Gonzales promotes “Health in All Places” program

The city of Gonzales recently created the new part-time position of health equity fellow in order to focus new attention on public health.

It’s Mario Guzman’s job to survey residents to help align city policy with needs in the community.

“I am here to help establish a connection between the community and policymakers so they can engage in a dialogue,” Guzman said.

In the part time job, Guzman will be doing health surveys, putting together health events and even has plans to go door-to-door in order to figure what residents need to live healthier.

“Depending on the insights we get from people we will also develop workshops and other community development activities,” Guzman said.

Guzman said another part of the job is making sure the city has some sort of health element in every policy.

“Because things like traffic, the building of parks — so many things will affect health and don’t necessarily have a health policy consideration,” Guzman said.

The “Health in all Policies Strategy” also helps city leaders decide on projects, keeping the ideas that promote health and losing the ones that don’t, Guzman said.

“If these frameworks were available and being implemented 30 years ago would it (the city) look differently today ? I’d say so,” Guzman said.

City manager Renee Mendez said the job is vital because obesity, diabetes and poor nutrition are all continue to pose problems nationwide.

“I think that it is very important to have someone out there working with them (residents with poor health) why is that happening? How can we bring resources and access to them?” Mendez asked.

The job’s salary of $34,000 is being paid for by Monterey County and the City of Gonzales.