Milestones and Accomplishments - La Maestra Community Health

Milestones in La Maestra’s Circle of Care: 1986-2015
La Maestra Amnesty Center is founded in the City Heights community of San Diego.
1986
The educational center provides services to help refugees and immigrants gain
permanent residency and citizenship, including classes in ESL, Civics and US History, a
child literacy program, vocational training and placement, small business development
assistance, translation, and help to complete applications and prepare for residency and
citizenship exams and interviews with INS. Volunteers from the Center go to homes to
photograph and fingerprint disabled applicants and assist them with applications.
La Maestra Amnesty Center's more than 12,000 students voice the need for culturally
appropriate health services in an environment where families could feel safe, not worry
about being denied services based on lack of insurance, and where providers spoke their
languages and understood their cultural beliefs.
19901991
In response to the Student Council’s request and community needs, La Maestra Family
Clinic is founded as a DBA of the Amnesty Center and leases the first Fairmount Avenue
residential unit, which is converted into a licensed medical clinic under direction of
Dr. Courtney White. The Medically Trained Cultural Liaison Model is created and
becomes a core model to all services developed within La Maestra’s Circle of Care
throughout the next 25 years.
In 1991, La Maestra Family Clinic, Inc. is incorporated as an independent 501(c)3
nonprofit licensed community clinic.
19902000
19931998
HeadStart moves its central headquarters to La Maestra’s campus on Fairmount Avenue.
WIC also establishes a site on the campus. Ties developed with Neighborhood House,
MAAC, Copley YMCA, and others result in furthering La Maestra’s Preschool program,
Child and Family Literacy programs, and easing refugee and immigrant children and
their families into the elementary school phase in the United States. This provides a onestop shop service delivery system to the community and brings like-minded
organizations together, greatly enhancing their respective and collective organizational
missions. Alexei Ochola from MAAC joins the LMFC Board of Directors in 1996.
Migrant agricultural workers and day laborers in northeast San Diego voice a need for
healthcare and social services to address problems including chemical rashes, sexually
transmitted diseases, environmental and housing challenges.
La Maestra Family Clinic obtains a mobile office trailer and collaborates with a church
with land in Pauma Valley near the fields, offering health care and education as well as
amnesty services twice weekly for five years.
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Milestones in La Maestra’s Circle of Care: 1986-2015
Expanded Access to Primary Care grant funding from the State of California enables
La Maestra Family Clinic to serve more uninsured and underinsured patients.
1994
19941999
La Maestra Family Clinic expands the Fairmount Avenue clinic, renovating two
additional buildings for expanded Women’s Health services.
La Maestra Family Clinic brings Breast and Cervical Cancer screening along with peer
promotora community education to uninsured, low-income communities in San Diego,
and is the first clinic in San Diego to participate in a pilot program with the Center for
Disease Control, partnering with the Ida Green Cancer Center at Scripps Mercy Hospital
and Operation Samahan.
Primary Care and Women’s Health services flourish and more specialty care is brought
in to meet the growing need, including Internal Medicine and Oncologist services for
insured and uninsured patients with breast cancer.
Building on expertise and partnerships built through La Maestra Amnesty Center’s
economic development programs, La Maestra Family Clinic begins expanding its Circle
of Care to include additional economic development, community development,
education and housing related programs and collaboratives.
19951998
Through collaborations with partners such as Metropolitan Area Advisory Committee on
Anti-Poverty (MAAC) and City Heights Community Development Corporation,
La Maestra Family Clinic bridges health and housing, bringing preventative health care
and education, healthy housing assessments, and eligibility services to low-income
housing complexes where many residents are immigrants and refugees, while also
linking them to a culturally competent medical home at the clinic in City Heights.
La Maestra Family Clinic also works with these partners to implement vocational skills
training and job creation for housing residents. East African refugee residents of housing
complexes are trained and hired as Medically Trained Cultural Liaisons, and entry-level
medical staff at local healthcare facilities and schools.
1996
La Maestra Family Clinic opens a primary care satellite clinic on 26th Street in an
impoverished and medically underserved area of Downtown San Diego, serving over
1,200 patients in its first year that would otherwise have no access to care.
