Asm. Anthony Rendon

This measure would recognize Nowrūz, the Persian New Year celebration.

This measure would recognize the month of April 2016 as Citrus Strong Month for the purpose of celebrating California's vibrant citrus industry and the benefits it provides to the state's environment, economy, and people, and to affirm that California is citrus strong.

This bill would proclaim the week of April 3, 2016, to April 9, 2016, inclusive, as Adult Education Week, and would honor the teachers, administrators, classified staff, and students of adult education programs statewide for their efforts, persistence, and accomplishments.

This measure would designate the month of April 2016 as Autism Awareness Month and would encourage residents to show support for autism awareness by lighting their homes, businesses, schools, and places of worship with blue light bulbs.

This measure would commemorate March 30, 2016, as the 85th anniversary of the historic ruling in the case of Roberto Alvarez v. Board of Trustees of the Lemon Grove School District, which invalidated that district's attempt to restrict its pupils of Mexican heritage to an inferior, segregated educational experience.

This measure would proclaim February 29, 2016, as Rare Disease Day in California and would provide for the recognition of Rare Disease Day in California in subsequent years, as specified.

This measure would recognize and honor the men and women of California agriculture for their dedication and productivity by observing March 15, 2016, as National Agriculture Day, and designating March 16, 2016, as California Agriculture Day.

(1) Existing law establishes the Office of Health Equity within the State Department of Public Health for the purposes of aligning state resources, decisionmaking, and programs to accomplish various goals relating to health, and requires the office to perform various duties specifically relating to vulnerable communities, as defined. Existing law requires the office to establish a comprehensive, cross-sectoral strategic plan to eliminate health and mental health disparities and inequities and to seek input from the public on the plan through an inclusive public stakeholder process. This bill would include individuals who have experienced trauma related to genocide in the definition of vulnerable communities and would require representatives from vulnerable communities to be represented in the public stakeholder process for developing the office's plan to eliminate health and mental health disparities. (2) Existing law requires the State Department of Health Care Services to provide, to the extent resources are available, technical assistance, through its own staff, or by contract, to county mental health programs and other local mental health agencies in the areas of program operations, research, evaluation, demonstration, or quality assurance projects. Existing law requires the department, to this end, to utilize a meaningful decisionmaking process that includes, among others, stakeholders as determined by the department. This bill would require the department to include specified stakeholders from vulnerable communities in this process, including diverse racial, ethnic, cultural, and LGBTQQ communities, communities that experience trauma related to genocide, women's health advocates, mental health advocates, health and mental health providers, community-based organizations and advocates, academic institutions, local public health departments, local government entities, and low-income and vulnerable consumers.