An Important Message from Tierra’s CEO

In the last 15 weeks, Tierra has offered somewhere between 30 and 50 e-learning opportunities to over 600 people each day! This is 82% of our population served! In addition to our active and impressive e-learning schedule, staff mentors are reaching out to our associates to make sure they are accessing the schedule each day and that each person served knows how to get into his/her desired classes! All the while, we are still supporting a portion of our associates in-person, on a case-by-case basis. However impressive this New Normal is, we cannot be satisfied with this number because this means there are 135 people not participating. We have to find a way to forge ahead!

Along with our safer-at-home orders, we have witnessed the world finding its voice to stand against systemic injustices for people of color and ethnic diversity. Here at Tierra del Sol, we meet at the intersectionality of race, ethnicity, and disability and COVID-19 is ransacking these populations at an alarming rate.

In the Department of Developmental Services’ most recent report, of the 353,991 people served in the community, 596 have been impacted by COVID-19. See the chart here.

As you can see, 45% of these cases are Hispanic. According to the Washington Post, social vulnerability, crowded housing, and uninsured populations lead to these increased numbers. Here is a snapshot of the San Fernando Valley’s most uninsured communities in bold.

People with the highest risk factors, according to the CDC’s guidelines, live in the bolded areas below.

The areas that are majority-minority are as follows.