Natalie Venegas is in the middle of a bunch of booths on the Santa Barbara City College campus. It’s a health and wellness fair. But she admits she didn’t come here to learn about health or wellness.
"What brought me out here today was probably the free ice cream. Well, okay, also getting to know that there's clinics here to help us out, and keep us healthy," said Venegas. "Yeah, I got more than the ice cream," she joked.
SBCC is a pioneer in health and wellness efforts among community college students. In 2019, it started The WELL, the first freestanding health and wellness center on the state’s 116 community college campuses.
Now, it’s sharing the concept with community college students statewide.
"It is called the Wellness Companion Hub, and we are so excited because it is a digital platform, where students from not only Santa Barbara City College, but students from all 116 California community colleges will be able to access diverse mental, physical, and sexual wellness support and resources," said Becky Bean, the Well Student Program Advisor.
She said the goal is to disseminate the information through the state's community colleges. "It's a free resource powered by The WELL at SBCC," said Bean.
Bean talked about what Santa Barbara City College and community college students across the state will find on the Wellness Companion Hub’s website.
"You are going to have access to mental, physical, and sexual health resources, in the form of videos, audio, soundscapes, meditation, stress reduction exercises, and lots of different tool kits around your health," said Bean. "They (students) can type in their school, and it will pop up mental and physical health resources located on their campus."
The Hub’s statewide launch is being celebrated at SBCC with an event featuring everything from booths from healthcare providers to outdoor dance classes.
"A lot of people are just trying to get through school. It's the big focus for students...school, and work. It's hard to prioritize themselves," said Blaze Osborne, a student who works for the health program. She said connecting her classmates with healthcare and mental wellness resources is important.
"You're human. You're not perfect. You're going to need some support. There are resources for you."
There’s a line of students at a cluster of booths set up by the Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics. The big draw is free, on-the-spot flu shots. But, Mario Guerrero, with the clinics, says they have an ongoing relationship with the campus in which they bring a variety of services to students.
"Every month, we come here to this wonderful campus and provide STI screenings. Today, we're providing flu vaccines. Hopefully, in the future, we'll be able to provide other kinds of vaccines. We provide assistance like enrolling students in Covered California, Medi-Cal, and even help with housing and food," said Guerrero.
Another booth is handing out boxes of a potentially life-saving medical treatment. They are doses of an antidote to accidental fentanyl overdoses.
"We really focus on overdose prevention," said Lacy Peters, co-chair of SBCC's Mental Health Counseling Department. "The ANCHOR program is a substance use and recovery program, geared towards harm reduction, and we offer counseling and recovery support.
While SBCC students have had the benefit of a wellness center for six years, the hope is that the online hub based on this campus will help the more than two million community college students statewide tap into local resources.
