Imagine You joins Sonoma CAN
We are excited to share our happy news! The Imagine You Project, which has been held and nurtured by the nonprofit Integrative Medical Clinic Foundation since 2011, has grown up and moved to a new home. We have joined forces with Sonoma Community Action Network (a Community Action Partnership agency)located in Santa Rosa, California. The work of Imagine You is closely aligned with Sonoma CAN’s mission and vision, and we are gratified to become part of the team addressing climate resilience, disaster response and recovery, and workforce development for locals and communities across the state.
Imagine You Invited to Present at the 2024 Vision y Compromiso Conference
We've been invited to present two workshops at the 2024 Vision y Compromiso Conference. We are honored and excited to share our work with Promotoras from across the state. Our two Imagine You Trainers, Claudia Leiva and Crisarlin Vazquez-Carrasquillo will present the "Skillful Interrupting: A Courageous Approach to Redirecting Conversations with Clients" and the "Imagine You Workshop: 4 Tools to Build Your Mental Wellbeing”. We are grateful for this opportunity and look forward to meet all of the amazing Promotoras who will be attending the conference.
Integrative Medical Clinic Foundation receives support from Eisai USA Foundation
We are honored to share that the Eisai USA Foundation, Inc. has provided a generous donation to IMCF in support of the Imagine You Project. Eisai is an innovative pharmaceutical company dedicated to improving human health care. Through their philanthropy, Eisai supports activities that aid and improve the quality of life for people in communities across the U.S. IMCF is grateful for this support which will allow us to increase our impact in underserved and underrepresented communities affected by disasters in California.
Imagine You Partners with UpValley Family Centers in Calistoga
UpValley Family Centers, located in Calistoga (Napa County) has partnered with Imagine You to provide all of the volunteer Promotoras with much needed, culturally appropriate, resilience skills training in Spanish. The training encompasses mental wellbeing tools, stress reduction techniques, and self-reflection opportunities. These Promotoras work directly with their communities, sharing information and resources, providing home visits, and bringing crucial health information and resources. Claudia Leiva, Imagine You Trainer presented this training series.
IMCF Executive Director Attends NVOAD Conference
Caring for Our Communities: Disaster Preparedness for Older Adults and Caregivers. Speaker(s): Justin Knighten, Marcus Coleman, Dr. Jennifer Olsen
Plenary Luncheon Keynote: Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, Feeding America
Our very own Cynthia Calmenson was awarded an Empowering Inclusion scholarship to attend, along with 850 members, the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster Conference May 6 - 9, 2024.
Founded over 50 years ago, the National VOAD is an association of organizations that mitigate and alleviate the impact of disasters, provides a forum promoting cooperation, communication, coordination and collaboration; and fosters more effective delivery of services to communities affected by disaster. Guided by the core principles of the 4Cs — cooperation, communication, coordination, and collaboration — National VOAD Members provide the leadership that builds strong, resilient communities and delivers hope in times of need.
Cynthia attended several NVOAD committee meetings (Long-term Recovery; Disaster Health, Disaster Case Management), networking sessions, as well as subject matter expert workshops including ‘Caring for our Communities: Disaster Preparedness for Older Adults and Caregivers (pictured left.) This particular workshop focused on the importance of including caregivers in family disaster preparedness, developing personal plans, local support, and integrating caregiver-focused disaster strategies. Cynthia met and networked with expert leaders, and was particularly captivated by Claire Babineaux-Fontenot of Feeding America (pictured below.)
IMCF and Cynthia are grateful to the NVOAD conference and to Walmart for funding the Empowering Inclusion scholarships. We look forward to incorporating the valuable resources and information into the Imagine You Project.
Scholarship Recipients
An Imagine You Favorite: The National Library of Medicine Gives Tips on Preventing Burnout
IMCF loves to spotlight other organizations doing great work in the community. This time we are turning our attention on the NLM, or the National Library of Medicine. The National Library of Medicine is a wonderful resource for all things biottech. Centered on modern molecular biology, they focus on finding new approaches to data and creative tools to advance understanding of our genetic legacy. The NLM has laid out several ways to prevent burnout and how to ‘transform empathy-based stress into compassion.’ Burnout is often experienced by many people in the “helping professions,” and this article focuses on a prevalent issue in our society: teacher burnout.
Click here to read the article and here to watch the full video.
IMCF would like to thank the NLM for all the hard work they do.
