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Self-Help Enterprises community development specialist Sonia Sanchez emphasized the importance of collaboration between groundwater sustainability agencies and the rural, sometimes disadvantaged, communities within their districts to ensure many voices are heard.

“It does vary, but some themes that we’re seeing are that communities are not being engaged overall,” Sanchez said, noting that many of these agencies do not have any rural residents on their governing boards.

“That could be a space where residents could be more involved and have their voices heard.”

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Organizations such as Self-Help Enterprises, Valley Water Collaborative and the Community Water Center, as well as Shasta and Santa Cruz counties, operate regional programs through the State Water Board that offer a range of services related to drinking water, such as water testing, bottled water, and/or water treatment if contaminants are found.

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Joseph Heide, community development manager at the nonprofit Self-Help Enterprises, said that projects to address water quality problems can take five to 10 years to finish, and that officials need to expedite them to three.

“We need to make sure small, disadvantaged communities have the resources and the funding to fix their water within that three-year time period, because this has real impacts,” said Heide, who helps under-resourced communities access clean drinking water in the San Joaquin Valley — the fertile southern region of the Central Valley.

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The $40,000 grant is one of the largest Bank of the Sierra has funded as part of its Sierra Grant Program. The grant will support Self-Help Enterprises’ initiatives, including affordable housing, homeownership, housing rehabilitation, sustainable energy, and emergency services including water access.

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El programa de Rehabilitación de Self Help Enterprise vino a devolver la sonrisa a la señora Evangelina, pero también su seguridad. “Ella está feliz, le encanta”, dice Norma, quien cuida de su madre hace años.

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The city of Dinuba started the Homeless Outreach Partnership Effort (HOPE) in 2017 to address homelessness within the community. The HOPE team, led by senior code enforcement officer Angelica Molina, works with regional organizations to get people connected to housing services, including the Kings/Tulare Homeless Alliance (KTHA), Tulare County, Self-Help Enterprises and more.

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Stanislaus Equity, also known as STEP, is collaborating with Self-Help Enterprises on a 45-unit affordable housing development on East Morris Avenue in Modesto. The Porges Family Foundation donated the one-acre site, about a block east of McHenry Avenue, which helps to keep costs down for the project.

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Bank of the Sierra donated $40,000 to Visalia-based Self-Help Enterprises (SHE) through its Sierra Grant Program, which will support affordable housing, officials announced Monday.

The grant will support SHE initiatives, including affordable housing, homeownership, housing rehabilitation, sustainable energy, and emergency services including water access.

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On Friday, state senator Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield) hosted a water distribution event in Springville to give bottled water to residents. Grove has called on the state to allow for nonprofit Self-Help Enterprises to provide temporary water tanks, plumbing to tie into Springville’s service lines and about three million gallons of hauled water, according to a press release.
The state has provided grant funds for Self-Help to work with disadvantaged communities whose wells went dry during the drought.

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Many residents, particularly low-income, Latino farmworkers in rural communities, face the harsh reality of dry wells or contaminated water sources due to the excessive water consumption and pollution caused by the agricultural industry. But there are organizations fighting for fairness in water access, as discussed in this episode with Susana De Anda of Community Water Center, Linda Gutierrez of the Yettum-Seville Community Services District, and Jessi Snyder of Self-Help Enterprises.

See the full episode here.

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