We're thrilled to share that Community Foundation Santa Cruz has awarded Encompass a $40,000 grant to support our capital campaign to develop a new Sí Se Puede Behavioral Health Center in Watsonville! Once complete, Encompass’s new behavioral health center will have the capacity to deliver high quality, accessible, and culturally appropriate substance use disorder and mental health treatment services to 1,300 community members every year.

"Like so many communities nationwide, Santa Cruz County is in the midst of a substance use and opioid epidemic, yet high costs, limited program openings, and stigma around seeking treatment are significant barriers to getting our community members the support they need and deserve," said Encompass CEO Monica Martinez, "Our new Sí Se Puede Behavioral Health Center will reduce those barriers by providing bright, new, state-of-the-art facilities and personalized care that’s accessible to all. Through their generous support, Community Foundation Santa Cruz is sending a clear message that those seeking treatment are worth investing in and that our community supports their path to better health. We are deeply grateful for their support."

Did you know that Encompass offers Re-Entry Services that support individuals who are reentering the community after incarceration? Re-entry programs provide important supports to help individuals successfully transition to life outside of prison and avoid future involvement in the justice system. Get to know our Re-Entry Services team and programs in this post!

We're pausing to share some important updates on Encompasses work toward racial equity. First, starting this year, Encompass will be pausing to observe Juneteenth as a paid holiday. Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, and Liberation Day, marks a deeply significant point in our nation’s history. This holiday commemorates the day in 1865 that the last enslaved Black people in our country learned they had been freed from bondage. Honoring the joy, pain, and importance of this monumental day is long overdue. This year, since June 19 falls on a Sunday, Encompass will be observing the Juneteenth holiday on Monday, June 20. 

Did you know that Encompass Community Services has a Downtown Outreach program? This mission-driven team works to develop trust and respectful relationships with adults experiencing homelessness, substance use disorder, and/or mental illness in the Santa Cruz downtown corridor to help link individuals with crisis support and other services that improve their quality of life.

Treating every individual with dignity and respect is at the heart of what we do at Encompass. The Downtown Outreach team brings this mantra to life by connecting individuals with appropriate supportive services that reduce the risk of psychiatric hospitalizations and incarceration, and address a variety of housing, health care, substance use disorder, and mental health-related needs – all while honoring each person’s right of choice. Read on to learn more about this incredible team and how you can help those who need support connect with our services.

We aren't usually ones to toot our own horn, but we need to take a minute to share some BIG news! Our Head Start and Early Head Start programs received a PERFECT report on the biggest audit of our 5-year grant period. This is a rare accomplishment even in the best of times and is a monumental feat given the unexpected challenges our programs have faced throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. 

This achievement is reflective of so much hard work and diligence from our teams and from programs and departments across the agency who have supported their work – from the admin team to other Encompass programs that Head Start and Early Head Start referred families to for additional support.

Did you know that Head Start’s history is deeply intertwined with the Civil Rights Movement? Check out National Head Start Association’s article this month to learn more about how determined community leaders, many of them Civil Rights advocates ready to challenge the status quo, worked to build Head Start into the life-changing force we know. Additionally, in honor of Black History Month, children in Head Start classrooms across the country (including ours across Santa Cruz County) learn about and celebrate the impact of Black leaders.

In 2020, Santa Cruz County declared racism a public health crisis in our county and proceeded with urgency to address inequities impacting the marginalized populations in our community. Since 2020, United Way of Santa Cruz County and the Santa Cruz County Black Health Matters Initiative (SCCBHMI) have worked to increase visibility of the social determinants of health impacting the Black/African American community in Santa Cruz County. 

We’re honored to highlight their Santa Cruz County Black Health Matters Initiative Spotlight 2021. 

We have begun work on an exciting new project that will help us further address health disparities in our community! Encompass is building a new, state-of-the-art Sí Se Puede behavioral health center in Watsonville that will expand our capacity to deliver high quality, accessible and personalized substance use and mental health treatment services by 30% to serve more than 1,300 community members every year.

The new campus will bring together our current Sí Se Puede residential substance use disorder (SUD) treatment program and our South County-based ALTO outpatient SUD and mental health counseling services in one inviting center. Offering connected programs and facilities on one campus will allow us to more effectively meet clients where they are and provide the custom treatment, counseling and ongoing support they need over time. While we are still in the early phases of fundraising and project planning, Kaiser Permanente has already recognized the project’s potential to increase health equity in our county and supported us with a $200,000 grant. To learn more about the grant, read these stories in the Watsonville Patch and on Kaiser Permanente's blog.  We look forward to sharing updates with you as the project develops. The sooner we reach our fundraising goal, the sooner we can break ground on the new center. If you would like to help us reach our goal, please help us spread the word about this exciting project and consider making a gift at www.encompasscs.org/donations.

As we continue to celebrate National Recovery Month throughout September, we’re taking a closer look at the various programs we offer to support our community members’ path to better health.  

Upon hearing the words “substance use treatment,” many people immediately picture residential services. While residential treatment programs are an important part of the recovery journey for many, they are just one of many approaches available to individuals seeking support. Outpatient behavioral health services are also a powerful piece of the recovery puzzle, especially considering that substance use disorder is a chronic disease; just like diabetes or hypertension, it requires ongoing care and support from medical and behavioral health experts. Outpatient behavioral health treatment can provide ongoing prevention, early intervention, and recovery support in a frequency and format that works best for the individual – whether it’s through group, family, or one-on-one counseling sessions.

Through our Integrated Behavioral Health Adult Outpatient programs at Alto Counseling Centers, Encompass partners with a constellation of County, community, and healthcare partners to create a personalized continuum of care that supports each individual’s long-term health and well-being. We provide an array of services, including substance use counseling (free to Medi-Cal members and available to clients who are undocumented and non-Medi-Cal members) and mental health counseling for sliding scale fees dependent upon income.

Did you know that September is National Recovery Month? This observance is held every year to promote and support new evidence-based treatment and recovery practices, the emergence of a strong and proud recovery community, and the dedication of service providers and community members across the nation who make recovery in all its forms possible. 

At Encompass Community Services, we are honored to be a part of our community members' path to better health. Through our whole-person-centered approach to care, we provide tools, resources, and varying levels of care – from residential and outpatient substance use disorder and medicated-assisted treatment to mental health counseling – to meet each individual where they are in their recovery journey, all in an atmosphere of dignity and respect where they can thrive. Throughout the month, we'll be spotlighting several Encompass programs to provide a fuller picture of the range of services we offer. We hope you'll return to learn more!

In this post, we're taking a closer look at one of our longest-running residential programs — Sí Se Puede. Located in the serene foothills of Watsonville, CA, Sí Se Puede is one of the only bilingual and monolingual treatment environments in the nation. The 23-bed residential program was developed and is led by Latino males with lived experience and intentionally prioritizes culturally aware programming that integrates evidence-based practices with the values of the communities we serve.