We are thrilled to share that Encompass Community Services has been awarded a $9.36M grant to support the development of our new, state-of-the-art Sí Se Puede Behavioral Health Center in Watsonville.  

The award is part of the Department of Health Care Services’ (DHCS) Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program (BHCIP) Round 4: Children and Youth grants. As announced by Governor Gavin Newsom’s office on December 8, this round of grants includes $480.5M in awards to 54 projects aimed at improving California’s behavioral health infrastructure for children and youth.  

BHCIP funding will allow Encompass to significantly expand Santa Cruz County’s substance-use disorder treatment capacity for transition-age youth (ages 18-25) and families. Specifically, the project will allow Encompass to add 7 new residential substance-use disorder treatment beds, as well 106 annual outpatient treatment slots for transition-age youth and families.

This treatment capacity expansion project is the cornerstone of Encompass’s larger effort to develop a state-of-the-art behavioral health campus in Watsonville that will deliver equitable treatment to nearly 1,300 community members per year.  

“Encompass has long dreamed of building a bright, new behavioral health center in Watsonville to reduce barriers to treatment and make personalized, high-quality behavioral health care accessible to everyone in our community,” said Encompass CEO Monica Martinez. “This award provides the vital investment needed to break ground on the project next year and brings us significantly closer to realizing our full fundraising goal.”  

November is Native American Heritage Month - This year, Encompass honored Friday, November 25 as "Native American Heritage Day,” by observing the full day as an agency holiday. Encompass made this commitment because we believe that observing the Thanksgiving holiday with no acknowledgement of the intolerance, conflict, and oppression that is deeply rooted in its history – and in the history of our nation – is actively perpetuating oppression. Renaming and observing the day after Thanksgiving is a small step we can take as an agency to call out injustice.

Simply put, Encompass is committed to listening deeply, bearing witness, and *taking action* toward racial equity at every level of our organization. We want to deeply appreciate Encompass’s Racial Equity Workgroup for strongly advocating for this holiday and for their ongoing work to drive agency-wide change.