Blog
Stay informed with news and updates from Canal Alliance programs and read about the impact of our work on the Latino immigrant community.
Free COVID-19 testing offered in San Rafael’s Canal neighborhood
Posted: March 18, 2021
The testing is being made available through a partnership between Canal Alliance, a nonprofit serving the city’s predominately Latino Canal community, and the University of California, San Francisco. They received a grant from the National Institutes of Health to offer the program to study the best ways to get people to be tested.
Marin’s intensive effort drove down a COVID surge among Latino residents
Posted: March 14, 2021
Under the leadership of CEO, Omar Carrera, Canal Alliance has spent the past year helping Latino families in Marin get access to critical services, resources and information relating to COVID-19 and it’s impact on the community, including on-site testing, community-based contact investigating, health outreach and education, and financial assistance including direct cash assistance and rental assistance for households that have lost income and wages during the pandemic.
As pandemic drags on, North Bay student’s struggle with distance learning worsens
Posted: March 9, 2021
The mental toll of distance learning is taking a toll on students as many schools report dropping grades as the COVID-19 pandemic drags on and in-person instruction is delayed. Learning hubs are helping, but for the few students attending them.
In Your Town for March 3, 2021
Posted: March 2, 2021
Giving Marin Community Partnership has awarded a record $75,000 in financial awards to 12 nonprofit organizations for their work serving Marin residents.
Vaccine access codes meant for low-income communities are being misused across Bay Area
Posted: February 23, 2021
Appointments reserved for people hit hardest by COVID-19 are being snatched up by people they aren’t intended for. It has to do with vaccine access codes, meant for low-income communities of color, that are being shared and misused across the state.
Marin to launch lottery for business pandemic relief
Posted: February 19, 2021
Marin businesses struggling to stay afloat through the coronavirus pandemic are being tossed a life raft in the form of $915,000 of federal aid.
Marin’s Latinos still bearing brunt of coronavirus crisis
Posted: February 4, 2021
The Latino community has remained the group hardest hit by the coronavirus crisis in Marin, accounting for more than half of the county’s cases as the tally of infections has surpassed 10,000.
San Rafael bans rent hikes in pandemic-stressed Canal
Posted: January 21, 2021
The San Rafael City Council has approved a temporary ban on residential rent increases in the Canal area, the neighborhood with the highest rate of coronavirus cases in Marin County.
Marin County’s Census Response Rates Rise
Posted: January 14, 2021
A year before the 2020 census was to take place, Marin County granted the Canal Alliance funds to conduct census outreach across the county. The project lead, Stephanie McNally, the advocacy and policy senior manager at Canal Alliance, got to work with partners and nonprofits, especially in historically undercounted areas, to make a plan. Then the pandemic hit and it all went out the window.
Omar Carrera of San Rafael’s Canal Alliance wins a North Bay Business Journal Nonprofit Leadership Award
Posted: December 15, 2020
Omar Carrera is a strategic thinker and social entrepreneur with more than 18 years of experience in business operations management in both the nonprofit and for-profit sectors.