For more than four decades, Canal Alliance has been a pillar of San Rafael's Canal neighborhood, a largely immigrant community where about 84% of residents are Latino. Newcomers getting established in Marin often walk through Canal Alliance's doors first, and for good reason. They understand what it takes to get set up for success in a new place: a stable place to live, legal help with immigration status, someone to sort through paperwork and connect the dots between services, and the basics like putting food on the table. Their mission is to break generational cycles of poverty by breaking barriers to success for Latino immigrants and their families. It's work that builds power for local change, and the result is a strong, resilient community that knows exactly where to turn.
Access to healthcare has long been one of the barriers faced by Latino and immigrant communities in Marin. Care exists in Marin, but it's hard to reach when you work long shifts, don't speak English as your primary language, and aren't sure what it will cost. So a sore back gets ignored. A cholesterol prescription runs out, and conditions compound. A parent who isn't sleeping decides that's just how life has to be.
That's where MiSalud Health comes in. Canal Alliance has built a multi-services approach that allows families get established and thrive, and MiSalud now has the opportunity to be part of it by taking on the healthcare piece: bilingual, human care that fits into the support families are already receiving.
While we’re new to the Canal Alliance team of partners, our work didn’t start at the sign-up table. We started by getting to know Canal Alliance as an agency and a team: how their programs work, who their case managers are, and what their clients need from a healthcare partner. That groundwork mattered, because the last thing their clients need is one more door to knock on or one more form asking the same questions.
Then we met the community. Our bilingual team came on-site for a sign-up event, right where clients were already coming in, and helped people access the MiSalud app in Spanish or English in a few minutes. Whoever signs up can add up to three other members to the same account: a partner, a parent, a friend. Everyone can tap into the same programs in Spanish or English: everyday care, ongoing care for conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, and cholesterol management, mental health, nutrition, and Healthy Kids, which guides parents through their children's health. By the time they leave, if they aren’t already scheduled for their first appointment, they know how to reach our care team from their phone, on their schedule, with no translator in the middle.
We followed sign-up with an on-site health screening, lab tests included, so care started right away instead of someday. And the partnership keeps deepening. Our team now attends Canal Alliance community events and stops in to present at their legal support sessions. Because losing Medi-Cal comes up on so many initial health coaching visits with our care team, Canal Alliance is now creating direct referral pathways for clients in similar situations, so that losing coverage no longer means losing care. A case manager who notices a health concern knows exactly how to refer clients to MiSalud.
Our favorite moment so far happened at that first health screening. One client told our team that, for the first time, she felt understood and well cared for. She'd never had that kind of attention, and she was so grateful to get care in her own language and be understood. Later that day she came back with a friend. And before we closed for the day, she was back again, this time with her husband, so he could get screened too. Three people in one afternoon, because the first conversation felt safe.
She isn't the only one. Parents across the program are coming to MiSalud for mental health support while carrying the weight of raising kids far from extended family, working multiple shift jobs, in a second language they often rely on their kids to translate. When one parent has someone to talk to, the whole household benefits. And the response from Canal Alliance's own team has been the same.
“The effort the MiSalud team has made to enroll our clients and community members is heartwarming, sincere and inspiring. MiSalud is aligned with our mission and speaks our language. We see it, we feel it.”
Richard Martinez, Chief Program Officer, Canal Alliance
Most community organizations don't have a benefits department or a big budget, and MiSalud Health was built to fit them anyway. We sign people up where they already are, let family members share one account, and show up in person. That's what it means to be a patient-first company: our care bends to fit the community, not the other way around.
Learn more about Canal Alliance's work at canalalliance.org.
If your organization serves families who need care, we'd love to talk!
