Anonymous
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Central Coast, CA, August 2, 2022 – People’s Self-Help Housing (PSHH) has received a generous award of $8,710 from the Cottage Health Foundation. This funding will provide expanded behavioral health programming to families in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo County through PSHH’s onsite education program: Camino Scholars.
This impactful new funding will be used to enhance Camino Scholars’ existing behavioral health programming and will help increase community access to trauma-informed resources. All these tools will help equip students and their caregivers with the behavioral health toolkit necessary to prevent and manage challenges and to help destigmatize and overcome cultural barriers to seeking behavioral healthcare.
With the support of the Cottage Health Foundation, Camino Scholars will collaborate with eleven local health clinics to provide community workshops, presented by clinical social workers and licensed child therapists, designed to equip children and caregivers with essential tools for mental health care and effective strategies for regulating stress responses to enhance behavioral health equity. The workshops will be accessible in-person and virtual, in both English and Spanish.
“We are so grateful for the generous commitment and partnership of the Cottage Health Foundation,” said Joanna Dominguez, PSHH Director of Education. “This new funding will provide our residents in Santa Barbara County with greater access to vital behavioral health tools and support to help their families thrive.”
Camino Scholars will also integrate this program into the classroom, by enriching the afterschool learning experience through wellness activities that promote socio-emotional health. These activities will include outdoor play therapy, physical education, mediated conflict resolution, music therapy, and mindfulness practice. These offerings will augment existing socio-emotional learning curriculum provided onsite, which includes a monthly Kids’ Farmers Market, units on health and nutrition, daily mindfulness meditation, and more.
This program will be executed through the PSHH education program: Camino Scholars, which currently serves over 500 students per year at its eleven onsite learning centers. As evidenced by standardized test scores, the curriculum significantly improves math and literacy skills and accompanies students on the path of lifelong learning. The program also helps prepare high school and university students with specialized tutoring, college application assistance, financial aid navigation, career exploration workshops, university campus visits, and mentorship.
To learn more about People’s Self-Help Housing and Camino Scholars, visit pshhc.org.
About People’s Self-Help Housing (PSHH)
With nearly 1,000 units of new housing in its pipeline and founded in 1970, PSHH is the longest-serving nonprofit affordable housing organization on the Central Coast. Our mission of building homes and providing services to strengthen communities and change lives, sees us serving low-income households, families, farmworkers, seniors, and veterans. We also provide welcoming environments for those living with disabilities, youth transitioning out of foster care, and the formerly homeless. Homeownership opportunities through a self-help, “sweat-equity” program have created over 1,200 homes and with a presence in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Monterey counties, PSHH manages over 2,000 rental units, and employs over 200 members of staff. PSHH acknowledges the indigenous people of the territories that our organization occupies, including the Chumash, Salinan, Yokuts, Kitanemuk, and Tataviam people. To read the full land acknowledgement, visit pshhc.org/IDEA. For more information about the organization, visit pshhc.org, email info@pshhc.org or phone (805) 781-3088.
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Media Contact: communications@pshhc.org, (805) 548-2340