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Milestones in La Maestra’s Circle of Care: 1986-2015
State-designated Federally Qualified Health Center “Look-alike” status, obtained in
1997, enables La Maestra Family Clinic to access partial reimbursements for services for
some patients. The formidable application and approval process illustrate La Maestra’s
staying power and pave the way to achieving FQHC status. This milestone dramatically
increases ability to serve more patients.
19971998
In 1998, La Maestra Family Clinic becomes a Public Housing and Special Populations
Federally Qualified Health Center, the first grantee in San Diego under HRSA Federal
Section 330(i), increasing care for low-income housing residents and assuring
sustainability of services.
Also in 1998, La Maestra expands clinic hours to open on Saturdays and until 8 pm on
weekdays, increasing access to care to better meet needs of the working poor.
La Maestra Family Clinic receives significant grant funding from Office of Refugee
Resettlement, CalWORKs, and others to provide job training and placement for the
“hardest to place” refugees.
19982007
In collaboration with MAAC and other partners, La Maestra provides entry-level medical
and support staff positions to refugees and advances its innovative Medically Trained
Cultural Liaison Model to improve cultural diversity in the healthcare field. Over 345
new jobs are created in the first year and hundreds more in the following years. Many of
these motivated, new employees are able to move from receiving welfare into the
workforce. Strong, ongoing alliances are formed with local employers from healthcare,
adult education, children’s literacy, government agencies and legalization, among others.
2000
In response to a critical need among growing refugee communities from Somalia and
other African countries in San Diego, La Maestra Family Clinic forms a Task Force on
Female Circumcision/Female Genital Mutilation. The Task Force provides outreach to
the refugee communities to increase understanding of related health risks and US laws
prohibiting this traditional practice, and also publishes Female Circumcision/Female
Genital Mutilation: An Introductory Manual for Health Care Providers to increase
cultural competency among physicians at hospitals including Kaiser Permanente, who
provides funding support for the project.
2000
During Zara Marselian’s service on the Board for Survivors of Torture International,
La Maestra Family Clinic meets Dr. Jose Quiroga, a world-renowned expert on
identifying and treating torture survivors, who offers training to clinic providers and staff
on how to recognize patients who are survivors of torture, provide appropriate treatment
and facilitate access to mental and behavioral health services. This marks the beginning
of expanded mental health services for victims of violent crime at La Maestra.
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Milestones in La Maestra’s Circle of Care: 1986-2015
2001
The first La Maestra Family Dental Clinic opens on the main clinic site in City Heights
through a grant from Delta Dental.
2002
Ford Motor Company donates a 15-passenger Ford Econoline Van to La Maestra as part
of its Salud Sobre Ruedas (Health on Wheels) program to foster health education and to
help Latinos attain much-needed transportation to healthcare clinics. The new van
enables the clinic to shuttle 200 more patients per month than the aging 1991 Mazda
family van on loan to the clinic from director Zara Marselian.
2002
Zara Marselian is honored with the Kaiser Permanente K-Star Award and the County of
San Diego Public Health Champion Award in recognition of her leadership and
La Maestra Family Clinic’s successful efforts to improve the health of low-income,
culturally diverse San Diego residents.
2003
Low income children in City Heights are still suffering disproportionately high rates of
oral health disease and need treatment. In response, La Maestra Family Clinic opens its
second Dental Clinic in collaboration with Children’s Hospital Residency Program on
University Avenue in City Heights, adding specialty periodontal services.
20032004
Zara Marselian receives the 2003 Leadership Award, and the 2004 Overall Leadership
Award from San Diego's Channel 10 KGTV. Leonard Villarreal, a well-known local
news anchor for Channel 10 visits La Maestra Family Clinic in City Heights to celebrate
the achievement with employees and volunteers of the clinic.
20042005
With the expansion of La Maestra Family Clinic to additional under-served areas in East
and South San Diego County, the organization creates the DBA La Maestra Community
Health Centers and launches a new branding campaign reflecting its growing reach
among new neighborhoods, new immigrant and refugee groups, and additional
marginalized populations.
