NONPROFIT-LED COUNTY TASK FORCE LOOKING AT EQUITY IN COVID-19 RECOVERY

SAN DIEGO

A new nonprofit-led task force is urging elected officials in San Diego County to take an equitable approach to the region’s COVID-19 recovery.

The San Diego Roadmap to Recovery Task Force is made up of several social service, health, and education agencies as well as housing nonprofits and other community leaders.

Advocates say the coronavirus pandemic is disproportionately harming the region’s low-income communities of color because of socioeconomic, health care and housing disparities present prior to COVID-19.

The task force plans to ask government officials to prioritize mass coronavirus testing in high-risk neighborhoods, bridging the digital divide among low-income families, bolstering small businesses and small nonprofits, and providing essential workers with free child care.

The group also is looking at other ways nonprofit organizations can collectively address community issues through programs and public policy.

The organizations include the Chicano Federation, South Bay Community Services, San Ysidro Health, LISC San Diego and Parent Institute for Quality Education.

The groups are being led by Nora Vargas, who is a San Diego County Board of Supervisors candidate.

Nancy Maldonado, CEO of the social services and advocacy organization Chicano Federation, said there are disparities officials must consider as they reopen the region.

One is access to child care. Over the past couple of weeks, the organization has given supplies to child care providers struggling to keep their doors open, she said.

Advocates in San Diego southeast and South Bay communities have called on officials to increase testing in low-income, marginalized communities. The county held a pop-up testing site last Saturday in the Lincoln Park neighborhood and plans to host another this weekend in southeast San Diego. The county opened a second testing site in Chula Vista.

The group also plans to make recommendations to legislators at the federal level, so the nation’s recovery is equitable, said Roberto Alcantar, chief strategy officer with the Chicano Federation.

andrea.lopezvillafana @sduniontribune.com