Khanh Whited, Monterey Safe Prescribe

California's San Benito County straddles a fine line between urbanity and rurality. Although it borders Silicon Valley, its copious farmland and natural beauty grant it an identity unique among its more industrialized neighbors. Unfortunately, it suffers from a problem common to rural communities: limited access to substance-related healthcare. Local counselors Amy Bravo and Michael Salinas formed Youth Recovery Connections (YRC), a Hollister-based community organization, in response to that dearth of resources. Besides providing substance use and behavioral counseling for those in need, YRC is also spearheading a team of local first responders as well as a tri-county initiative coordinating in-field administration of buprenorphine through EMS providers.

AmeriCorps VISTA member Khanh Nguyen Whited serves at Montage Health Prescribe Safe in neighboring Monterey County. In collaboration with YRC and the Connecticut-based Center for Addiction Studies and Research (CASR), Khanh submitted a grant proposal to the California Department of Health Care Access and Information's Substance Use Earn and Learn Program. The program's funding would allow YRC and CASR to provide education and on-site experience for those wishing to become certified substance use counselors.

YRC and CASR's funding request was granted in full. Their burgeoning program will provide an outlet for those struggling with substance use to apply their lived experience; in addition, it will enrich San Benito County's stretched behavioral health workforce and increase YRC's capacity for continuing to "meet folks where they're at"—that is, in manners most accessible to those in need.