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Dear Friends,
I'm honored to welcome you to this issue of the Roots Quarterly Review, and to share a closer look at the people and needs that shape our work every day at Roots Community Health.
For many of the individuals and families we serve, life has been defined by closed doors. People who are chronically unhoused. Folks recently released from incarceration and trying to rebuild their lives. Parents with young children facing housing instability. Elders living in isolation. Too often, they’ve been told they don’t qualify, they missed a step, or they need to come back another day. Over time, those barriers don’t just delay care, they deepen harm.
I know this reality personally. I am a product of community-based programs. As a child, those services helped shape my path, my education, and ultimately my commitment to this work. Later, through decades of frontline public health and HIV/AIDS prevention work, I saw firsthand what happens when care meets people where they are and what happens when it doesn’t.
At Roots, we believe there should be no wrong door to care. If someone walks onto our campus, stands at our gate, or meets us on the street, they deserve to be welcomed with dignity and respect. They deserve to be listened to. And they deserve real help, not a referral list and a long wait.
Programs like Welcome Wednesday exist for that reason. They are designed for people who have been turned away elsewhere, for those navigating complex health needs alongside homelessness, poverty, trauma, or reentry. We meet basic needs like food and showers because health cannot exist without them. And we work urgently, because for the families we serve, waiting is often not an option.
The stories in this issue reflect what happens when access is real and care is consistent. They highlight the dedication of teams who show up, open the gate on time, and do whatever it takes to reduce suffering, especially for children and families. This is work rooted in accountability to the community and in the belief that everyone deserves stability, safety, and a chance to move forward.
Thank you for taking the time to learn more about this work and the people it is for. Your support helps ensure that when someone comes to Roots, they are met with care every time.
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Askia Muhammad
Director of Navigation Services
Roots Community Health
| | | | Roots Talk: Folani Brumfield | Meet Folani Brumfield — an East Oakland resident whose journey with Roots and Welcome Wednesday reflects the power of trust, connection, and consistent behavioral healthcare. Her story offers a meaningful look at recovery, resilience, and why expanding access to care in the 40x40 remains vital. | | | What is Welcome Wednesday? | |
Welcome Wednesday began in 2018 as a modest, but intentional effort to remove obstacles to care: no appointments required, no complex intake processes, and no barriers. When COVID-19 disrupted traditional service delivery, the need for this model did not diminish; it intensified. Roots sprang into action for our community. We expanded Welcome Wednesday into a fully comprehensive, coordinated operation while maintaining culturally congruent, low-barrier access to care.
Read more
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Advancing Street Medicine:
A Bridge from Street to Stability
| For Dr. Danielle Williams, Medical Director and Street Medicine Physician of Roots’ Street Team Outreach Medical Program (STOMP), healthcare begins where people are, not where systems expect them to be. For over eight years, Dr. Williams has led STOMP’s street-level medical outreach across Oakland, delivering comprehensive, relationship-based care to unhoused residents while building pathways toward housing, stability, and better long-term health outcomes. Read more | | How Partnerships Turn Resources Into Real Care | |
At Roots Community Health, partnerships make care possible. With support from MedCycle Network, our teams are delivering timely, practical care that stabilizes health concerns, builds trust, and opens doors to longer-term healing.
Read more
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Alameda Alliance for Health:
A Decade of Investing in the Infrastructure of Trust
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"For more than a decade, our partnership with Roots has shown what is possible when health care is grounded in trust, consistency, and community. Welcome Wednesday is a powerful example of that commitment in action. Week after week, Roots meets Alameda County’s most vulnerable residents, who are often excluded from traditional systems of care, where they are. And they offer something rare: time, dignity, and a one-to-one model built on real human connection."
Read more
| | Rooted in Action: Fuel the Fight for Local Dreams | |
Measure W is a voter-approved, countywide sales tax passed in 2020 to address homelessness across Alameda County. It generates more than $150 million annually to fund outreach, housing, shelter, and access to care under the County’s Home Together plan. After years of legal delays, these funds are now being released, and decisions about where they go are happening now.
Welcome Wednesday and STOMP reflect exactly what Measure W was designed to support. Each week, Roots opens its doors to unhoused neighbors and takes its services to the streets for low-barrier medical care, behavioral health services, housing assessments, benefits enrollment, showers, meals, and essential supplies, all in one trusted, community-based setting. It is an access point to stability, dignity, and long-term care.
While our work aligns closely with Measure W’s goals, funding is not automatic.
Ensuring Measure W investments reach access points like Welcome Wednesday and STOMP requires both advocacy and sustained community partnership.
TAKE ACTION
Contact Your Alameda County Supervisor to Support Measure W Funding for Roots
County leaders are deciding how Measure W dollars will be distributed. Let your Alameda County Supervisor know that you support investing Measure W funding in Roots’ low-barrier offerings to our unhoused neighbors.
Urge them to:
- Prioritize low-barrier access to care
- Fund programs serving unsheltered neighbors
- Direct Measure W investments to organizations like Roots Community Health that have proven impact
| | | Deepen our Roots, Make an Impact! | |
Sustaining street medicine requires more than insurance reimbursement. It requires community partnership.
For over eleven years, Roots’ Street Team Outreach Medical Program (STOMP) has delivered primary care directly into Oakland’s encampments, replacing bureaucracy with dignity and building trust that leads to housing and long-term stability.
Every Wednesday, those relationships continue through Welcome Wednesday, offering medical care, mental health support, housing assessments, hot meals, and showers for our unhoused neighbors.
Public dollars take time to flow and they rarely cover the full cost of care. If you believe in expanding access to equitable care for all, consider becoming a monthly supporter and help Roots continue serving our community.
Your gift to Roots directly supports:
- On-site medical and behavioral health services
- Showers, hygiene supplies, hot meals, and food pantry
- Benefits enrollment, housing, and workforce services
- The infrastructure that keeps our doors open every Wednesday
Sustaining street medicine requires more than insurance reimbursement. It requires community partnership.
We bring quality healthcare to the streets, and stability at home with us.
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