Encompass is honored to join our partners across the county and country in celebrating National Health Center Week (NHCW) this August 7-13! NHCW is a week for health centers all over the country to connect, share their accomplishments, and hold space for future community health goals. Community health centers are champions of the American Healthcare system, lifting up and supporting their community’s well-being every day and Encompass is overjoyed to be included. Read on to hear more about NHCW...

Did you know that Encompass has a short-term mental health treatment program called El Dorado Center (EDC)? As one of five Encompass residentials, EDC's home-like facility offers services to help clients transition from a locked facility back to community living. The EDC team provides individual counseling, Therapeutic wellness groups, social activities, on-site psychiatric medication management, crisis intervention, and much more. They work hard to provide vital care that helps clients have a successful reintegration after a period of treatment. Read on to learn more about this amazing team and how you can help those who need support connect with these services?

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.