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Milestones in La Maestra’s Circle of Care: 1986-2015
La Maestra Family Clinic, Inc. applies for CHDO designation (Community Housing
Development Organization) through HUD to build on its successful pilot programs that
integrate health and housing and community development, but is told that a healthcare
organization cannot receive the designation.
Housing and Community Development Center, Inc. (HCDC) is founded by staff and
board members of La Maestra Family Clinic and incorporated as an independent
nonprofit organization in 2003.
HCDC’s goal is to increase access to safe, affordable and healthy housing and build on
pilot programs demonstrating the positive impact of the integration of healthcare,
housing and community development. Collaborative efforts with established and new
partners include: assessing substandard housing and assisting residents to access
programs to reduce asthma triggers, risk of lead poisoning, and other health threats and
making renovations to approve energy efficiency. A partnership with Second Chance
brings integration of substance abuse and recovery support programs into the Health,
Housing, and Economic Development Model.
20022012
HCDC begins to provide management of properties, renovation and construction for
La Maestra as it grows in City Heights and expands to El Cajon, National City, Paradise
Valley, and Lemon Grove, and leads a team to help La Maestra explore locations,
funding and construction options for a new, larger headquarters in City Heights.
La Maestra purchases land from Sol Price in 2003 and works with the partners
collaborating on developing the City Heights Square. That same year, LISC awards
Alexei Ochola with a scholarship to attend a yearlong training to become a Certified
Housing Developer, with ability to develop proformas; build financial analyses; identify
and secure numerous sources of funding and layer them; analyze tax credit programs to
be utilized in housing development projects; and all other development functions to
complete Affordable Housing and Community Development projects.
HCDC helps La Maestra to become a member of the US Green Building Council and
learn about green building. HCDC helps the Clinic to hire a LEED consultant and a
design team with green building expertise to design the new health center. Members of
the board and staff and the new design team form charrettes to collaboratively contribute
ideas for the building's design and functions, with a focus on sustainability goals. HCDC
serves as the owner’s representative for the capital project, working in collaboration with
the City and County of San Diego, Price Charities and Serving Seniors.
Through its Heart of the Community capital campaign, La Maestra raises funds and
contributions from green vendors to bring a healing and environmentally responsible
health center and one-stop shop for comprehensive services to City Heights.
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Housing and Community Development Center, Inc.
Milestones in La Maestra’s Circle of Care: 1986-2015
20032005
As La Maestra Family Clinic’s non-medical services continue to grow, including access
to nutritious food, safe affordable housing, self-supporting jobs, job training and
continuing education opportunities, staff and board members start a separate nonprofit
called La Maestra Foundation in 2003. La Maestra Foundation, Inc. is incorporated as an
independent nonprofit in 2005. As part of furthering its mission, La Maestra Foundation
also provides small grants to ethnic and community-based organizations to support
infrastructure development and needed services which no other organization provided.
2004
Building on its previous efforts to link nutrition to healthcare through food donation
drives for patients who do not have enough money for food for their families, La Maestra
Family Clinic becomes a Food Bank distributor, launching its onsite Food Pantry to offer
free nutritious staples to families in need once a week, later increasing to twice weekly.
2004
2004
La Maestra Family Wellness Unit is established in City Heights to expand integrated,
culturally competent mental and behavioral health services for all ages, including
treatment for depressive and anxiety disorders, as well as severely mentally ill,
uninsured, and low income residents, through counseling and medication management.
By 2007, the unit operates full-time and expands its Enhanced Psychosocial services at
all sites. Family Wellness Unit staff trains 80 employees at medical and dental sites
about how to refer patients in need of mental health services, and develops programs
tailored especially for refugee populations, pregnant women, seniors and children.
Zara Marselian is one of ten selected from 800 nominees across the U.S. to receive the
Community Health Leadership award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. That
same year Zara is honored in a special Statement for the Congressional Record by
Congresswoman Susan Davis for Excellence in Leadership in Healthcare, and
La Maestra Family Clinic receives nine additional awards.
Hospital closure in East San Diego County leads to a reduction in available healthcare
services while the population of Middle Eastern refugees in the area rapidly grows.
