Solano County Board proclaims Public Health Week, Children’s Month and Child Abuse Prevention Month; resolutions adopted 4-0

The Solano County Board of Supervisors on April 1 adopted three proclamations recognizing National Public Health Week (April 7–13, 2025), April 2025 as Children’s Month and April 2025 as Child Abuse Prevention Month.

The board voted 4-0 to adopt the resolutions after short presentations from county health officials, nonprofit partners and community advocates. The measures were presented during the board’s routine proclamations and presentations portion of the meeting and carried no separate regulatory or funding actions.

Jalene Richards, public health administrator for Solano County Health and Social Services, thanked the board “for once again recognizing National Public Health Week” and described local public health work including mobile food distribution, vaccination clinics and oral-health screening in county schools. Richards said the Family Health Services mobile food pharmacy has distributed “more than 16,000 food boxes and 1,650 tons of fresh produce” since launching in November 2018 and cited the department’s immunization clinics and laboratory testing volume.

Robin Cox, identified in the presentation as the 2024 recipient of the Edward G. Lopez Award, said the honor was a “huge honor” and described public health as serving the community rather than a single patient: “what public health does is our patient is the community.” Cox thanked county leaders, staff and community partners for support.

Alicia Gutierrez, a health education specialist with First 5 Solano, introduced presenters for Children’s Month and read parts of the children’s-month proclamation. Kathy Lago, executive director of Solano Family & Children’s Services, described her agency’s work helping families find and pay for child care and quoted Marianne Wright Edelman: “The question is not whether we can afford to invest in every child, it is whether we can afford not to.”

Representatives from Travis Air Force Base and CASA of Solano County also spoke. Shirley Collins, chief of child and youth services at Travis, urged recognition of military children and the challenges of frequent moves. Dorese Pandero, outreach coordinator for CASA of Solano County, described CASA’s advocacy for children in foster care and announced a “Pinwheels for Prevention” event at Fairfield City Hall on April 7 at 9 a.m. The CASA remarks included a statistic presented to the board that during 2024 there were about 1,001 child-maltreatment allegations reported to child-protective services; organizers asked volunteers to place 251 pinwheels as part of the event.

Board members voted to adopt the three proclamations together; the clerk recorded each as adopted by a 4-0 vote. There was no separate board debate recorded on the proclamations and no funding or regulatory measures attached to the resolutions.

Votes at a glance - Resolution recognizing April 7–13, 2025 as Solano County Public Health Week — motion moved and seconded; adopted by a vote of 4-0. (Resolution number not fully specified in the transcript.) - Resolution proclaiming April 2025 as Children’s Month in Solano County — motion moved and seconded; adopted by a vote of 4-0. (Resolution number not fully specified in the transcript; referenced as ending in “52”.) - Resolution proclaiming April 2025 as National Child Abuse Prevention Month in Solano County — motion moved and seconded; adopted by a vote of 4-0. (Resolution number not fully specified in the transcript; referenced as ending in “53”.)

The meeting continued with other agenda items after the presentations; no board directions or follow-up tasks tied to the proclamations were recorded during the segment.