The Healdsburg Tribune 4-7-2022

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The Healdsburg Tribune Enterprise & Scimitar

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Our 157th year, Number 14©

April 7, 2022

Botanical Bus focuses on holistic health Healdsburg

Forever doles out grant funds to 13 local nonprofits

By Elsa Cavazos Staff Writer elsa@soconews.org The Botanical Bus is challenging the mindset that wellness practices such as massage and acupuncture should be considered a luxury. The organization, founded by Jocelyn Boreta and cofounder Angeles Quiñones, provides every wellness option at no cost. The mobile bus offers physical therapy, clinical nutrition, herbalism and more by bilingual and bicultural practitioners. Tamales and aguas frescas are on site for people to enjoy. The entire experience is meant to relax clients and provide them with the kind of therapy they might not do regularly. Boreta said the idea came about seven years ago. She was working with Quiñones at the Land Path’s Bayer Farm. Boreta said as they began to organize, community members started joining organically. Then, they began to offer workshops with their promotora community all around the county. “When we started offering workshops at La Luz, they just kept on getting bigger and bigger. And we started saying, ‘We really want to launch a clinic that meets this incredible knowledge that exists in the community around herbal medicine and nutrition,’” Boreta said.

By Katherine Minkiewicz-Martine Staff Writer katherine@soconews.org

Photo Elsa Cavazos

CULTURALLY-CENTERED — The Botanical Bus stopped at the Healdsburg Community Center on March 19. At no cost, people were able to receive acupuncture, physical therapy, reiki and more. The clinic launched in 2019. As a nonprofit, they began to bring clinical services to vineyards and worksite clinics. Boreta wanted to center it around herbalism because it is a culturally-centered form of

care. “We could really see that it empowers individuals and Latinas and Indigenous communities to embody their knowledge of health and wellness and to empower their

community too,” Boreta said. “Plants can really connect people to a place. Immigrant populations where there's displacement,

See Health Page 7

Healdsburg Chorus preparing for upcoming spring shows By Katherine Minkiewicz-Martine Staff Writer katherine@soconews.org The Healdsburg Chorus has several upcoming shows, including its first-ever performance in Sebastopol. The chorus will be performing in Sebastopol on April 24 and in Healdsburg on April 30 and May 1. The shows mark the return of the groups' spring shows, which in the last two years have been derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In collaboration with the Sebastopol Community Cultural Center, the chorus will present a concert in the center’s main hall on April 24 at 3 p.m. The following weekend, the chorus will perform at the Raven Performing Arts Theater on April 30 at 7 p.m. and on Sunday, May 1 at 3 p.m. Tickets for each show are $20 and can be purchased at www.healdsburgchorus.com. The chorus will perform a

collection of songs about nature including, “And Nature Smiled,” “Here Comes the Sun,” “Old Devil Moon,” “Singing in the Rain,” and “Ching a Ring Chaw,” among others. “After canceled seasons and an altered performance schedule due to COVID-19, we’re thrilled to return to the Raven Performing Arts Theater and to perform in Sebastopol for the first time,” chorus president Janet Ziedrich said in a statement. “We have a whole new program to share with the community this spring.” Typically, the chorus puts on a series of concerts each spring, however, it's been difficult to keep up with the tradition since the pandemic. In early 2020, the choral group was preparing for their spring concert when COVID hit and like everything else in the world, they were forced to shut down. “For singers, that is a difficult

See Chorus Page 8

Photo courtesy Healdsburg Chorus

SPRING SHOWS — The Healdsburg Chorus has announced its spring show

dates. The group will be performing in Sebastopol for the first time on April 24 at the Sebastopol Community Cultural Center.

