Santa Rosa Schools spotlights wellness center for fire survivors

One man in the crowd Saturday at the shuttered Lewis Opportunity School said the influx of smoke from the wildfire in Butte County last month resurrected for his 5-year-old son the nightmare their family suffered last year in the Tubbs fire, which took their Santa Rosa home.

A mother said her 7-year-old's school had referred her directly to Santa Rosa City Schools' new Integrated Wellness Center for some of the emotional struggles the little girl had developed since they lost their Larkfield apartment to the October 2017 blaze.

Another mother said she knew the district service might offer useful resources for her 9-year-old, whose Coffey Park neighborhood was among those reduced to ashes when the firestorm swept through the region.

But though it's been almost eight months since the county's largest school district opened a support center for families affected by last year's devastating fires, none of the three parents had explored the wellness center or had a good grasp of what is offered there.

On Saturday, in a bid to bring more awareness to the facility and to reach out to those who most might benefit, the district and Comcast NBCUniversal invited about 300 families whose homes were destroyed by the 2017 fires to a holiday-themed grand opening event, with food, games, crafts, cookie decorating, gifts and an opportunity to tour the Integrated Wellness Center and find out what it's all about. Comcast has helped fund the center.

The facility is open three afternoons a week for free tutoring and other academic support resources, mental health counseling, vision and hearing screening, and health referrals, though the district envisions an expanded array of clinical services as funding becomes available. All services are free.

“It's not just for students,” Assistant District Superintendent Steve Mizera told those gathered at Lewis school, where the center is located. Parents and little ones too young for school can use it, too. Anyone in the county affected by the fires is welcome, whether or not they lost a home or live in the Santa Rosa district, officials said.

Because it is funded by more than $1 million in grants, there are no strings attached that would require verification of legal U.S. residency, Mizera said.

The program was designed to supplement existing counseling made available in the immediate aftermath of the fires with an eye toward ensuring families had a place to turn for help, even during school vacations.

It opened in May, for two afternoons a week, in the old campus at Lomitas Avenue and Lewis Road, and by Thanksgiving had served at least 85 families, some of them for multiple visits, Mizera said.

But after slowly rolling out over the summer, the need seemed to increase this fall, he said, prompting the addition of a third day to the center's schedule.

“I think it speaks to how trauma has its own time,” said Mizera, especially with the impact of new fires in Northern California, including the Carr fire in Redding in July and the recent Camp fire in Paradise. Both cloaked the Bay Area in heavy smoke for days.

Nageli Martinez, a Santa Rosa mother of four children, said the wellness center proved particularly valuable during the smokiest days this fall, when two of her kids, in particular, exhibited increasing signs of anxiety, including panic attacks and trouble concentrating. She was able to get appointments fast and said she found the staff to be kind, professional and available. One of her children has been receiving one-on-one tutoring through the site, and the family also received their annual flu shots there.

“We wouldn't have this help without it,” said Martinez, 38.

As her daughter decorated an ornament Saturday, Nadia Muñoz, 31, vowed to tour the wellness center across the parking lot before the day was out - and not just for her child. “Even for me,” she said. “Sometimes you feel up and down. You don't want to start over.”

Nicholo Atup, a district school nurse who spends six hours a week at the wellness center, said it appears to him that more and more people are finding “safe haven” at the facility. And where initially, people would come in expressing concern about a child, he said, increasingly parents are “getting help for themselves.”