Imagine You and Changing Tides partner for a Training
In partnership with Changing Tides Family Services in Eureka, California, Imagine You is launching training to support the long-term recovery from the Humboldt earthquakes. The training, specifically designed for disaster case managers/secondary responders, will provide the opportunity for participants to deepen their personal resilience, learn about ways to mitigate absorbing secondary trauma, and gain skills and tools to better serve disaster survivors on their road to recovery. This training for the Humboldt Earthquake Disaster Case Management has been generously funded by the Humboldt Area Foundation & Wild Rivers Community Foundation’s Disaster Response & Resilience Fund, and the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California and Episcopal Relief and Development Partnership. The Imagine You Team is honored to partner with Changing Tides and these funders in this effort.
Imagine You and the Disaster Cycle
Imagine You® is a training resource for disaster response, recovery, and preparedness. Since 2010 Imagine You® has trained a wide variety of organizations in Northern California, providing tools and skills that help individuals move toward living their best lives.
Second responders, disaster case managers, volunteers, social services providers, lay ministers, and healthcare staff are using Imagine You® to support and enhance their work and their own resilience. Funders of Imagine You trainings include: American Red Cross, Alliance Medical Center, Healthcare Foundation of Northern Sonoma County, Catholic Charities of California, North Valley Community Foundation, Kaiser Permanente Community Benefit, Child Parent Institute, and more. See our Partners and Collaborators.
GOALS AND OUTCOMES OF THE IMAGINE YOU® METHOD:
Early rapport with clients to help them prioritize their disaster recovery.
Reduced stress, especially in the recovery phase of the disaster cycle.
Increased self-care capacity for service providers.
Increased community resilience which impacts the social determinants of health.
WHO WE HAVE WORKED WITH:
Second responders across all sectors
Disaster case managers and others supporting long-term disaster recovery
Professional volunteers
Social services providers
Lay Ministers
Healthcare staff
PARTNERS AND FUNDERS
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Imagine You launches statewide training in partnership with Catholic Charities of California - Disaster Case Management Program
This month Imagine You begins training a group of 60 Disaster Case Managers (DCM) from 18 disaster-impacted counties across the state. The training, which will run until July 2024, will equip the DCM teams with additional tools and skills to enhance their impact while helping disaster survivors move forward. The Imagine You tools are shared with disaster survivors, supporting their mental wellbeing, providing practical coping skills while facing adversity. The training also provides skills designed to support the DCMs to boost their own resilience while working with traumatized communities and individuals.
James Coble, Catholic Charities of CA Disaster Case Management Program Manager commented about his previous training session:
“… by using all the tools that are available to us now, it has helped us create relationships with our survivors and each other at a faster pace than I could have possibly hoped for. “
For more information on bringing Imagine You to your team, please reach out to cynthiac@imcfound.org.
Imagine You hosts Aliados Staff Health Retreat
Imagine You provided 40 staff members of Aliados Health with a culturally relevant self-care/self-reflection workshop to teach resilience, help participants set and maintain wellness goals, reduce burnout, and mitigate the vicarious trauma they may absorb on the job. The workshop was broken into two parts; one focused on teaching the staff how to better support their clients, and the second portion focused on arming the staff with tools to handle the vicarious trauma they experience working with this particular clientele.
Participants came away with an image of wellbeing they created and most reported a positive experience in the workshop. Imagine You provides staff wellbeing classes and workshops to prevent burnout and overwhelm. Please reach out to find out more information about these opportunities and email info@imcfound.org.
Imagine You would like to thank Aliados Health for their contribution.
Napa Promotores Team Receives Spanish Imagine You Training
Imagine You provided part one of the all-Spanish Imagine You Training for Community Resilience to a group of 27 Promotoras working in Napa Valley, California. The training provided participants with skills that help them more effectively offer client support and utilize skillful ways to move clients forward. It also provided tools to boost the Promotoras’ own resilience, reduce burnout, and mitigate the vicarious trauma and chronic stress they experience. The Promotoras who participated in part one of the Imagine You Napa series are the trusted messengers in the BIPOC Napa Valley communities they serve. They report being able to immediately apply the Imagine You skills and tools with the community members they serve in housing programs, health education, parenting classes, and many other programs and initiatives.
Promotoras who participated represent the following: Napa Valley Community Housing, The Neighborhood Initiative, Napa County Recovery Center, Puertas Abiertas Napa, Parents Can, Providence Queen of the Valley Hospital, Shearer Family Resource Center, Parent University, Silverado Farming, Child Start, and Vision y Compromiso.
Imagine You is grateful for the partnership and in-kind support from Napa Valley Community Housing.
