans already support a pathway to citizen ship, so it is surprising that we haven't beeno able to get it to cross the finish line. we know that undocumented workers, 92% live in households that are working. so they are contributing to the economic well-being of our country to the tune of $2.7 billion. so i think what i worry about is whether they will piece-meal it, so the dreamers are a big part of the effort and certainly children who came here through no fault of their own, that's a no-brainer, but i worry that we won't take a comprehensive look and will piece-meal it. >> and the economic impact of

it? >> literally, so many businesse all parts of the world that are able to contribute in different ways. most people have the conception that undocumented immigrants typically come from crossing the border, almost 40% to 50 pb% of them are coming on student visas. and they are here to build a better life for themselves, their communities and are creating jobs for americans. that's so important. whether it's a vendor selling produce, like we're working with right now in san jose, or whether it's an organization creating high-tech companies. that is a huge, huge need for us. >> those are one of the best investments that we have in california. you're talking about people who's work participation rights are higher than the national average, who's marriage stability rates are higher than the national average. >> sense of community. >> right. people who buy homes, and are in a very rich culture. we are 40% latino in california.

that's the investment that we need to make in today and tomorrow. >> okay. in general, let's talk about opportuniti opportunities, i want to leave on a positive note, what are the opportunities out there for latinos? >> well, i think the latino community, they want to give back and be involved. they are part of the fabric in our economy, the health systems we have, they are so much a part of it. the more opportunities people give back, volunteer, invest, that's what we are looking for. >> i think we live in an aging society, so the workforce and the part that latinos can play is critical. >> okay. >> the dreamers have energized the latino movement again. >> i have to agree. well, i'm afraid we have to wrap it up. thank you very much, jane, kurt and bonjo for your commitment to serving our community. we are grateful for your insight and leadership. thank you for being here. back to you, cheryl. >> thank you, leann. that's all the time we have for today. a special thanks to all of our

guests. for more information about today's program, just go to our website, abc7news.com/community. we are also on facebook at abc7communityaffairs. and follow me on twitter @cherylabc7. i'm cheryl jennings, have a great week. see you next time.

>> jack hanna's "wild countdown" is sponsored by nationwide insurance. >> hi, everyone, i'm jack hanna, coming to you from my base camp here at the columbus zoo. welcome to "wild countdown." aggressive carnivores may seem like the bad guys in the animal kingdom. >> you would not survive an attack from a croc this size. >> top predators are essential to keep nature in balance. they can take an animal up just like it's a marshmallow up in the tree like that. today, 6 supreme hunters. look at that female over there. she's going up... they're all fanning out.r of the week. that's the last time i'll ever get out of a van to look at a lion. >> yeah, yeah. >> so which species is the top