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The Humboldt Independent Practice Association School Based Wellness Programs
We believe that overall wellness is essential to academic success of Humboldt County students and are committed to recognizing the health needs of our diverse student population and promoting the social, emotional, and physical wellbeing of our students so that they may achieve their academic goals. This is achieved through the Humboldt IPA School Based Health and Wellness Centers and programs located throughout Humboldt County.
Locations
| McKinleyville Middle School | McKinleyville High School | Sunny Brea Middle School | HCOE Court and Community Schools |
Our goals
- To provide an environment that is culturally sensitive, compassionate, accessible and confidential.
- To provide effective Health Education programs to help students develop healthy behaviors and lifestyle choices.
- To enhance the academic success through the provision of educational and co-curricular opportunities for student engagement.
Our Services
Wellness Center Drop In Services
Locations with our on campus Wellness Centers, are staffed during school hours, M-F during the school year. Students have access to hygiene supplies, washer and dryer services, clothing, and a food pantry. In addition, we offer a safe space for students to recharge and be connected to additional community services.
Brief Intervention
Brief Intervention (B.I.) are structured conversations designed to address issues students are having in the classroom, at home or with peers. Brief interventions can help with emotion regulation, classroom behavior, suspected or confirmed substance use, general misconduct, and source for developmental/social support. provides a forum for youth to talk about their alcohol, tobacco, or drug use.
Conflict Mediation Services
Conflict mediation brings two conflicting parties to the table, along with a professional mediator. It is the role of the mediator to act as a neutral third party to hear both sides of the story to be able to determine the root cause of the conflict and then to create a future-based plan as determined by both parties with optimal outcomes for all concerned.
Empowerment Groups
Empowerment groups are mentorship groups targeted at middle school and high school students. These groups are led by volunteer mentors with lived experiences among a variety of spectrums and are designed to help participants develop strong leadership and communication skills. These groups are voluntary peer support groups for all students on campus. Our groups use evidence-based curriculum from One Circle Foundation. We use a strengths-based approach, motivational interviewing strategies and provide a strong focus on positive youth development.
Goals for the groups:
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- Develop strong peer to peer support for identified students.
- Foster a deeper connection to community.
- Lower absenteeism rate for students. (Especially those students who are chronically suspended due to violence.)
- Promote leadership skills.
- Prepare students in their transition into adulthood.
- Encourage emotional wellness.
- Instill a sense of hope that each youth has a bright future and their lives are meaningful.
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Girls Group is a structured support group for girls and gender non confirming youth. We integrate resiliency practices designed to increase positive connection, strengths, and competence in girls.- Boys to Men is a strengths-based group utilizing mentors with lived experience in the community to help promote boys’ and young men’s safe and healthy passage through pre-teen and adolescent years. In this structured environment, boys and young men gain the vital opportunity to address masculine definitions and behaviors and build capacities to find their innate value and create good lives -individually and collectively!
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Hear from our students! Why should you attend Boys to Men video
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- Unity Circle/Diversity Club is a structured support group model for people of all genders that addresses critical needs and strengths while honoring and celebrating the unique lived experiences of circle participants. Rooted in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) principles, it aims to boldly counteract racial and social forces that impede growth and development in all types of environments.
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Special Community Projects
Legacy Library
This project was developed out of the Boys to Men Empowerment group. This group was created in January 2020, by Priority Care Center in collaboration with McKinleyville Middle School (MMS), to support the wellbeing of male identified students. This group was established to help young men as they struggle to stay true to themselves while negotiating America’s narrow definition of masculinity. We acknowledge the pressure our boys experience from the media, their peer group, and even the adults in their lives. The Boys to Men Empowerment groups helps to confront messages that encourage boys to disconnect from their emotions, devalue authentic friendships, objectify and degrade women, and resolve conflicts through violence. These gender stereotypes interconnect with race, class, and circumstance, creating a maze of identity issues boys and young men must navigate to become their truest selves.
Our current mentors have recommended the books in the Legacy Library. These books helped shape their lives and become the men they are today. We hope that each student that encounters our Legacy Library will be inspired to reach their full potential and be inspired as our mentors were.
Our Legacy Library is now available at: HCOE’s Court and Community School, McKinleyville Middle School, and McKinleyville High School.
If you would like to purchase a book from our Legacy Library list, or see our full list of selected books please send an email to: vvrtiak@humboldtipa.com
Conversations on Justice
This event was developed out of the Boys to Men Empowerment Group, with the goal of promoting solutions for healing between law enforcement and youth impacted by the justice system.
Students watched the film, They Call Us Monsters. This film tells the story of three youth facing life in prison. After the screening, participants were able to meet with one of the film’s stars: Jarad Nava. Jarad discussed prevention strategies that would have helped change the course of his life. The final portion of Conversations on Justice was a panel discussion with local law enforcement, and formerly incarcerated people. Students wrote questions for the panelists, and developed an accountability statement for local law enforcement from their findings.
We hope that this event will continue on an annual basis, and will be developed by the students in the empowerment groups. We are deeply committed to ending the school to prison pipe line, and modeling strategies that promote accountability and healing.
