In late January, Isabel Perez and her team prepared to meet with church leaders, community organization heads and local teenagers at the Public Health Advocates office in Stockton. They gathered notes from ongoing projects, laid out snacks and waited for the group of 25 or so folks to arrive.
Perez manages Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health, a federally funded program known as REACH, housed inside PHA. She and her colleagues, Khadija Fox, assistant program manager, and Erica Burton, a program specialist, are charged with addressing health disparities that affect African Americans in Stockton. Their work started in 2022 and has reached thousands of people across the city.
While they waited for community members to arrive, Perez and her team caught up on emails from the day before. One of the messages was a gut-punch from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Any vestige, remnant, or re-named piece of any DEI [Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion] programs funded by the U.S. government under this award are immediately, completely, and permanently terminated,” the message read. “No additional costs must be incurred that would be used to support any DEI programs, personnel, or activities.”
Perez and her team were stunned. According to the CDC, the federal grant that has made their work possible had been tanked by an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on the day of his inauguration.
“It took a minute for the reality to hit me,” Fox said. “And then once it did, I… just kept getting this dagger in my heart, because I really, really love the work.”
As the members of the visiting cohort began to filter in, Perez and her team struggled to fathom how they would break the news that the program was ending, so they just began the meeting by hearing from their guests.
“They literally started out the meeting sharing about how excited they are to move forward in 2025 doing work with us, as they’ve seen us do work in the past, and connecting with each other…,” Fox said. “(It) just kept hitting me. Every time someone said something, I’m like, ‘Oh my god, we have to share this news.’”
When they did, the hopeful mood of the meeting died instantly.
“I’ve never seen so many jaws drop and tears fall,” said Valerie Caffese, one of REACH’s community partners.
A nutrition specialist at Community Action Partnership of Kern (CAPK), a group that operates two Head Start facilities in Stockton, Caffese has more than 30 years of experience with federally funded programs.
“Everyone in that room was literally in shock,” she said. “I don’t think anyone could believe it.”
After the meeting, Caffese said, it took the whole walk back to her car before reality really set in. She worried for Perez, Fox and Burton’s jobs and the lasting effects their absence would have on the community. And she mourned all the partnerships REACH had created. She sat in her car ruminating on how quickly it could all come to an end.
“What can we do to prevent something like this from just falling through the cracks?” she recalled wondering to herself. “What do we have to do? What do we have to show and prove? Because it really was a devastating blow.”
REACH is just one of thousands of programs across the U.S. to be thrown into chaos in recent weeks as the Trump administration has waged a campaign to defund education and services related to DEI.
When the notice that REACH’s funding had been terminated first arrived, PHA planned to lay off Perez, Fox and Burton without severance pay because the organization had no money in reserve to keep the program going. But four days later, after a federal judge temporarily blocked federal cuts to DEI and other programs, PHA’s grant was reinstated.
The REACH team didn’t know what to make of it. Perez said they looked forward to standing meetings with CDC representatives and hoped to be reassured of their funding status, but the CDC cancelled both calls.
According to Burton, PHA is still able to access the CDC funds for this grant cycle. But with continuing cuts to federal programs, and inconsistent communication with the CDC, PHA is requesting the team’s salary in advance to ensure timely paychecks for Burton, Perez and Fox.
“None of us have found other employment,” Burton said. “We’ve been told to look for jobs because it’s really uncertain how much longer we’re going to have this grant… It causes a lot of anxiety and stress, and it’s hard to really do the work when you just don’t know how long you’re going to be employed, right?”
The CDC funds local REACH programs through five-year federal grants awarded to community-based organizations, such as PHA, to address health disparities.
In Stockton, PHA receives north of $700,000 for each year of its grant to operate the local REACH program, according to Perez. Most of that money covers staff salaries and everyday operating expenses, such as computer software, office supplies and mileage reimbursements. The remaining funds go to direct services. For example, REACH provides families with nutrition education and health-related items for new mothers, including rocking chairs and refrigerators for storing breast milk.