2004
In response, La Maestra Family Clinic invites representatives from the area onto its
Board and opens a satellite medical clinic on South First Street in El Cajon in
January 2004, under the direction of Dr. Mumtaz Almansour, with Federal Section 330
Expansion Grant funding. In July 2004, La Maestra Family Dental Clinic in El Cajon
opens next to the new medical clinic.
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Milestones in La Maestra’s Circle of Care: 1986-2015
2004
Responding to community need, La Maestra Family Clinic opens Highland Avenue
medical clinic in National City, in the South Bay region of San Diego County. Under the
direction of Dr. Jack Schneider, the new site is part of a pilot project with Sharp Mary
Birch Hospital to provide culturally appropriate Certified Midwifery services focused on
the Centering Pregnancy Model. The clinic services soon expand to include pediatrics,
family practice and OB-GYN services as well as mental health and health education
services.
2005
Zara Marselian and La Maestra Family Clinic are featured in “The Price of Renewal”,
one episode in a four-part series called California and the American Dream, aired on
PBS to document compelling stories of conflict and change in the nation’s most
populated and diverse state. The episode highlights the efforts to rehabilitate the povertystricken neighborhood of City Heights and the double-edged sword of urban
redevelopment.
La Maestra Family Clinic builds onto the OB/Gyn ultrasound services at City Heights
and begins to transport patients from satellite clinics to facilitate access to this service.
2005
2005
La Maestra also becomes the first urban clinic in San Diego to implement a
Telemedicine program, providing mental health services to rural clinics in San Diego and
Imperial counties including Borrego Community Health Foundation, Clínicas de Salud,
Sycuan Medical Center and Mountain Health & Community Services.
The Oral Health Initiative, a partnership between The Council of Community Clinics,
health center organizations, the First Five Commission, and Children's Hospital, launches
in San Diego County. Through this program, La Maestra Family Clinic provides
hundreds of pregnant women and children up to age 5 with free oral health screenings,
education, treatment and care coordination through its clinics and out in the community.
La Maestra Family Dental Clinic in El Cajon expands to full time, providing hundreds of
East County residents with free oral health screenings and education.
2006
La Maestra also responds to a growing need for affordable oral health services in the
City Heights area by adding two additional operatories as well as state-of-the-art dental
x-ray equipment at its University Avenue location.
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Milestones in La Maestra’s Circle of Care: 1986-2015
A formal Senior Medicine Program begins at the City Heights clinic with a geriatric
specialist onsite once a month, in collaboration with the University of California, San
Diego School of Medicine Geriatric Division. By 2008, the program expands with the
geriatrician onsite weekly.
2006
2007
Senior Peer Promotora Program launches in partnership with the Council of Community
Clinics and funding form San Diego County Mental Health. The program recruits and
trains health consumers and family members, or “promotoras”, who speak English,
Spanish, Somali, Laotian, Nuer, and Vietnamese to provide outreach, education, and
support groups to assist low-income, uninsured older adults and their families to access
primary care, mental health, and social services. Presentations also include fall
prevention, domestic violence, senior depression, and financial literacy.
La Maestra Eye Clinic opens on Fairmount Avenue to expand access to comprehensive
optometry services, particularly retinopathy screening for diabetic patients and children’s
school readiness.
La Maestra Family Clinic, in collaboration with La Maestra Foundation, expands Food
Pantry services with a grant from the Allen Foundation, providing nutritious food to
patients twice weekly with culturally appropriate healthy recipes and nutrition education.
2007
2007
Through grants from the San Diego Women’s Foundation and Cardinal Health, the
Healthy Food Choices Program expands to provide culturally competent community
outreach, health education classes, coaching, and support to empower patients with tools
to improve nutrition and exercise habits, prevent obesity and manage chronic disease.
Through grant funding from Susan G. Komen for the Cure San Diego, La Maestra
Family Clinic expands breast and cervical cancer promotora outreach to East San Diego
County, targeting residents of low-income housing, seasonal farmworkers, Latino and
Middle Eastern immigrants and refugees. From 2007-2008 over 1,000 women receive
culturally-competent education about breast health and early detection of cancer, and
more than 600 low-income women receive screenings, mammograms and case
management.
