Community Wellness Centers

The Healthcare Foundation is supporting participatory planning processes rooted in community engagement and neighborhood empowerment to envision future community wellness centers (CWCs) in Healdsburg, Windsor, and Cloverdale. 

Studies have consistently shown that local CWCs designed by and for the people who will use them can foster trust, a sense of safety, belonging and well-being. In doing so, CWCs increase social capital and life satisfaction—benefits which in turn result in positive and measurable health-related outcomes, both physical and mental, and increased life expectancy.

We are grateful for the support of the North Sonoma County Healthcare District and Providence in making these convenings possible.

Cloverdale

In July of 2022, neighborhood convenings into the potential and parameters for a community wellness center (CWC) in Cloverdale began. The two-year effort is being facilitated by On the Margins in collaboration with leading local community-based organizations La Familia Sana, Nuestra Comunidad, and Alexander Valley Healthcare. The project was soon named, ‘Nuestra Comunidad Sana.’ As described by On the Margins, “The objective of Nuestra Comunidad Sana is to use a grassroots approach led by BIPOC Cloverdale communities to envision a safe, vibrant, green, community space of belonging.” The project’s phases include developing a community-based design, engaging in data collection, performing data analysis, and sharing out the findings and community-envisioned plan in a final report.

Windsor

CWC convenings were inaugurated in Windsor in 2023, facilitated by On the Margins in collaboration with coalition members from Nuestra Comunidad and Alliance Medical Center. You can read more about the findings of these convenings in this final report.

Healdsburg

Planning is currently underway for CWC convenings in Healdsburg beginning in 2024. On the Margins will facilitate the process in partnership and collaboration with leading local community-based organizations Alliance Medical Center and Corazón Healdsburg.

Grantees serving as lead agencies in this process are: