Santa Cruz County Crisis & Personal Support Articles

A new audio-visual project collects stories from Pajaro residents displaced by the March 2023 Pajaro River flood. (County of Santa Cruz)
Pajaro’s Floods: A Living Archive

An organization that helps men break free from drug and alcohol addiction officially broke ground on June 21 on a new Behavioral Health Center on Miles Lane in Watsonville.

How the California mental health crisis emerged out of the state’s history of deinstitutionalization and laws designed to protect the mentally ill, as well as the communities around them.

The state is considering zeroing out funds for CalWORKS family stabilization and job subsidy programs to help balance the budget.

Shannon Vudmaska, left, hugs her neighbor Erica Bertao on Coral Street where many clients of the Harm Reduction Coalition’s needle exchange live. (Tyler Maldonado — Santa Cruz Local)
SANTA CRUZ >> Three months after a court ruling shuttered a needle …

Lawmakers in California and other states are now making attempts to prevent the reported harms to children caused by social media platforms. The U.S. Senate got into the act as well, at a dramatic Jan. 31 hearing.

San Francisco provides all tenants facing eviction access to an attorney. Across the Bay, in Contra Costa County, it’s a different story. Two tenants’ stories show the difference a lawyer can make.

End Poverty in California, a nonprofit founded by former Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs, has been on a listening tour of the Golden State since early 2022.

More than 70,000 households who needed and applied for state aid to pay their rent during the COVID-19 pandemic by the March 2022 deadline still have their applications listed as "pending." Now they could be evicted from their homes.

Janus has been the go-to recovery center in Santa Cruz County for the past 30 years. In this interview, board chair, Edison Jensen, and CEO Amber Williams talk about ways to support recovery during the holidays, how their various programs …

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature mental health policies allow the involuntary treatment of more Californians with severe mental illnesses. Some fear the new laws will infringe on the civil liberties of people confined against their will.

California collects a special tax on high incomes to fund mental health services. Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to change how the money is spent so a share of it can be used to fund housing for homeless people with mental …

More workers are filing claims with the state alleging employers are retaliating against them for engaging in legally protected activities, such as seeking overtime pay or reporting wage theft or discrimination.

Under a system that has long prioritized local control for school districts. state officials now are fighting some recent board decisions regarding LGBTQ students.

In a time of growing eco-despair, one may wonder: Is grief good for you? The folks at The Good Grief Network say it is, and they have created  a pragmatic program that metabolizes eco-distress and transforms it into meaningful action. …

Jeri Bodemar Photo courtesy of Lisa Fotios

For humans, a horse may be the greatest bio-feedback tool on earth In Equine Assisted Psychotherapy, a therapist uses a horse as the emotional barometer to get you to a moment when what you feel on the inside is what …

By channeling funds to a number of nonprofits working on various issues in a given region, community foundations help solve big problems throughout California.

A conversation with Stacy Caldwell, CEO of Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation

More staff and coordination in new 24-hour response.