Healthcare Foundation Receives Major Grants for Bicultural Clinical Training

Healdsburg, CA, July 18, 2023 – The Healthcare Foundation Northern Sonoma County today announced a grant of $275,000 from Kaiser Permanente to support the launch of an innovative Bicultural Clinical Training Program. Additionally, the Healthcare Foundation announced a grant of $44,000 from the Peter E. Haas Jr. Family Fund directed to the support of the Program’s online curriculum component.

The Bicultural Clinical Training Program, which begins in August, is designed to strengthen the pipeline of bilingual, bicultural mental health practitioners while increasing direct mental health services in areas of northern Sonoma County where residents have the greatest challenges to accessing services.

A collaboration with Humanidad Therapy & Education Services and On the Margins, the Program includes two novel components: two traineeships in Cloverdale through Humanidad featuring professional supervision in Spanish for bilingual graduate student trainees, including students in the Healthcare Foundation’s Mental Health Talent Pipeline scholarship program; and a culturally responsive online curriculum (Nepantlah) developed by On the Margins, which will be open to trainees as well as already licensed therapists serving bicultural and/or Spanish-speaking clients in northern Sonoma County, around the state and beyond.

The Bicultural Clinical Training Program builds on the Healthcare Foundation’s investments in helping develop local bilingual therapists who can serve Spanish-speaking clients by expanding capacity to offer two additional traineeships at Humanidad per year featuring bilingual supervision.

“Having their training grounded in Spanish means bilingual graduate student trainees can better communicate with and better serve the community,” explained Humanidad’s executive director, Juan Torres.

At the same time, Nepantlah, a virtual training program, will offer 10 monthly 1.5-hour clinical webinar-workshops per year for two years starting August 2023. Featuring guest speakers curated by On the Margins, the program plans to serve at least 600 clinicians over that period, with the objectives of:

• Training bilingual/bicultural mental health clinicians to be socially, culturally, and linguistically responsive bilingual/bicultural mental health providers.
• Fostering a professional network of bilingual/bicultural service providers and scholars dedicated to serving the Latinx populations locally and nationwide.
• Training bilingual/bicultural mental health professionals to advocate for the wider participation of Latinx and Spanish-dominant individuals in the socioeconomic, cultural and political sectors of society.
• Improving representation of mental health professionals from underserved Latinx groups in training programs.

Each of Nepantlah’s sessions will also meet the qualifications for 1.5 hours of continuing education credit for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs and LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. “Nepantlah aims to cultivate a growing network of mental health providers, culture workers, and students engaged in bilingual and multicultural healing,” said On the Margins Chief Executive Officer Dr. Daniela Domínguez.

“The staunch support and foresight of Kaiser Permanente and Haas Jr. are a crucial part of this collective effort to close the gap in access to mental health services for our region’s Latinx communities,” said Healthcare Foundation Executive Director Kim Bender. “We believe the Bicultural Clinical Training Program will not only strengthen bilingual/bicultural mental health services locally but also be a resource and model far beyond northern Sonoma County.”

“As a nonprofit health care system, Kaiser Permanente is making significant investments in expanding the pipeline of skilled and diverse mental health professionals in the communities we serve,” said Yvette Radford, Kaiser Permanente Northern California vice president for External and Community Affairs. “We are proud to support the Bicultural Clinical Training Program and its critical work to increase bilingual mental health services for the Latino community in Sonoma County.”

“Ginnie and Pete were inspired by the partners who came together to dream and design the Nepantlah training program for bilingual therapists,” said Stephanie Martinez, program manager at Peter E. Haas Jr. Family Fund. “We hope that this will help ensure that youth and families in Sonoma County have access to culturally competent mental health providers.”

For more information on the Bicultural Clinical Training Program, visit healthcarefoundation.net/partner-spotlight-humanidad-therapy-education-services.

For more information on Nepantlah, the virtual training program, visit nepantlah.education.

About Humanidad Therapy & Education Services

Humanidad’s mission is to strengthen the lives of the Latinx community by increasing access and utilization of community mental health resources. We transcend barriers and reduce stigma by providing culturally proficient therapist training, inclusive community education, and bilingual therapy services. We envision healthy and thriving communities where the stigma associated with mental health does not exist and all have access to quality and compassionate culturally sensitive therapy services. For more information, visit humanidadtherapy.org.

About On the Margins

Our mission is to collaborate with others to design and implement anti-racist, joy-focused, equitable, sustainable, and affirming practices, initiatives, and policies. We strive to do our work with love, commitment, political action, and freedom dreaming. We envision a world without prisons and borders; that centers racial, gender, economic and ecological justice; that is pro Black Indigenous Women of Color and Trans communities; that cherishes pleasure, creative pedagogy, and imaginative exploration; and that centers community accountability. Engaged in solidarity with communities on the margins of society, we address social disparities with love, commitment, and respect. For more information, visit onthemargins.us.

About the Healthcare Foundation

The Healthcare Foundation Northern Sonoma County connects people and resources to promote wellness in underserved communities. We do this by supporting nonprofits in the areas of access to healthcare and mental healthcare, with a vision of eliminating health inequities in our region. The organization’s values center on community, compassion, and equity. All our strategies support equitable access to culturally sensitive healthcare and mental health services and promote overall community wellness. Founded in 2001, the Healthcare Foundation has invested more than $23 million to build a healthier region for all who live, work and play in northern Sonoma County. For more information, visit healthcarefoundation.net.

Media Contact: Mary Ott, Development Director
mott@healthcarefoundation.net
(717) 542-4625