CLEARLAKE, Calif. – St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake has welcomed AmeriCorps VISTA member Kate Gitchell to its community wellness team.

Gitchell’s volunteer service will support Hope Rising, a collective impact movement of community partners, including St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake, focusing on improving quality of life in Lake County.

Gitchell’s AmeriCorps VISTA service will encompass a full year and bring helpful support to the SafeRx opioid initiative, a signature project of Hope Rising.

The AmeriCorps VISTA grant for her position was submitted by North Coast Opportunities Inc.

AmeriCorps is a national volunteer program that engages more than 80,000 Americans in intensive service each year at sites including nonprofits, schools, public agencies, and community and faith-based groups.

“In the true spirit of collaboration and shared investment, NCO ‘contributed’ one of its VISTA members to Hope Rising,” said Shelly Mascari, community wellness director at St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake and leader of Hope Rising. “We spent several months recruiting and interviewing potential volunteers and were excited when we met Kate. Her education, experience and interests align well with the work of Hope Rising and SafeRx.”

Gitchell’s arrival comes at a busy time for Hope Rising, a collective impact organization that includes representatives from local health care, education, nonprofit community services and partners such as The Way to Wellville, who work together to improve quality of life in Lake County.

Hope Rising recently received a grants from Partnership HealthPlan of California and from the California Department of Public Health.

SafeRx is one of the signature projects of Hope Rising; it was formed as a collaboration of local health care organizations and other public agencies operating in Lake County in recognition that access to opioids, or pain medications, involves prescriptions from local physicians.

The task force has set a goal to reduce deaths due to the use and misuse of prescription pain killers by 50 percent by 2020. St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake is the backbone agency of SafeRx and an active leader in Hope Rising.

Gitchell, a native of upstate New York, graduated from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Cortland in 2016. It was during college that she developed a love for community health and wellness.

She regularly volunteered at a local food pantry and worked as the intensive outpatient program coordinator at SOL Stone eating disorder clinic.

Later, she interned at Binghampton University in the health and wellness department, focusing on nutrition and mental/physical health. At Binghamtpon, she organized a seminar on the heroin and opioid crisis affecting the city and surrounding counties in New York State.

“I am so excited to utilize my skills and education in partnership with St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake,” said Gitchell. “I believe in the vision of the Hope Rising collaborative and look forward to helping with the progress of SafeRx over the coming year.”

Learn more about Hope Rising at www.hoperisinglakecounty.com .