The program continues to grow over several years. Low-income women from eight
cultural/linguistic groups, including cancer survivors, are trained as promotoras to
provide outreach throughout San Diego County, and receive much-needed income
through the grants. The promotoras and clinic staff develop a new Breast Health Cultural
Competency Curriculum Manual to be shared with providers who serve diverse women.
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Milestones in La Maestra’s Circle of Care: 1986-2015
2007
Zara Marselian is presented with Greenlining Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award,
specifically reserved for champions of underserved communities who have demonstrated
a lifetime of tireless commitment to serving the poorest and most ignored communities.
2008
La Maestra Family Clinic, in collaboration with Community Clinics Health Network and
clinics statewide, implements population health management software i2iTracks to
identify and proactively manage care for patients with chronic conditions. The new tool
strengthens ability to evaluate and improve quality of care and integration of services,
while preparing the organization for future electronic health innovations.
2008
After eight years of providing medication for the uninsured through its dispensary,
La Maestra Family Clinic opens its Community Pharmacy, a culturally-competent,
comprehensive retail pharmacy, at the City Heights clinic site to ensure that both insured
and un-insured patients obtain the prescriptions they need and understand how to use
medication, through the 340(b) Program, Share the Care and other initiatives.
Prescriptions are soon delivered daily to La Maestra’s other clinic sites.
2008
2,200 students, parents and staff at Hoover High School in City Heights voice a need for
access to health care. La Maestra opens a part time medical and dental school-based
health center onsite to serve teens and their siblings. The Center is operated by
La Maestra Family Clinic and Scripps Mercy Hospital. A fulltime trilingual social
licensed clinical worker (LCSW) assesses students referred to the Health Center for
mental and emotional health issues.
20082010
Continuing its efforts to provide state-of-the-art medical care to underserved residents of
San Diego County, with grant funding from Verizon, AT&T, and Cisco, La Maestra
Family Clinic expands its Telemedicine program to allow patients at all sites to access
mental health and specialty providers without having to travel long distances. Specialized
medical devices such as dermascopes and ear, nose and throat scopes allow physicians at
facilities elsewhere including Scripps Mercy Hospital, UC San Diego, and UC Davis to
provide ENT, cardiology, podiatry and dermatology services.
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Milestones in La Maestra’s Circle of Care: 1986-2015
2008
To further achieve its goal of helping the underserved become self-sufficient community
members, La Maestra Foundation becomes the first organization in San Diego to have a
Microcredit Program for Women. Through this peer microlending program based on the
Grameen model, low income women in 10 areas throughout San Diego County receive
financial literacy, business planning assistance and small loans ranging from $250$1,000 repaid in weekly installments. Weekly meetings provide a forum for peer support
and mentoring. Speakers are invited to the meetings, sometimes to talk on small business
or financial literacy related topics, but also to talk about issues that affect women in the
group, such as cancer and chronic disease, domestic violence, or immigration issues.
2009
Kaiser Permanente awards a $1 million grant to La Maestra Family Clinic to support the
construction of its state-of-the-art, Gold LEED-certified health center facility. The grant
is the largest single contribution received by La Maestra from any single donor, and the
largest grant given by Kaiser Permanente to a San Diego nonprofit. The contribution is
celebrated by Kaiser Permanente executives from across the state, San Diego Mayor
Jerry Sanders, The California Endowment director Dr. Robert K. Ross and La Maestra’s
capital campaign team.
2009
Promotoras and Medically Trained Cultural Liaisons representing growing population of
refugees from Somalia and Sudan as well as Latinos voice a need for services in Lemon
Grove. La Maestra Family Clinic establishes the first community health center there by
opening a Medical and Dental health center, providing a health home for diverse, lowincome residents in this area of southeast San Diego County.
2009
With the goal of enhancing the future green health center through the addition of
thoughtfully selected art and wayfinding elements, La Maestra Family Clinic and a group
of local and regional leaders in healing and the arts launch La Maestra’s “Culture and
Healing through Arts” (CHA) initiative. CHA offers temporary exhibits and a permanent
collection of exceptional art by emerging and established regional artists, reflecting
healing and diverse cultures; collaborative art projects; opportunities for artists-inresidence and a retail gallery.
