The County of Santa Barbara Health Department has been awarded a $2.9 million California Community Reinvestment Grant to help communities that have been disproportionately impacted by government drug policies — also known as “The War on Drugs.”

The grant, funded through the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development , will be utilized to focus on connecting priority populations with the healthcare and resources that they need.

Priority populations include monolingual Latino communities, farmworkers, low income families and individuals, and people experiencing homelessness in Lompoc, Santa Maria, and Guadalupe.

The County recently conducted two community health needs assessments — a regional assessment and a farmworker needs assessment — that revealed that 31% of region

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