Health

VOTE HERE

Please vote now! To qualify, you must live or work in Marin County, and be over the age of 14. Please follow these instructions:

1. Click on this webpage: https://apps.marincounty.org/MCPBP/0
2. Click on the blue “start” button
3. Select the middle option “voting code and I have a cell phone.” Click the “text a voting code” blue button
4. Enter your cell phone number, then click blue button
5. You will receive a text with a code. Now enter this “voting code” back onto your computer
6. Vote Registration page: enter your name, year of birth, phone number, email, zip code. Click blue button.
7. Now vote! Click the select box next to our project “Creciendo Juntos/Growing Together.” You can choose up to 7 projects, then submit your vote!

About the Project: Creciendo Juntos/Growing Together

Community synergy! We know that by working side by side, we can foster and grow community for the greater good. A project of North Marin Community Services (NMCS), Creciendo Juntos will engage 800 youth and adults in the Novato/North Marin community through two programs to increase social, financial, and emotional well-being. Throughout this project, we will prioritize diversity, inclusion, and equity.

By amplifying the voices, needs, and feedback from people in our community, we will strengthen programs that support well-being at a time when more people are struggling with basic needs. This project will help more families stay together, with access to healthy food and housing, afterschool enrichment and academic support, quality childcare, and mental health care.

Within the first program, Creciendo Juntos/Growing Together will center on the voices of 700 youth and their families through focus groups, listening circles, storytelling, and a survey campaign, “Su Voz Importa/Your Voice Matters.” NMCS staff, volunteers, and participants will connect to hear feedback and discuss ways to strengthen programs within Case Management, Mental Health, Child Development, and Latine/Promotores Programs. All aspects of the program will be offered in Spanish and English, with other languages interpreted through Boostlingo. Accessible locations include our two centers (680 Wilson Ave., 1907 Novato Blvd.), Novato Teen Clinic, in the community, and social media. As the anchor human-service nonprofit in Novato, we are being called upon to learn from and listen to those who access services. Our dedicated team of 579 (67 staff, 512 volunteers) bring a wealth of knowledge and passion for serving others. We are governed by the most diverse team in our 51-year history. Over half of our staff is bilingual and bicultural, enabling us to serve a culturally and socio-economically diverse mix of families in a manner that integrates and unites our community.

The second program is called School Works Initiative (SWI). Here we will engage 100 people (30 youth and their families). Youth in SWI will receive academic support, enrichment activities, social-emotional support, while their families receive parent coaching and access to basic safety-net services to support them with food, housing, education, and career goals. Statistics show that youth of color in Marin County demonstrate health, emotional and financial challenges at far greater rates than their white peers. Rates of Latine and Black youth are higher in the Marin juvenile justice system, and they often feel disconnected from school and academics, with chronic absenteeism, suspension/expulsion, and truancy and dropout rates. Our goal is to help these youth succeed and not enter the juvenile justice system.

Vote for Creciendo Juntos! Together we can increase access to mental health and social-emotional services for low- to moderate-income community members; provide opportunities for civic engagement to promote equitable systems of care; disrupt the systemic factors that lead to an overrepresentation of Latine and Black youth from Novato in the Marin juvenile justice system; and promote racial, gender, and economic justice. Let’s connect, engage, and walk alongside people on their path to success!