Three years before the North Bay’s October 2017 fires, Napa County was struck with a 6.0 earthquake, a disaster that led the county to quickly become more readily prepared for large scale emergencies. Numerous historic buildings suffered damage and nearly 200 people were injured in...
Prior to the 2017 fire disaster in Sonoma County, the core services offered through Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Santa Rosa focused primarily on homelessness and housing, emergency shelter, and street outreach work. The organization also offered immigration and naturalization services, which assists people...
The October 2017 North Bay fires left thousands of households with the daunting tasks of navigating insurance claims, disaster recovery assistance like FEMA, and the rebuilding or relocating process. As a result, Legal Aid of Sonoma County established a Disaster Relief Services Program, providing outreach...
La Plaza launched into action in 2018, just one year after Sonoma County was hit by catastrophic fires and heading into some of our most challenging years with more fires, historic floods, and a years-long pandemic. Yet the nonprofit, a project grown from a leadership...
On September 27th, 2020, Jessica Henson watched her TV all day, keeping up with news of the Glass Fire slowly spreading west from where it ignited in Napa County before dawn. She saw smoke rising in the distance from where she lived in one of...
It's been just over five years since the Tubbs and Nuns fires changed life as we knew it in Sonoma County. We launched the Sonoma County Resilience Fund knowing that while the immediate needs would be great, our community needed a fund that would be...
In March 2020, everything changed. Nearly overnight, the nonprofit organizations that act as Sonoma County's safety net faced a crisis like no other: how to help the thousands of people who suddenly lost jobs or faced other economic hardships survive the widespread closures, how to...
At CFSC, as we worked to innovate our grantmaking in light of the coronavirus crisis, we asked a critical question: How could we inspire more people to give? We knew our regional affiliates—Healdsburg Forever and the Sonoma Valley Fund—were already doing incredible work in their local...
Growing economic uncertainty is stretching local nonprofits to their limits. They’re working hard to help an influx of new clients who need support physically, mentally, and financially. The sharp rise in the cost of living has led to financial stress among low-income families struggling to make...
During a year characterized in so many ways by tragedy, change, and heartbreak, Community Foundation Sonoma County has responded to what feels like never-ending cycles of disaster brought on by seasons of wildfires and a pandemic. At the same time, we’ve witnessed daily examples of...