classes (English as a Second Language), at migrant farm worker camps or by making individual house calls. These programs are conducted in conjunction with the Tri-County Community Clinics Coalition and the County Health Services Agency. The outreach encourages target populations to avoid risky behavior by providing culturally appropriate cessation tactics and lots of moral support. In October 1990, the clinic was approved by the State as a Comprehensive Perinatal Service Program (CPSP) provider. Through this program, the clinic is able to thoroughly assess a pregnant client's potential risks (such as low-iron diet, exposure to secondhand smoke, drug and alcohol use, etc.) and share with them the tools for improved health. Shauna McCosh, Bilingual Perinatal Educator, explained that, ".-..Maria De La Cruz-Vasquez gave birth to a healthy bouncing baby boy because in the course of her care at Westside, we speedily diagnosed and treated her for gestational diabetes. If she hadn't been screened and her diabetes had gone undetected, the end result could have been a highly complicated pregnancy, a stillborn baby, birth defects or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)." In spite of difficulties in tracking down the grants to fund HIV education, Westside is continuing their programs of HIV risk screening, pre-test counseling, HIV testing, post-test counseling, one-on-one HIV education,.educational materials and referrals. The HIV educators work closely with a number of community agencies including the County Health Services Agency, Santa Cruz AIDS Project and Salud Para La Gente (our sister-clinic in southern Santa Cruz County). From the moment a patient steps through the front door, they are involved in their own health decisions. This ranges from a plaque which hangs ove~ the reception Left, this Cinco de Mayo celebration table at Wa'tsonville Plaza is one of the clinic's preventative . health education forums. Outreach health workers develop trust, educate, and spread the word about the clinic's low-cost health services in the neighborhood, in ESL classes, at migrant farmworker camps and by making individual house calls. window announcing: "Your community health center needs you! We are looking for patients to serve on the Board of Directors," to the informative manner in which the practitioners perform exams, to the clinic's commitment to maintaining a health education department. Not only is health education about helping people help themselves, it influences us to do the right thing for our loved ones as well. Guillermo recalls, "I quit smoking because I don't want to end up a statistic, I have a family to think of too. I get so scared with my chest so heavy all the time, I don't want them to suffer if I ever get too sick." The staff at the Westside Community Health Center thinks it is a crime when people like Guillermo suffer from completely preventable illnesses. Barbara Garcia, Westside's very first Executive Director, agrees that "...the health center has always proved to be a model example of community medicine. Our neighbors, those who have traditionally gone without medical care, are getting what they need because we are out there, on the front lines, looking out for the community's broader interests." Barbara describes the Santa Cruz Westside Community Health Center as the product of a grassroots organizing effort by the Westside Neighborhood Association to provide a comprehensive medical facility on the west side of Santa Cruz. She recalls that, "...as the political climate began to shift away from the 'social consciousness' of the '60s and '70s, local community activists mobilized to meet the growing needs 6f their medically underserved populations." After eight years of research, planning, support-gathering, fundraising and recruiting, the health center opened its doors in June 1983. For many years the clinic remained quite small, serving the local neighborhood's most immediate needs. At that RAIN Summer 1996 Volume XV, Number 1 Page 9
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