“Open Hands” self-reflection for mental health graphic created by one participant at the training
Participant quotes:
“This training gave me resources at hand to remember and review. I have learned how to share these resources with more people.”
“I will start up healthier habits because this training has helped me become more self aware with my actions/habits and how they affect me.”
“This training helped me to be able to listen to others, and to have the compassion to let go of my agenda.”
Imagine You would like to thank Kaiser Permanente Community Benefit Napa/Solano for making this project possible.
Promotores Outreach Team Receives Spanish Imagine You Training
In December 2022, wildfires were a constant threat, and the role of secondary responders were crucial yet underrepresented. During the aftermath of the devastating Camp Fire, marginalized members of the Latine community found themselves in extreme circumstances, and needed help. Responders, like the NVCSS Promotores Outreach Team were the crucial linkage to fire recovery services for the Latine community affected by the Camp Fire.
These Promotores assist in translation, advocacy, trauma-informed support services for those fire survivors. Continuing to provide this support had taken a toll on the mental health and wellbeing of the Promotores and others serving to help Latine community members recover. Facing immigration trauma, loss of identity, loss of family structure, as well as other coping challenges of these Camp Fire survivors left the responders looking for guidance and assistance.
This is where Imagine You stepped in, and provided an all-Spanish Imagine You Training to build the skills and foster the resilience of these Promotores. The Promotores learned how to best utilize Imagine You tolls, boosting their own resilience and reducing the suffering of the Latine Camp Fire survivors. The 19 participants in this training came from Northern Valley Catholic Social Services, Butte County Behavioral Health, Sutter County Behavioral Health, and Modoc County Behavioral Health.
Here is a quote from participant Norma S. Lacy, Assistant Director of Community-Based Programs, Northern Valley Catholic Social Services:
“Mental health is still stigmatized in the Latine community. Immigration trauma already causes a complete loss of identity and familiarity in families. Furthermore, immigrants are left without the proper tools or resources to help them cope with new environments that transition leaves deep scars. In addition, the layered impact of the Camp Fire and COVID-19 pandemic has created a much-needed dialogue within the community expressing the need for mental health support services. However, many survivors continue to suffer in silence due to being uninsured, a shortage of Spanish-speaking counselors, and fear of Public Charges or information sharing if they utilize low-cost services. Creating trauma-informed, mental health and wellbeing skills will offer Latine Camp Fire survivors the ability to thrive as they continue to navigate their recovery process after their many losses.”
Imagine You would like to thank the generous support from North Valley Community Foundation’s Butte Strong Fund:
Promotores Serving Sonoma County Receive Imagine You Training
Imagine You created a Resilience and Skills Training for Community Health Workers, Promotores, Case Managers, Enrollment Counselors, and Resource Referral Specialists working in Sonoma County. The goal was to help enable participants to better connect and support their patients/clients, while empowering them to self-advocate and discover inner strength along their respective health journeys. As typical of any Imagine You training, the course provided participants with stress relieving tools, skills working with patients and the healthcare team, and how to relate all this information back to their own personal values and strengths. Here are some sentiments from two of the 24 participants:
“ I liked the way the training was presented with respect and empathy.”
“I have and plan to incorporate them as a Community Health Worker, especially when it comes to supporting clients in a work environment, but also within myself when I feel overwhelmed and stressed. I really enjoyed learning the S.T.O.P.P. Technique and the handouts we were given helped me understand the benefits and how their implementation can help in further instances of crisis or emotional support.”
This training featured Imagine You trainer Claudia Leiva, and founder Ellen Barnett, MD, PhD in English, featuring materials in English and Spanish.
Imagine You thanks the founders who made this possible:
Imagine You at the Disaster Preparedness Fair
Imagine You participated in the Be Disaster Ready Expo, hosted by the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California. A family friendly free event for churches and community members to learn to be ready when disasters strike. Sponsored by the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California, and presented by St. John’s Church in Roseville, this featured helpful training, displays, and resources to help prepare for disasters.
Imagine You Trains Caldor Fire Second Responders
Imagine You Trains Caldor Fire Second Responders
Due to the generous funding provided by El Dorado Federated Church, Marshall Foundation for Community Health, and the West Slope Foundation, Imagine You was invited to train over 27 participants from the Salvation Army, West Slope Foundation, and El Dorado County Library Hub Navigators. Having survived the Caldor fires only 18 months ago, and often battling the global traumas of the past few years, the Caldor Fire Long-term Recovery Group leadership realized their team has been burdened by the emotional toll of disaster recovery work. CLTRG reached out to Imagine You for help. In moving through the Imagine You training, CLTRG members were able to develop skills to mitigate secondary trauma and prevent burnout -very common in disaster recovery situations.
