Spotlight on La Familia Sana: Q&A with Executive Director Jade Weymouth
Left to right: Laura Arreguin, Jade Weymouth, Andrea Godinez, Freddy Lopez (Board Member), Mayra Arreguin, Nancy Dalwin (Board Member), Cristina Rosas, Tod Hill (Board Chair), Maria de Jesus Ferreira, Dr. Robert Martinez (Board Member).
La Familia Sana has been working tirelessly to support families in Cloverdale, Geyserville, and surrounding areas through various community programs. Led by Executive Director Jade Weymouth, who took on her role in 2021, La Familia Sana has seen tremendous growth. As part of our effort to highlight our grantees, we spoke with Jade about this year’s progress, challenges, and how Healdsburg Forever’s support has helped them make a meaningful impact.
How has this year been going for La Familia Sana? Any standout moments or successes you’re excited about?
La Familia Sana has grown over the past 3 years; we have grown from a scrappy organization that made magic with limited resources to a better-staffed, scrappy organization that still makes magic happen with limited resources. All jokes aside, we have more tools and funding to do our jobs better and comply with grants and data tracking. This past year, I have been working extremely hard to ensure we have a solid team of employees who can meet the needs of our community. We've been implementing CAL-AIM so that La Familia Sana can bill Partnership HealthPlan for our housing work and eventually our promotoras de salud work. Finally, we are incredibly close to securing a new space for our organization and partners that can fit our dreams of a Community Center that serves all of Cloverdale.
What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced recently, and how have you been navigating them?
General operating funds are so important for a small organization like ours. To have trust-based philanthropy, like Healdsburg Forever, that supports our overall mission without adding additional work to our team can have a huge impact on our day-to-day work and clients served. Finding funds and donors that support the work we do well, which is serving the community, is incredibly important.
How has Healdsburg Forever’s support made an impact on your ability to meet the needs of the community?
These funds have allowed us to dig in deeper in the Geyserville community to provide services. This past year, we ran a year of ESL, provided bilingual arts classes that allowed for parent participation and resulted in a gorgeous mural on the Geyserville Elementary campus, hosted a bilingual STEAM spring break camp in collaboration with the Children’s Museum, and finally, we will begin providing CalFresh and Medi-Cal enrollment at the elementary school starting in October.
Are there any new or unexpected needs you’re seeing in the community this year that you're working to address?
Systems change is slow work; we have to stay steady and focused. Addressing poverty, inequities, and the systems that benefit from them are deeply embedded at both local and national levels. We look at the work that Corazón has done in Healdsburg and dream of the day when we can work in deeper collaboration with our local government to better serve our whole community. I hope the same for Geyserville when the new downtown space comes to fruition.
La Familia Sana is doing incredible work to support their community, and Healdsburg Forever is proud to be part of their journey. Stay tuned for more stories about the impact our grantees are making!
