Behavioral Health & Recovery Services Blog

Last Fall, Behavioral Health and Recovery Services’ Office of Diversity and Equity (BHRS ODE) hosted 3 Parent Project® classes. In partnership with StarVista, we hosted on virtual English class, facilitated by Ivan Marquez and Jackie Cisneros and one virtual Spanish class facilitated by Leonela Zavalza and Karen Palomino Velazquez. This semester we also began our partnership with Community Alliance to Revitalize Our Neighborhoods (CARON), where we collaborated to host one in-person Spanish Course at the Half Moon Bay Library. We are beyond thrilled to have celebrated 61 new official Parent Project® graduates, and 13 participants, ultimately serving 74 parents and caregivers of San Mateo County!

This semester featured a lot of notable highlights for the Parent Project® program, one of them being that all of our classes received a presentation from Alcohol and Other Drug’s (AOD) department’s Dr. Ronni Brown, Alex Perez, and Gabriel Lemus. The AOD Overdose Education & Response educated parents on the dangers of fentanyl, how to recognize an overdose, how to utilize Narcan, and how to access BHRS’ substance use services. AOD even distributed Narcan and Fentanyl test strips to our Parent Project® participants. The Office of Diversity and Equity would like to thank the AOD team for supporting the parents and caregivers of San Mateo County! In addition, BHRS ODE provided our general presentation introducing BHRS, our office at ODE, the Health Ambassador Program, as well as how to access Behavioral Health and Recovery Services. For the first time in Parent Project history, we had the Health Ambassadors, Cynthia Castro and Amada Espinoza, facilitate a Know the Signs Workshop, with the support of ODE’s Health Education Associate, Maria Martinez. Know the Signs is a training where participants learn to recognize the signs of suicide in another individual, and how to approach this concern via conversation and appropriate (BHRS) resources. We are so thankful to our Health Ambassador Program for helping our Parent Project® participants to initiate their journey to becoming prospective Health Ambassadors by providing a Know the Signs workshop at one of our Parent Project classes!

Finally, thank you to our partners at StarVista for celebrating our Parent Project® graduates and participants with in-person graduations featuring family activities and holiday raffles for Parent Project® participants to enjoy. We would also like to thank CARON for their in-person graduation featuring resources tables and presentations from the Half Moon Bay Library, Sheriff’s Activity League, Coastside Hope, City of Half Moon Bay, and San Mateo County’s Office of Community Affairs, and even a special visit from the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office, therapy dog, Maverick!

Here at BHRS ODE, we wish you all a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year! We look forward to seeing you at our Spring 2025 semester of Parent Project coming soon.

Written by Nicoletta Kelleher, Parent Project Coordinator