Council changes course, approves $1M to help west Fresno. What changed their minds?
Fresno City Council approved a $1 million contract on Thursday aimed at improving health disparities on the city’s west side.
The Developing Across West Fresno Neighborhoods Initiative, called DAWN for short, has three major goals to increase a health care workforce for children, investment in infrastructure and health education.
The DAWN program failed to get the support of the council in April, but the vote came down on the side of the program on Thursday.
Previously hesitant over the plan, members of the council have thrown their support behind the investment following the movement that came after the killing of George Floyd.
The program was developed by southwest Fresno advocate Venise Curry, a doctor.
“It is really meant to address infant mortality at the core, but also to address those factors that heavily impact birth outcomes,” she said.
Curry said the health efforts will also benefit those affected by the coronavirus. The virus has been especially damaging to communities of color, like southwest Fresno. Asthma, heart disease, diabetes and other conditions run high in that part of town and can exacerbate the effects of the coronavirus.
The city had earmarked $1 million to help relocate the Darling Ingredients plant out of southwest Fresno but corporate officials confirmed they would be closing the plant by the end of 2023, freeing up that money.
The $1 million for DAWN will be overseen by the Fresno Equal Opportunity Commission.
Fresno City College is involved in the partnership to train nurses, dental workers and doulas — trained support staff who are not medical professionals.
Infrastructure investments include planting 60 trees and installing 25 air quality monitors, and a number other efforts are planned.
“This is a pretty specific and clear scope of work that we would ask the organizations to achieve,” Councilmember Miguel Arias said.
The vote Thursday approved the contract. The council will still need to vote on the spending plan.
Other investments
The council supported a plan in June sponsored by Councilmembers Garry Bredefeld and Mike Karbassi that would spend about a third of the $92.8 million Fresno got in COVID-19 relief money.
Those plans include spending on two health clinics for southwest and southeast Fresno, a food distribution program and an expansion of testing for the coronavirus, to name a few efforts.
