Cleopathia "Cle" Moore will likely be standing near the back during Wednesday's ceremonial opening of the West Modesto Community Center. She prefers it there, out of the limelight.

The associate director of community health services for Stanislaus County's Health Services Agency does most of her work behind the scenes, listening, encouraging and connecting people. And working in the kitchen if that's what needed.

This kind of effort -- over many years -- is why a number of community leaders in west Modesto call Cle an unsung hero in improving health education and services in Modesto's most ethnically diverse neighborhood.

More than a decade ago, Cle pulled together what was first called the Minority Health Coalition. The coalition started asking west Modestans from various ethnic backgrounds about their health concerns -- what they wanted and needed, who they trusted and who they didn't. This was no idle exercise; county officials were baffled at why so many people were not using their clinics and other services.

These conversations took place in the evening and on Sunday afternoons. They took place at the park, in churches and in people's homes. The subjects that came up didn't all fit into the traditional definition of medicine. Many parents worried about their children and gangs; others lost work and sometimes jobs because they didn't have reliable child care. Other parents were distraught that their kids weren't likely to finish high school.

The coalition started small; members paid dues to cover the cost of mailings. "We were looking at the issues that we could work on that didn't cost money" and that individual residents could improve, Cle recalls.

The coalition evolved into the Stanislaus Multi-Cultural Community Health Coalition and then paired with the West Modesto King Kennedy Neighborhood Collaborative. Today's organization bears the combined names. It's a mouthful, but also reflects the commitment to include many voices and points of view. It is involved with health topics ranging from childhood obesity to teen pregnancy to HIV-AIDS.

Cle learned early in life that many people don't trust institutions. That was the climate in her neighborhood in Natchetts, Miss., where her mother, a licensed vocational nurse, was one of the go-to people. Residents also trusted the church leaders and the teacher who lived across the street far more than the so-called experts.

Cle earned an associate's degree in nursing from Tennessee State University. After she and her husband moved to Modesto in 1971, she worked in a convalescent home and then a hospital before joining the county in 1981. She earned bachelor's and master's degrees and became a family nurse practitioner. Her experience in family planning and in the migrant camps only reinforced what she'd learned as a child -- many people steer clear of institutions.

So in 1991, as she pondered how to assure that public health programs served all, she turned to the same sort of people who had credibility in her childhood neighborhood, the go-to people.

The strategy for reaching people -- listen first. "You can't get people to hear you until you hear them."

Her job takes her into many communities, but I've heard repeatedly about Cle in west Modesto. Her credibility comes, in part, from constancy.

"Wherever we go, Cle's there," says Angie Olivo, a community activist in west Modesto. "She's all over the place."

"She's a people person," says Helen White, another community leader. "She sees everybody as human beings, and (believes that) everybody deserves to have their health taken care of."

"She's our queen," says the Rev. James Anderson, pastor of Christian Love Baptist Church. He just led a course for religious leaders about human immunodeficiency virus and AIDS. It reflected the kind of partnership that Cle strives for -- public health people help educate the go-to people so they can help others.

Her efforts have not gone without notice. Last month she received a lifetime achievement award from the California Public Health Association.

As proud as she is of that award, Cle shrugs off the credit for the health clinic and related services contained in the West Modesto Community Center. It belongs to the neighborhood, she says, which prepared its arguments and successfully persuaded the Board of Supervisors to make the investment.

Cle, of course, was the one in the background helping the neighborhood leaders.

The grand opening of the West Modesto Community Center will be from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday. Tours of the medical clinic will be offered. The center is at 401 Paradise Road.

Reprinted by permission of Modesto Bee.