20092010
Ultrasound services for OB patients at all sites expand in 2009 with a new mobile
ultrasound unit. In 2010, La Maestra’s Medical Imaging Department, the first of its kind
in a community clinic in San Diego, is officially launched and planning begins for the
establishment of additional imaging modalities. A full scope of sonography services, are
added including Abdominal, Aorta, Renal, Thyroid, Breast, Pelvic and Endovaginal,
using teleradiology to provide next-day results from a radiologist.
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Milestones in La Maestra’s Circle of Care: 1986-2015
20092011
20092010
With a two-year grant from the Tides Foundation and The California Endowment,
La Maestra Family Clinic and La Maestra Foundation collaborate to establish the Jardin
de la Vida, a community garden in City Heights where women from the Microcredit
Program and their children can grow fresh produce. Through the grant, hundreds also
participate in health education classes, zumba aerobics classes, recycled crafts classes,
healthy recipe sharing and creation of a Healthy Choices recipe calendar.
"REACHing Out to Hispanic Caregivers of Alzheimer’s Patients" program launches in
collaboration with the Southern Caregiver Resource Center. Promotoras from La Maestra
Family Clinic provide the CALMA and CUIDAR evidence-based, educational series for
Hispanic caregivers of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease or related dementias.
Classes are offered in group settings with other caregivers or one-on-one, in English and
Spanish, and focus on helping caregivers better cope with their caregiving situation, learn
self-care and stress management techniques and develop effective family communication
skills, encouraging prevention of caregiver depression and elder abuse and neglect.
In June 2009, the Alzheimer’s Association along with San Ysidro Health Center, Casa
Familiar, La Maestra Family Clinic and UCSD Shiley-Marcos Alzheimer’s Disease
Research Center, organize Hispanic Alzheimer's Awareness Conference: Creative
Strategies for Developing a Culturally Competent Care System, inviting elected leaders
and healthcare professionals to discuss strategies for developing a culturally competent
care system.
2010
The USGBC LEED Gold-Certified, 34,660 square foot health center opens in August in
City Heights, bringing all health and support services into a state-of-the art building that
serves as a hub for health, wellbeing and community. The building more than triples La
Maestra Family Clinic’s primary care service capacity with additional space for mental
health, dental, optometry, pharmacy, laboratory, health education and support services, in
a healing environment.
20102012
School-based health centers open at Central Elementary, Monroe Clark Middle, and
Rosa Parks Elementary as a partnership between La Maestra and San Diego Family Care,
with funding assistance from Price Charities and The California Endowment, expanding
access to care for thousands of students and their siblings.
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Milestones in La Maestra’s Circle of Care: 1986-2015
2010
La Maestra Foundation, under La Maestra Publications, publishes its first book, The Soul
Speaks, to share real-life stories from refugees and immigrants from around the world to
open readers’ eyes and hearts to different cultural experiences and challenges that
populations face in their countries of origin, refugee camps and the US. The Soul Speaks
is a collection compiled by Zara Marselian as told by people from City Heights who
share their experiences of suffering through oppression, poverty, and tragedy; living in
survival mode; and finally finding the will to escape, start over and thrive in a new
community. Over 120 guests attend the launch.
La Maestra Foundation, with funding from Bravo Foundation, develops Cultural
Diversity Awareness Training for universities, teaching hospitals and corporations so
students, medical staff and others who serve diverse populations understand challenges
and benefits of diversity in relation to community health and social determinants.
2010
La Maestra & HCDC launch the I Choose Recovery! (ICR) program to offer affordable
bridge housing and integrated services necessary for men in recovery transitioning from
rehab programs or jail to re-enter society with a clean start. ICR is designed to be more
than just a sober living environment, providing a variety of integrated services including
medical, dental and mental/behavioral health, transportation assistance, and more in
collaboration with County Mental Health Services, Parole Board, Veterans Village of San
Diego, and San Diego American Indian Health Center. In its first year, ICR assesses over
230 men and links to services, providing housing to 83, 30% of whom are veterans.
2010
The California Wellness Foundation awards La Maestra Family clinic a $225,000 3-year
grant to provide dental services to low-income, uninsured adults including seniors and
people in recovery from substance abuse or violent crime.