Caffese’s role in the cohort, as a representative of Head Start, has been to connect advocates, clergy and other community leaders with services that support families struggling to care for their babies and young children. She said REACH’s in-person partner meetings are vital to connecting programs that can support each other in their community work.
“You don’t open a phone book and find those resources,” she said. “You know, it’s word of mouth. It’s people like Khadijah who come out, introduce themselves and say, ‘Hey, we have this available.’”
The funding ordeal has left PHA in a state of anxious uncertainty as the team has tried to balance normal work responsibilities with the abnormal pressure of finding ways to keep their program alive without federal dollars, should they disappear again.
“We do this work in our communities with or without the grant, and we’re not going to stop,” Perez said. “We’re going to keep doing it. But the grant provides the funding for the resources and the connection.”
REACH facilitates programming for a broad swath of African American residents in Stockton. For example, REACH has campaigned for safer walking routes to and from Bear Creek High School for students and their families, which resulted in new sidewalks in the area.
Fox, who is a certified doula and breastfeeding educator, builds programs to support new parents by giving them tools and resources that promote healthy infant development.
This year, Burton hopes to work with a group of African American girls, ages 13 to 18, for a project called REACH Teen. After the federal funding became uncertain, the program’s seven young participants were told their plans could be in jeopardy.
“It’s just you don’t really know what to do,” Burton said. “Like, should we look for other job opportunities? Do we wait to see what’s going to happen?”
Now, she said, they’re in the surreal position of having to use the advocacy skills they typically employ to help their community to protect their own programs.
“We’ve been advocating for ourselves,” she said.
They reached out to the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors and 9th Congressional District Representative, Josh Harder, asking for help finding alternative funding streams.
They also explained their predicament to the Stockton City Council during public comment at a council meeting on Feb. 4. Some council members, including Jason Lee of District 6, expressed support.
“They are doing a lot of work in my district and economically disadvantaged communities,” he said. “I see all the commentary online about the cuts to their program, and I just want to voice my support and ask that staff explore any resources that we have within the city, or even county.”
When they met with Harder, Burton said, he told them not to get ahead of themselves since they have not officially lost the funding. Harder and his spokesman, Kevin Winslow, could not be reached for comment.
While REACH has received vocal support from some public officials, it remains unclear how the city or county could actually help fund its work.
Connie Cochran, spokeswoman for the city of Stockton, told The Intersection that for REACH to see any movement at the city level, it would have to do more than speak during public comment at city council meetings. The program would need to qualify for state or federal funding streams.
Like service providers, local government agencies have also struggled to understand the implications of the Trump administration’s moves to end DEI programs. Cochran said the new directives have been “confusing” for local officials, adding that since the administration’s efforts began, the council has not taken a stance for or against the concept of “diversity, equity and inclusion.”
San Joaquin County is largely responsible for the region’s public health initiatives, and according to county spokeswoman Hilary Crowley, offers some services that are similar to those provided by REACH, but does not explicitly define them as related to DEI.
Last month, Perez, Fox and Burton sat in PHA’s offices, still uncertain about their future and imagined out loud what could be lost if the Trump administration succeeds in shutting down DEI health programs across the U.S.
“I’ve found that people don’t care about themselves unless somebody cares about them for them, and they see how much we really care and how much effort we put into their health in their community, and it makes them care,” Perez said. “Now, when we step away, nobody’s holding them accountable anymore, nobody’s bringing them the tools anymore and making it easy for them to be healthy.”
She said that caring for oneself with the support of others is something she understands personally.
“If I don’t have anybody to be healthy for, I struggle doing it for myself,” she said. “I’ll do it for you and you,” she added, pointing at Fox and Burton. “But for me, I’m not getting out of bed to do it. It’s the reality about how our communities think. If somebody cares enough about me to make me do this, I don’t want to disappoint them… It’s a ripple effect, and it bonds everybody.”
Do you utilize community health programs in the San Joaquin Valley? The Intersection wants to hear from you. Leave a voicemail or text message at (209) 202-3419.
Vivienne Aguilar is the health equity reporter at The Intersection, a project of the Central Valley Journalism Collaborative.