2025 Grantee Spotlight: Healdsburg Education Foundation
Across the Healdsburg community, schools are seeing an increased need for student mental health support. We recently spoke with Chris Vanden Heuvel, Superintendent of Healdsburg Unified School District, about how Healdsburg Education Foundation, with support from a Healdsburg Forever grant, is helping ensure students have access to counseling and wellness services at school.
Q: How was your Healdsburg Forever grant used this year?
Grant funds were used to support our comprehensive student counseling program, including the Wellness Center at Healdsburg High School. The funding helped offset staffing costs for our Elementary Counseling program and the Wellness Center, which includes two Marriage and Family Therapists, a Social Worker, and a Wellness Center Coordinator. Without the grant from Healdsburg Forever, we would not have been able to be as effective as we were.
Q: What impact have these programs had on students and the broader school community?
This year, staff successfully established a Wellness Youth Council, a group of students who meet regularly with Wellness Center therapeutic staff to help guide programs and services, including peer counseling.
Since the start of the school year, the Wellness Center has made 40 individual counseling referrals, completed 32 post-intake referral placements, facilitated 150 individual counseling sessions, conducted 85 wellness coordinator check-ins, and hosted 250 brain break drop-ins. By the end of January, more than 70 students had accessed the center at least once.
The Wellness Youth Council has also helped bring important programs to campus, including fentanyl awareness workshops, wellness workshops in 9th and 11th grade classrooms, weekly therapy dog visits, and Wellness Wednesdays at lunch. These efforts have contributed to increased attendance and diversion from suspensions for many students.
Q: What challenges have you faced in sustaining these services?
Long-term funding remains the biggest challenge. While the state’s Community Youth Behavioral Health Initiative allows schools to bill medical insurance for some mental health services, it is expected to cover only about 20 to 30 percent of personnel costs. Continued access to grant funding is still essential to sustaining these programs and Healdsburg Forever is an integral part of that.
Q: How has demand for mental health services changed recently?
Demand at the Wellness Center has increased this school year. This may reflect greater normalization among students in seeking mental health support at school, as well as increased stressors facing students and families. Changes in immigration policy, in particular, have created additional anxiety for many youth and families, affecting students’ sense of safety and overall well-being.
Q: What are your priorities and needs looking ahead?
The district is committed to continuing to provide mental health support to as many students as possible. Unfortunately, the need for these services is increasing at the same time that state and federal funding is decreasing. We are grateful for the continued support of Healdsburg Forever and Healdsburg Education Foundation in helping ensure that children, youth, and families in our community have access to critical wellness and counseling services.