Residents of ICR work in microenterprises run by La Maestra Foundation, to develop
their skills in professions including building security, landscaping, green janitorial
services, laundry/linen services, construction cleanup, hauling, parking attendant and
valet services, a flower shop and a secondhand boutique.
2010
These Microenterprises follow a unique model - the job supervisors work with housing
managers, mental health and medical providers, and case managers to guide each
trainee/employee in addressing needs along the road to self-sufficiency which include
improvement of physical and emotional health; proper hygiene and appearance; selfesteem and healthy relationship building; goal setting and other life skills such as time
management, problem solving, effective communication, organization, and conflict
resolution. Working environments and policies are also designed and run to be culturally
sensitive and to promote healing. Trainee/employees gain marketable skills and are able
to start building a résumé, so they can eventually move on to regular employment.
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Milestones in La Maestra’s Circle of Care: 1986-2015
Building on a vision developed since 2004, La Maestra Foundation launches the floral
microenterprise “La Maestra Blossoms” with a new website, floral arrangement and
décor services for corporate events, and pop-up flower stands for holidays.
2010
20102013
2011
The goal of La Maestra Blossoms is to cultivate economic empowerment and overall
wellbeing among under-served women in San Diego County, most of whom are recruited
through La Maestra Foundation’s Microcredit Program for Women. This goal is
achieved through creation of employment opportunities for women who face multiple
barriers to finding employment; floral design skills and retail job skills training in a
healing and supportive environment; and case-managed integration of the program with
financial literacy, health, legal and social services.
La Maestra’s Culture and Healing through Arts (CHA) program flourishes with major art
installations in the City Heights health center. In July 2011, “Rising Star” by artist Terry
Hansen, a talented San Diego resident and longtime La Maestra patient renowned for his
woodworking ability, is installed in the lobby. The star is made of repurposed exotic
wood from around the globe, steam bent to fit the curve of the wall. In December 2011,
local teens paint animal-themed murals in the pediatrics exam rooms.
In March 2013, the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture unveils
"Grandmother's Kitchen/Grandfather's Garden", a digital sculptural installation
showcasing a culinary visual history of the City Heights community, presented through
the shared experiences and culturally specific stories of food. The installation, created by
local community artist Lynn Susholtz funded by a gift from artist Niki de St. Phalle
through Niki Charitable Art Foundation, is the first partnership of the Arts Commission
with a nonprofit for long-term placement of a City-owned public artwork.
The Legal Advocacy Services department is established in the City Heights health center
as a partnership between La Maestra Family Clinic and La Maestra Foundation, serving
330 clients in its first year. This partnership provides assistance and support to people
who face rights violations or who are victims of crime, issues that too commonly affect
the health and wellbeing of La Maestra’s low-income, culturally diverse service
populations.
Collaborative partners include the US Committee on Refugees and Immigrants, National
Human Trafficking Victim Assistance Program and Casa Cornelia Law Center. The
majority of clients are victims of domestic violence and trafficking. Staff also offers
presentations to service providers on recognizing signs of domestic violence and
trafficking; how victims qualify for assistance programs; and steps that a victim can take
to transition from an abusive situation to finally achieving independence.
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Milestones in La Maestra’s Circle of Care: 1986-2015
The Imaging Center opens in the City Heights health center, the first of its kind in a
community health center, offering state-of-the-art Full Field Digital Mammography and
DEXAscan Bone Densitometry services onsite in the health home with teleradiology.
2012
2012
2012
This dramatically reduces wait times for appointments and results, improves patient
compliance and provides much needed access to screening for early detection of breast
cancer and osteoporosis.
La Maestra’s National City Clinic relocates to a larger facility on Highland Avenue,
expanding access to medical care, mental health, health education. A dental clinic is
added to meet the need for affordable oral health services in the South Bay.
With an Affordable Care Act grant, La Maestra rolls out its 40-foot Mobile Clinic,
equipped with 2 dental operatories and a medical exam room, providing medical, dental
and vision screening services at schools in City Heights and National City.
Additional grants from Verizon Foundation in 2013 and 2014 equip the mobile clinic for
telemedicine and digital optometry services. The mobile clinic also serves the
community at numerous health and resource fairs held in parks and housing facilities.
