Wellness Workshops in 2023

In 2023 we organized 53 Wellness Workshops, in addition to those offered at our clinic, to reach 310 unduplicated clients through 490 visits at vineyard worksites, schools and partner organizations in Santa Rosa, Guerneville, Sonoma Valley, Cloverdale and limited sites outside of Sonoma County. 

The following monthly series offer unique topics per session determined by community needs assessment and Promotora CHW expertise:

  • ¡Presente para Nutrirnos! [Present to Nourish Us!]: whole, accessible Indigenous foods and traditional recipes for type two diabetes prevention and care. 
  • Sembrando Semillas de Autocuidado [Planting Seeds of Selfcare]: Indigenous herbalism and cycles of healing connected to the seasons.
  • Reposo en Respiración [Rest in Your Breath]: breathwork and meditation for inner strength and stress relief.
  • Cuidando los Cuidadores [Caring for Care Providers]: herbal medicine and mindfulness practices that center our own unique sense of wellbeing and commitment to self-care as essential to care-providing.
  • ¡Arte! [Art!]: art therapy for whole person care.
  • Ciclos de Sanación [Healing Cycles]: feminine care connected to natural healing cycles. 

Botanical Bus wellness workshops are provided fee-for-service and we welcome new partnerships aligned with our commitments to anti-racism and trauma informed care. 

Apprenticeship Paths into Clinical Practices

In recognition of the disproportionate access to education and certification programs in integrative health and in alignment with our mission to empower holistic healthcare by-and-for Latine and Indigenous people, we provide Latine and Indigenous herbalists paths into clinical practice. 

In 2023, year two of our clinical apprenticeship program, 70% of previous year apprentices joined our team as staff to provide specialized care in their own communities. We welcomed three new apprentices to 180+ hours of paid training March – November 2023. This year’s apprentices joined us for additional training opportunities including; six hours of trauma informed care training with On the Margins Inc. that centers Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and sociocultural and organizational trauma; and 24-hours training with our team of Promotora CHWs as part of our Land-Based Convivencia Training Program for intergenerational knowledge sharing and mentorship.  

A word from last year’s apprentice and newly hired Clinical Herbalist, Daniela Myers-Guzman: “I cannot express enough how much this mentorship opportunity has deepened my education and widened my perspective on working with someone as a clinical herbalist.”

This year we witnessed the great value of cultural knowledge in the clinical setting, creating platforms for equitable learning between herbal apprentices and certified/licensed practitioners. This learning (and unlearning), allows us to provide safe, effective and culturally centered care to our clients through the incorporation of clinical protocol, evidence based practice and expertise in Latine and Indigenous healing traditions. 

Promotora’s Community Health Work in 2023

The Botanical Bus is founded and led by Latine and Indigenous Promotora CHWs, many of whom identify as Campesinas [people who know and work the land]. Promotora CHW workforce development is a direct investment in the Latine and Indigenous community we serve and central to our mission of empowering holistic health by-and-for Latine and Indigenous people. 80% of our staff identify as Latine and/or Indigenous and 100% as Spanish speaking. All of our outreach, forms, programming and services are provided in Spanish and take into consideration literacy levels, limitations using technology, and levels of trust accessing care. 

In 2023 we provided our team of seven Promotora CHWs 79 hours of paid training in first aid certification, CHW certification, trauma-informed care, and self-understanding, healing and growth for mental health practitioners. 

In addition to our paid training program, Botanical Bus Promotora CHWs access an education benefit towards tuition costs of continued education and certification programs.  

Healing Harvest Program

Botanical Bus Promotora CHWs participate in a Healing Harvest Program, launched by Botanical Bus in 2022 in partnership with Traditional Medicinals Foundation at Green Valley Mill + Farm, a .65 acre, 100 varietal herb farm located in West Sonoma County. In our second year program, we have made the following impact:

Job Creation for Promotora Community Health Workers (CHWs)

The program creates a part-time paid position with the Botanical Bus to facilitate the harvest, processing and distribution of local, organically grown herbal medicine through our Farmworker Clinics. The position is currently filled by Juliana Jimenez, certified CHW and Indigenous woman from Oaxaca, MX. Juliana leads the Botanical Bus wellness workshop series “¡Presente para Nutrirnos! / Present to Nourish Ourselves!, which centers Indigenous foods in diabetes support and prevention. Juliana works 6-12 hours a week harvesting herbal medicine.  She shares: “My work with the Healing Harvest program allows me to connect to the earth.  This is our best medicine.”

Land-Based Convivencia Training Program

The program includes quarterly, land-based learning retreats for our team of seven Promotora CHWs and three herbal apprentices. The Botanical Bus Promotora CHWs and herbal apprentices all identify as Latine and Indigenous people, the majority of whom have limited access to land where they can practice intergenerational knowledge of cultivating herbal medicine.  

