IMCF Awarded Grant to Aid Wildfire Recovery

IMCF Awarded Grant by Community Foundation of Mendocino County to Aid in Community Recovery after the Wildfires.

SANTA ROSA, CA – On January 29, 2019, The Integrative Medical Clinic Foundation (IMCF), a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping individuals achieve their best health and life through their Imagine YOU® program, has received support provided by the Redwood Valley and Santa Rosa Community Recovery Fund, a corporate-advised fund of the Community Foundation of Mendocino County. The fund will support IMCF’s project to help youth and seniors impacted by the Redwood Complex fire.

The grant will allow IMCF to provide Imagine YOU training to 18 staff members from community organizations that work with those affected by the fires, with a focus on the more vulnerable youth and seniors. Many survivors have been displaced from their homes and struggle to move forward. This training will help advance community restoration by guiding community members to ask themselves “What matter most?” as they heal from the damage caused by the fires.

This question, “What matters to you?”, will help individuals set personal goals and plans for themselves as they transition to the next step in their lives. Imagine YOU Training participants ( agency staff) will encourage community members to focus on self-care, and well-being goals, as they explore “What matters” and build resilience in the face of difficult times.

Cynthia Calmenson, Executive Director and Imagine YOU Program Manager at IMCF, said, “Situations like these are dire, but we believe that fire survivors are not victims, but individuals with energy and resources that can be brought to bear to rebuild their own lives. Imagine YOU can help make this happen.”

IMCF will be partnering with community agencies that include Manzanita Services, North Coast Opportunities, and Redwood Community Services for the duration of this project. These agencies provide outreach services and multiple supports to fire survivors in the community.

“We believe that the Imagine YOU training offers an opportunity to bring a best practice support tool to our clients through trained staff that could have a lasting impact on the well being of those affected by the fires,” said Susan Novotny, Executive Director at Manzanita Services. “We are especially excited about the Imagine YOU training because, in contrast to, many other trainings, Imagine You provides our staff with post-training skills reinforcement and implementation support which will greatly impact the consistency and efficacy of utilizing this self care tool with our clients.”

The Imagine YOU Training begins in March and consists of three consecutive segments followed by ongoing skills reinforcement and implementation support meet-ups. It will be led by Dr. Ellen Barnett, MD, PhD, and developer of the Imagine YOU program, Corrine Meadows, LMFT, Imagine YOU Trainer, and Cynthia Calmenson, Executive Director and Imagine YOU Program Manager at IMCF.

The Mendocino Family of Companies, through the Community Foundation of Mendocino County, established the Redwood Valley and Santa Rosa Community Recovery Fund to support community restoration after the devastating October 2017 Nuns, Tubbs, and Redwood Complex fires. The fund distributed close to $800,000 in grants to support community restoration efforts.

Cynthia Calmenson, Executive Director
Integrative Medical Clinic Foundation: Imagine YOU Project
175 Concourse Blvd.
Santa Rosa, CA
707-623-0151 mobile
707-284-9225 voicemail
cynthiac@imcfound.org