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What We Do

We meet our Latine and Indigenous clients where they are- at vineyard worksites and trusted family service centers- to provide bilingual, bicultural health services including massage, acupuncture, somatic therapy, diabetes prevention and care, clinical nutrition and herbalism. Our programs, led by Promotora CHW’s, include Farmworkers Clinics and Wellness Workshops.

Support Our Work

In 2023 The Botanical Bus: Bilingual Mobile Herb Clinic will:

  • Organize 30 Farmworker clinics to provide 720 clients with 2,160 direct health services
  • Lead 90 wellness workshops, 60 embedded in clinics and 30 in partnership with community organizations to reach an additional 540 clients
  • Distribute 896 mutual-aid herbal care kits
  • Grow our team by providing 180 hours of paid training in clinical herbalism to four BIPOC apprentices

Why it Matters

Latine and Indigenous people in Sonoma County experience staggering health disparities shaped and sustained by current social and economic inequities: In California, 90% of Farmworkers are Latine or Indigenous to Central and South America, and 57% are estimated to be undocumented (Lewis, 2021). 11,060 vineyard workers were employed in Sonoma County during the 2018 grape harvest valued at $2 billion (Lewis, 2021). 92% of farmworker families in Sonoma County do not earn enough money to meet their basic needs (Lewis, 2021). Farmworkers are more likely to face food insecurity than the county's poorest residents (Lewis, 2021). Less than ⅓ of Farmworkers report having health insurance (Lewis, 2021).

Our health services are mobile because residential segregation, by race and ethnicity, income and occupation, is a social determinant of health. Our health services are bilingual because 4 in 10 of the 29,000 undocumented immigrants residing in Sonoma County do not speak English (Lewis, 2021). Our health services are bicultural because positive mental health outcomes can be better achieved through valuing cultural wealth (Adams & Chavez, 2016).

Adams & Chavez (2016). Cultural Foundations and Interventions in Latino/a Mental Health (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315724058

Lewis, Kristen. A Portrait of Sonoma County: 2021 Update. New York: Measure of America, Social Science Research Council, 2021.

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