April 19, 2021 Healdsburg Forever: Shifting to Meet Community Needs in a Time of Crisis
Fundraising can be tricky during a local disaster like a wildfire or flood. It can be even trickier during a global pandemic that spans an entire year and counting. COVID-19 and successive years of wildfires hit the Healdsburg and Geyserville communities hard. With grapes left...
April 12, 2021 Sonoma Valley Catalyst Fund: supporting the Valley through a time of crisis
In June 2020, about 10 Sonoma Valley civic leaders gathered in a backyard to discuss the future of Sonoma Valley. Roughly three months into the pandemic, the group was worried: How would small local businesses survive shelter-in-place orders? How would those who were now unemployed...
March 2, 2021 IsoCare: helping people isolate and quarantine safely
When Elece Hempel, the Executive Director of Petaluma People Services Center (PPSC), first realized the pandemic would impact the organization’s services, she met with seniors who frequent their Senior Café. Although she assured them meals would still be available (through pick-up instead of in the...
February 25, 2021 Legal Aid: Pursuing justice for Journey’s End Clients three years after the fire
When Legal Aid of Sonoma County set out to assist residents of the Journey's End mobile home park after the 2017 fires, they didn't realize how much of a fight they'd be in for. Achieving a settlement for their clients was a lengthy and arduous...
February 12, 2021 Alliance Medical Center: beginning the push towards ending the pandemic
Founded in 1971 by physicians concerned about migrant healthcare, Healdsburg’s Alliance Medical Center now has four healthcare clinics in Healdsburg and Windsor. Annually, they provide medical, dental, behavioral, and wellness services to over 12,000 patients in the region. “The great majority of our patients are the...
January 25, 2021 Meet our 2020-2021 Interns: Diana, Maria, and Rosa
We were thrilled to welcome three new interns to our team this fall! Diana Ortiz, Maria Sosa Ramos, and Rosa Colin Vasquez help support our Communications, Philanthropic Planning, and Community Impact teams and are learning a ton on the job. This internship program was launched...
January 12, 2021 California Homemakers Association: activating volunteers to help domestic workers and service workers
Erica Diamond began volunteering with California Homemakers Association ten years ago after witnessing the problems and suffering in Sonoma County’s low-income communities. “I wanted to do everything that I can to address the root causes of poverty,” she says. “And I found that CHA was organizing the low-income...
October 27, 2020 YWCA Sonoma County: Domestic Violence Awareness Month
For more than four decades YWCA Sonoma County has been a safe haven for domestic violence survivors. The organization helps individuals and families through their hotline, housing, therapy services, a preschool, advocacy, and more. Founded in London in 1855, a branch was created in the...
October 16, 2020 Sonoma County Resilience Fund Donates $1,750,000 to COVID-19 Relief Efforts
Since March, Community Foundation Sonoma County has granted more than $4.6 million to support nonprofit organizations responding to coronavirus. When the coronavirus pandemic struck Sonoma County in March 2020, Community Foundation Sonoma County (CFSC) and our donors immediately responded, making significant grants to help support the...
September 30, 2020 Building the Bridge from Homelessness to Housing: Catholic Charities
Like all organizations working with our local houseless community, Catholic Charities continues finding temporary and permanent housing for hundreds of people in Sonoma County, despite the added challenge of the COVID pandemic. “I consider us as kind of the bridge from homelessness to housing,” says Catholic...