This year’s trainings, chosen by group interest and consensus included:

  • Power of Rest: restorative yoga practice, clinical training on nervine herbs and milky oat harvest
  • Elements of Healing: incense making in the garden, training in Ayurvedic medicine and seasonal herb harvest
  • Celebrating the Harvest: land tending ceremony and seasonal herb harvest
  • Grounded Communication: tools for non-violent communication and root harvest

Local Organic Herbal Medicine Harvest

Our harvest is determined by inventory levels and distribution needs of the Botanical Bus Mobile Herb Clinic that distributed custom tea blends to 261 clients in 2023. We distributed make-your-own-tea blends to an additional 1,322 people at vineyard worksite wellness fairs and Farmworker Foundation events. Tea blends included Relaja-té [Relaxing Tea] and Respira [Breath] tea for spring allergy support. 

In sourcing local, organic herbal medicine, the Botanical Bus commits to sustainability, connects our programs to the earth and provides Promotora CHWs the powerful opportunity to tend the land. 

Mobile Herb Clinics in 2023

In 2023 we organized 21 clinic events in Santa Rosa, Guerneville and Sonoma Valley at vineyard worksites and family service centers to provide 261 clients with 1,872 direct healthcare services. Botanical Bus Clinic events are scheduled during paid shifts at vineyard worksites and on regular Saturdays at trusted family service center community hubs.

At the Botanical Bus clinics we weave culture into every process as clients are welcomed with music, agua frescas and traditional foods; clinical intake guided by an opening blessing circle; and exit surveys accompanied by a tamale meal. Direct services include massage, acupuncture, somatic therapy, tapping, diabetes prevention and care, physical therapy for repetitive use injury, clinical nutrition and herbalism. 

In anonymous exit surveys, 80% of the Botanical Bus clients report attending the clinic with specific intent, and 87% report therapies received were effective.

Attendance & Services

March- November 2023

0

Total Clinics

0

Clinic Attendance by Client Visit

0

Total Unduplicated Clients

0

Number of health services provided

Demographics & Symptoms

All data is collected through clinical intake and exit surveys that take into consideration literacy levels, limitations using technology, and levels of trust accessing care

Age
(% of clients)
Age Range Preferred Language
(% of reporting clients)
Ethnicity
(% of reporting clients)
Gender
(% of reporting clients)
High Level: Anxiety
and/or Depression
(% of reporting clients)
High Level: Pain
(% of reporting clients)
0-17 ( 3%);
18-24 (10%)
25-34 (14%);
35-44 (23%);
45-54 (24%)
55-64 (18%); 65+ (7%)
4 - 84 years
73% Spanish;
22% English;
4% both;
1% other
92% Latine;
3% White;
2% decline to state;
1% Native American;
1% multiracial;
1% other
79% women,
17% men,
4% decline to state
48%
67%

Mental health + culturally relevant care for farmworkers

At The Botanical Bus Farmworker Clinic: 88% of Latine and Indigenous clients report acute stress in the form of anxiety, depression and fatigue. 36% of this group identify their stress as debilitating. We believe that this mental health crisis needs to be met with culturally relevant care– care that empowers wellbeing though self-healing.

Culturally relevant care honors our abuelita’s knowledge of plant medicine for calming the nerves and easing a cough.  It honors the way the earth smells where we were born. It allows us to feel seen, respected and capable of caring for ourselves.

Herbalism and massage therapy are at the heart of Latine and Indigenous healing traditions. At our clinics, we witness the power of these trusted and effective therapies to connect people to a vital sense of self and place.

According to a recent study published in the Journal of Agromedicine: of the 20% of Farmworkers who access massage therapy, 85% seek treatment for an acute condition and 100% feel the treatment is very helpful. And of the 65% of Farmworkers who use herbal medicine, 79% seek treatment for an acute condition and over 90% have found them very helpful. (Arcury, Furgurson, O’Hara, Miles, Chen and Laurienti)

Me siento mucho mejor. Vine estresada y angustiada y me voy mucho mas liviana.  I feel much better. I arrived stressed and anxious and I am leaving feeling much lighter”, shares a recent client of The Botanical Bus Farmworker Clinic.

At our clinics, clients are welcomed with music, tamales and herbal agua frescas. Care stations are staffed by bilingual, bicultural practitioners who provide massage, chiropractic, acupuncture, somatic therapy and clinical herbalism.  Promotora Community Health Advocates lead wellness workshops on diabetes support, stress relief and immunity- all topics determined by community needs assessment.

Culturally relevant care empowers people to embody their intergenerational knowledge of health and to seek out complimentary and conventional mental health therapies.  Our Latine and Indigenous community face disproportionate exposure to toxic stress from social determinants of health including economic security, immigration status, access to health insurance, safe home and work environments.  By investing in Promotoras and culturally relevant health care, we take a stand for health equity and send a strong message “Our knowledge and power to care for ourselves and our community is part of who we are and where we come from.”

Thomas A. Arcury, Katherine F. Furgurson, Heather M. O’Hara, Kenya Miles, Haiying Chen & Paul J. Laurienti (2019) Conventional and Complementary Therapy Use among Mexican Farmworkers in North Carolina: Applying the I-CAM-Q, Journal of Agromedicine, 24:3,257-267, DOI: 10.1080/1059924X.2019.1592049