Check out the April Newsletter here.
This month, NACCHO had the opportunity to speak with Ernesto Martinez, Director of Asset Building Programs, and Juan Mesa, Community Communications Manager, of Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA). MEDA, based in San Francisco’s Mission District, “is advancing a national equity movement by building Latino prosperity, community ownership and civic power.”
One notable program of MEDA is the “promotoras model.” The promotoras model is a model that aims to give reproductive healthcare to women, however, during the rise of the pandemic, they “pivoted that model back to public health during the pandemic to really focus on making sure that [their] community was able to access the vaccine and get the right information.”
Most organizations had to shift their priorities when the pandemic came about, and MEDA is no exception.
Martinez explained that they had to focus on “making sure that folks have access to high quality housing, that [they were] addressing overcrowding, that [they were] getting them good quality jobs that they can afford places where they’re able to either work from home or not live in overcrowded conditions.”
MEDA is superhero in the community. From housing to education to COVID resources, MEDA provides for the community in ways that are invaluable.
“We are culturally competent when it comes to providing services around economic development and financial empowerment, culturally competent when we build and preserve housing, culturally competent when we lend money to a small business,” said Martinez. “That was very much our approach when it came to public health as it’s kind of built into our DNA as an organization.” MEDA continues to provide for the Latino community in San Francisco despite the many challenges COVID has brought about.