2012
La Maestra’s Generations center opens in the former amnesty center and clinic buildings
on Fairmount Avenue, with start-up funding from The California Endowment and an
intergenerational program grant San Diego County Aging and Independence Services.
Older adults and youth in City Heights are offered a growing range of programs designed
to guide them toward overall wellbeing and greater opportunities in health, lifestyle,
education and their future careers. Services include self-esteem and leadership
development, academic support, Culture and Healing through Art classes, physical
exercise and healthy eating, computer, STEM and job skills training, field trips and
exposure to enrichment and career opportunities.
2012
La Maestra Family Clinic receives the H. Jack Geiger Award for outstanding leadership
in Program Management from the National Center for Health in Public Housing at its
annual National Training Conference.
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Milestones in La Maestra’s Circle of Care: 1986-2015
20122015
La Maestra Family Clinic takes quality care, and engagement of patients in their own
health, to a new level by rolling out NextGen Electronic Health Records throughout all
sites and departments, and transforming its service delivery model to a care team
approach. La Maestra joins the San Diego Health Information Exchange Beacon pilot.
In 2015, it achieves Patient Centered Medical Home Level 3 Recognition from the
National Committee for Quality Assurance.
2013
La Maestra Family Clinic opens its third dental clinic in City Heights, decreasing long
appointment wait times that are a result of a lack of affordable oral healthcare providers
in the area. The new clinic in the Fairmount Avenue health center is adjacent to the
Women’s Health department, Health Education Unit and the Family Wellness Unit,
further streamlining the integration of medical, dental and mental health for women,
especially new mothers.
2013
With a grant from Grossmont Healthcare District, La Maestra Family Clinic rolls out a
new GMC 8-passenger van, enabling more low-income, underserved patients in East
County to conveniently access medical, dental, vision, imaging appointments and more
at health centers in El Cajon and City Heights. La Maestra's Arabic-speaking cultural
liaison and case manager assists patients who are transported for imaging services such
as mammography at La Maestra's headquarter health center in City Heights.
20132015
Full field Digital X-Ray is added to La Maestra's scope of imaging services with the
additional of a mobile Shimadzu unit in 2013. Construction begins for a state-of-the-art
x-ray unit in the Imaging Center in City Heights, completed in 2014 with support from a
City of San Diego Community Development Block Grant, and the mobile x-ray unit is
taken to satellite sites to expand access to x-ray services. In 2015, construction begins
for a Computed Tomography (CT) Scanning unit in the Imaging Center in City Heights,
with support from a City of San Diego Community Development Block Grant.
20132014
With Affordable Care Act grants and training, La Maestra Family Clinic’s Community
Health Access Department provides Outreach, Education and Enrollment Assistance to
inform and enroll community members for Covered CA and Medi-Cal. 12,177 people
receive education about their options under the Affordable Care Act; 533 Applications
are submitted for Covered CA; and 1,020 uninsured patients become insured through this
grant. In 2014, La Maestra Family Clinic becomes one of 25 community-based
organizations across the nation to partner with National Council of La Raza and Walmart
to implement the Comprando Rico y Sano Program. The program aims to increase
Latino awareness of the importance of healthy cooking on a budget while helping to
enroll eligible individuals and families into CalFresh, the federal nutrition assistance
program. CHAD helps over 2,000 eligible individuals to enroll for benefits.
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Milestones in La Maestra’s Circle of Care: 1986-2015
2014
With Federal 330(h) homeless designation funding, La Maestra Family Clinic opens its
Hope Clinic in City Heights. The new site is designed to welcome those struggling with
housing, addiction, mental health and other issues, including homeless persons and teens.
It provides a safe, comforting environment while addressing patients' needs by linking
them into the comprehensive health, wellbeing and support services in La Maestra's
Circle of Care through HCDC’s I Choose Recovery Program.
2014
Zara Marselian is selected as the 2014 Woman of the Year by Lorena Gonzalez,
California State Assembly, 80th District. That same year Zara becomes a Fellow of the
American College of Healthcare Executives, the nation's leading professional society for
healthcare leaders, representing an achievement of the highest standard of professional
development.
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