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El Circulo del Té
At the Park and Community Center Familias Corazones Verdes
Sponsored by the Picerne Family Foundation
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During the COVID-19 pandemic, we temporarily closed and scaled down our programs to adhere to COVID-19 health and safety guidelines. Despite this, we remained in contact with the community and continued to provide much-needed services remotely. While we reopened the park in 2021, we have witnessed the immense hardship our community has endured due to the pandemic. Many of the families we serve reported negative impacts on their social, emotional, physical, mental, economic health, and well-being, such as difficulty sleeping or eating, worsening chronic conditions due to worry and stress over the coronavirus, isolation, job loss, rent increase, eviction notices, and death of their love ones.
In response to these circumstances, and thanks to the support of we developed El Círculo del Té to deliver a holistic program to promote social, emotional, physical, and mental health and improve access to community resources for local families. We hosted weekly workshops for parents led by professionals in each subject area, interactive dialogues, self-awareness and talent assessments, and various coping and therapeutic techniques. This holistic wellness program was developed to create spaces and opportunities for families to self-assess resilience and strengths. It will also include recreational activities to facilitate fun, socializing, physical activity, family bonding, and a sense of community socio-emotional wellness. We believe that people continued coming to these fantastic and dynamic sessions because they had the opportunity to engage in a healthy environment that allowed them to express and talk about their struggles and discover or reinforce their skills and strengths.
The second phase of El Círculo del Té is set to begin in September 2022.
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LHA Support Groups
by LHA's Emotional Wellness Team
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Now more than ever, the need to speak to others about your feelings is essential for a person's mental wellbeing. We are still going through the pandemic, but at its height, people were experiencing death, or extreme isolation, while others desired the need for some alone time, some worried about work, and countless other worries.
We recently had a participant who reached out to us because she was feeling overwhelmed and depressed due to the death of her husband. We provided the comfort and support she needed during her dark moments. She attended our group called 'Una Nueva Normalidad' sessions fairly consistently until we started noticing her absence from the group. We all reached out to her, worried about what may have happened with a delayed response. When we finally reached her, she shared with the group that she had inherited her husband's business, and she had been very busy with that. That added stress to her already stressful life as she was not business savvy and began accumulating debt. She felt lost and indecisive with everything she had to do. The group immediately connected her with services that would walk her through the financial components of the business. This guidance helped her decide to return to Mexico to work and establish a more peaceful and guilt-free life. She knows that the day she decides to return, we will welcome her with open arms.
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Florinda's story begins with her attending the 'Escuelita,' course on rental rights and coming to the Santa Ana Tenants Union Hope meetings, and with her newfound knowledge of programs that could help her in the dire situation she was in she was able to apply for Santa Ana CARES Program and was approved to receive the help she needed. From there she began working with the Santa Ana Tenants Union Hope and working in the meetings quickly becoming an expert at keeping track of the agenda and checking the time for their meetings.
Recently, due to her daughter's unfortunate passing, Florinda has become the primary caretaker of her 5yr old granddaughter. When Florinda came to LHA she was very excited to learn more about her rights as a tenant and how to develop her skills. This enthusiasm is seen through their commitment to attend all meetings and lead the way in civic participation and engagement. Her enthusiasm and love of learning have led her to provide several public comments at city council meetings and to be highly appreciated and respected by all CEA participants. Florinda is the personification of a hard-working, resilient, and caring SantaAna resident.
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Let's take the time to thank everyone who joined us at the Activate Your Health event. We had so much fun seeing people from the community come out and partake in the mile walk, dancing up a storm in the Zumba sessions, relaxing our body and mind with yoga, drumming to the beat, and of course, everyone loved having fun with the emotion characters walking throughout the event. We can't wait for what's to come next year!
Special thanks to our main event sponsors Howmet Aerospace Foundation and the Howmet Hispanic Network, Eagle Community Credit Union, Northgate Gonzalez Markets, Disneyland Resort, Union Bank, and Western Dental and Orthodontics among others, which allowed us to welcome the community at no cost to all!
To see images from the event you may do so on Facebook.
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Providing Sustainable Change in Communities
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July is designated as National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month and in an effort to bring awareness to these issues ReEmployAbility spoke to us about our impact on the physical and mental health of the Latino community in California.
To read more click the button below
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There are many ways you can help us and if you haven't done so yet, you can choose us as your charity of choice when shopping on Amazon all your qualifying AmazonSmile orders will support our programs.
Mission: Latino Health Access partners with communities to bring health, equity, and sustainable change through education, services, consciousness-raising, and civic participation.
Programs: Healthy Weight/Peso Saludable, Diabetes Self Management, Emotional Wellness, Community Engagement, and Advocacy, Elder Adult
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