Participant feedback:
“My team is helping community members navigate their recovery. Our team’s personal resilience is stretched thin. They are benefiting from Imagine You training and support to address the toll taken by the Caldor Fire, as well as build their capacity for future potential events.”
Imagine You appreciates the generous support for this training from the flowing funders:
Dr. Ellen Barnett is Interviewed by the Healthcare Foundation of Northern Sonoma County
Dr. Ellen Barnett is Interviewed by the Healthcare Foundation of Northern Sonoma County
The Healthcare Foundation of Northern Sonoma interviewed Dr. Ellen Barnett about the Imagine You Spanish language program created to assist and encourage investment in mental health among the Latine and Indigenous communities. Since the 2017 wildfires and the pandemic onset in early 2020, staff and volunteers of organizations serving the Latine community in Sonoma County have been experiencing burnout and compassion fatigue. Local mental and behavioral health resources are stretched thin and are unable to meet the increasing demand for local staff support and retention, so Imagine You stepped in to fill the void. The Imagine You training aims to protect and enhance these community assets by boosting their resilience, increasing their capacity, and mitigating the vicarious trauma they absorb. Thanks to the Healthcare Foundation of Northern Sonoma County’s generous funding, over 40 spanish-speaking staff were trained in the Imagine You Modules and can better assist their communities in times of trauma.
Please click here to read the full article
All spanish Imagine You training in Healdsburg
"The Imagine You training is effective in its simple approach that centers each of our own unique sense of well-being. The Spanish language Imagine You program meets a critical need to invest in mental health supports that recognize cultural wealth. The bilingual, bicultural facilitators put power in the hands of the Latinx and Indigenous Promotora CHWs who in turn reaffirm that power in their clients. Thank you for the good reminder that we have the power to feel better!”
- Jocelyn Boreta, The Botanical Bus
“I have used the tools for me, it helps me a lot to manage my stress, and it also helps me to provide a better service to our clinic clients because it helps me clarify my mind so I can be more present, calmer for our clients.”
- Promotora de salud
Reflections from a Disaster Relief Team Leader
James Coble, the manager of Disaster Relief services for Catholic Charities of Fresno, shares his experiences learning the Imagine You Curriculum and how it’s helped his team of disaster case managers. James Coble and his team recently completed the 10 module Imagine You Curriculum. Watch his testimonial below:
James Coble, the manager of Disaster Relief services for Catholic Charities of Fresno, shares his experiences learning the Imagine You Curriculum and how it’s helped his team of disaster case managers. James Coble and his team recently completed the 10 module Imagine You Curriculum. Watch his testimonial below:
If you are interested in learning more about how Imagine You can help your team, please contact info@imcfound.org
La Familia Sana Receives Imagine You Training
The Imagine You Training was presented in Spanish to La Familia Sana staff as part of a pilot project supported by the Healthcare Foundation of Northern Sonoma County.
La Familia Sana Staff
The Imagine You Training was presented in Spanish to La Familia Sana staff as part of a pilot project supported by the Healthcare Foundation of Northern Sonoma County. La Familia staff serve their community in a variety of ways as promotores de salud, community organizers, hosts of educational events, and more. One La Familia Staff member said:
“I will be using the STOPP training for myself and also for clients when at work. Along with the small steps I think they are very valuable in moving forward in situations and life.”
Thank you La Familia Staff and the Healthcare Foundation of Northern Sonoma County for allowing us to work with you!
Imagine You trains team of Disaster Case Managers in Plumas County
Imagine You is partnering with Plumas Rural Services and Northern Valley Catholic Social Services to provide disaster resilience training to 22 staff members.
DCM Staff
Imagine You is partnering with Plumas Rural Services and Northern Valley Catholic Social Services to provide disaster resilience training to 22 staff members. Both organizations are helping fire survivors recover from the 2020 Dixie Fire that impacted Plumas, Butte, and Lassen counties. Some of the DCM’s are fire survivors themselves and have chosen disaster case management as a way to serve their community in long term disaster recovery. We thank training participants from Plumas Rural Services and Northern Valley Catholic Social Services for their wonderful work within their communities and for allowing us to work with them in developing self resilience and skills for working with their clients. Support for this training was provided by the North Valley Community Foundation and Almanor Foundation, in collaboration with the Dixie Fire Funders Roundtable.