Healdsburg Forever has delivered its largest grant yet — $445,000 in community impact funds were recently divided out to 13 local nonprofits. The grants were awarded across six impact areas prioritizing food insecurity, health care, housing, senior services, youth/education and support of Latinx communities. Grantees include the Healdsburg Food Pantry; Farm to Fight Hunger; Farm to Pantry; the Redwood Empire Food Bank; Alliance Medical Center; Food for Thought; Reach for Home; Healdsburg Senior Center; La Familia Sana; Corazón Healdsburg; UndocuFund; the Boys & Girls Club of Sonoma-Marin; and the Healdsburg Community Nursery School. Healdsburg Forever board chair Carol Beattie said that this is the second round of community impact fund grants that have been awarded and that they decided in this case not to publicly specify individual grant amounts. According to the Healdsburg Forever website, the Healdsburg Food Pantry will be using its funds to purchase food from the Redwood Empire Food Bank. The food will then be distributed to those in need in Healdsburg and Geyserville. Farm to Fight Hunger, which grows and donates healthy and culturally appropriate food to community members in need, will use its grant to provide and expand their services to help set up and maintain growing spaces to mentor individuals on growing their own healthy food. Farm to Pantry will use its grant to provide access to high quality gleaned food to at risk populations. The grant for the Redwood Empire Food Bank will support food bank operations and will provide 78,000 meals

See Grant Page 3

Finding connection and support for families navigating mental illness By Camille Escovedo Special to the Tribune

Editor’s note: Over the next few issues, The Healdsburg Tribune will be publishing articles written between January and February as part of a special series on mental health in Sonoma County. Every family has its ups and downs, but when someone begins to struggle with a mental and behavioral health condition, treating the situation as a family affair doesn’t cut it. Tracking down resources to support a loved one with neurodiverse needs isn’t easy, either, and by the time many parents reach out to Buckelew Programs, they’re in crisis mode, according to Family Service Coordinator Nicole Natividad. Buckelew Programs is a North

Bay mental health services provider, offering an independent living program, supportive housing for transition-age youth, family service coordination and more in the county. Often families are overwhelmed when Natividad speaks to them, “almost hesitant to ask for services because I think the reality is that their child may be struggling with something and they’re not sure how to best support them,” she said. “And so they’re very scared.” Some families seek out Buckelew Programs because they have a child who’s autistic, recently diagnosed with ADHD, living with a traumatic brain injury or perhaps experienced their first psychotic break and got a referral, she said. Sometimes families notice their child acting differently and don’t know if it’s a chapter of development

or if it warrants getting help. And a lot of families do need help. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) reported data from sources like the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute of Mental Health showing that in 2020, one in six youth aged 12 to 17 in the U.S. had a major depressive episode. There was a 31% uptick in mental health-related emergency department visits for adolescents that year, and one in three U.S. young adults aged 18 to 25 experienced a mental illness. One in 10 young adults became familiar with a serious mental illness, the data revealed. Both Buckelew Programs and the local organization NAMI Sonoma County work to support people living with mental health struggles and the people who love and live

with them.

A tale of two mental health organizations and what family resources are out there NAMI takes the position that learning about mental illness is the most powerful thing a person can do in the situation, from understanding signs of a mental condition early on to knowing what questions to ask when managing the condition and participating in treatment, said Executive Director Mary-Frances Walsh. “All of that said, resources are so limited that that’s not always real,” she said. Around 80% of NAMI Sonoma County’s work is with family members supporting someone with a significant mental health condition, usually bipolar, schizophrenia or major depression, Walsh said.

NAMI Sonoma County offers a free eight-week course called Family-to-Family that covers current information on mental health conditions, resources, treatment options, getting through a mental health crisis and more. Meeting other families having similar experiences is the most important piece of the course, the executive director said. “And understanding that you are not alone, that you can share ideas, talk about your experiences without judgment — it's just so fundamental to gaining hope because you realize you’re not alone in this and you don’t need to be,” she said. “But you need to be connected with other people who get it and resources.” The program leaders all have lived experience and must be certified with NAMI’s nationally

See Connection Page 3

Home Loan L MADE for Sonoma County y CASH-OUT REFI use recent equity gains as a tool to retire old debt or build new dreams

Hally Swan, MORTGA G GE LOAN OFFICER 707/543-2641 hswan@comfirstcu.org NMLS #: 1293083


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The Healdsburg Tribune 4-7-2022 by Weeklys - Issuu