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Healthy Start gets Valley fire survivor students back on track
More than 1,300 residences were lost in the Valley fire and homeowners were immediately faced with a myriad of duties and tasked outside of ordinary day-to-day life – filing insurance claims, finding temporary housing, rebuilding, replacing lost items, and trying to bring some semblance of order to their lives.
Parents were overwhelmed with the countless administrative duties to rebuild their lives, but school-aged children were faced with their own disruptions, including school closures that lasted two weeks.
“The impacts of natural disasters are not just economic,” said Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg of the Lake County Office of Education. “The psychological impacts can persist for years. Not only are disasters themselves stressful and frightening, but children can experience psychological struggles due to the damage to their homes and possessions; from seeing parents, caregivers and/or the community undergo stress; and from breakdowns in social networks, neighborhoods, and local economies.”
This is where the Healthy Start program stepped in to help Lake County students deal with the stressors from the 2015 Valley fire – in particular, Wendy Gattoni, Lake County Office of Education employee assigned to serve as the Healthy Start Family Advocate for the Middletown Unified School District.
“Middletown Unified was blessed to have Healthy Start, and Wendy Gattoni in particular, working with us after the Valley fire,” said Middletown Unified Superintendent Catherine Stone. “Wendy was invaluable not only for us, but for all of the families she worked with. She helped put the pieces back together for so many students and their families. She provided a wealth of resources, a shoulder to lean on, and a deep well of caring and connection for all she touched.”
Healthy Start is a statewide initiative placing comprehensive support services for children and families at individual school sites.
It gives schools, in partnership with public and private service providers, an opportunity to restructure systems to better meet the needs of children and families, and has been operating successfully in Lake County for over 20 years.
Healthy Start is funded by the Lake County Office of Education, School Districts, First 5, the Lake County Department of Social Services and the Lake County Department of Behavioral Health.
It’s received national recognition for its Oral Health Program and Family Positive Results & Outcomes program. It’s also known for its foster youth services and its nurturing families parent education programs, and provides numerous other services for low-income, homeless, and at-risk youths in Lake County.
Although Healthy Start predominately serves at-risk youth, after the Valley fire, many families not typically familiar to using Healthy Start services, were immediately considered “at-risk.”
Ana Santana, the director of Healthy Start, explained the difference between Lake County’s social service programs and Healthy Start. “Social Work enables children, adults, families, groups and communities to function, participate and develop in society. Healthy Start has an academic focus which enables children to function, participate and develop in school.”
Gattoni, who has worked for the Lake County Office of Education serving as the Healthy Start Family Advocate for Middletown Unified for many years, has an office located on the Middletown Middle School campus.
The location became a base for numerous site visits to shelters and temporary housing during the Valley fire.
Gattoni and other members of the Healthy Start team provided services to 260 students, many that Gattoni had known throughout her tenure at Healthy Start.
She was a friendly, well-known face who had an established connection with many of the Valley fire survivors. She provided consistency to students and their families in an ever-changing situation.
Initially separated from her own family during the onset of the Valley fire, Gattoni was able to meet up her husband and daughter in Calistoga at the Red-Cross shelter at the Napa County Fairgrounds, where they spent nine days hearing reports that their own home had burned to the ground. It did not.
Gattoni explained, “When we were able to leave the shelter, and the schools re-opened we had to hit the ground running. The first thing we needed to do was coordinate with all the schools to see who needed help. We become a hub for basic needs. There was such a need for so many things.”
Students were immediately faced with the loss and routine that their homes and schools provided. They were also faced with the instant need of clothing, toiletries and school supplies. The Healthy Start program helped made sure these needs were met.
Members of the Healthy Start team worked with families at the local assistance centers to help families replace birth certificates and get signed up for other social service programs.
They also worked as liaisons with the families to the numerous local, state and federal agencies involved in the recovery efforts.
Although Gattoni is not bilingual herself, she was able to go to the Federal Emergency Management Agency with a Spanish-speaking family and clear up a simple misunderstanding, allowing the family to get the services they needed.
“It was a simple task that yielded great results,” said Gattoni.
The Hidden Valley Lake Campground became a home to numerous Middletown Unified students in the aftermath of the Valley fire.
Gattoni would arrive home after work and take care of the needs of her own family, only to leave again to visit the campground in the evening to make sure Valley fire survivors were okay and their needs were being met.
“When the weather changed and it started raining, I needed to get the families rain ponchos. Simple things that were really important,” said Gattoni.
Although it’s been two years since the Valley fire, Gattoni said she still sees students dealing with the effects of it.
“Over the last few weeks, I’ve seen several students who have concerns about the smoke blowing in from Southern Oregon and the Northern California fires. I let them know that everything is okay and they are safe,” Gattoni said.
“Now, two years past the Valley fire, Wendy continues this important work in this community,” Stone said. “She is still helping families who were impacted by the fire, and helps maintain the strong home-school connection for those she serves. We are so thankful that we have Healthy Start and Wendy.”
“There are families out there who still do not have a home of their own. But the students are resilient. They are thriving,” Gattoni said.
Healthy Start is a program offered to Lake County students and their families, through the Lake County Office of Education.
The program offers a wide variety of services that focus on supporting academic success, and building personal strengths for children, youth and families.
The program assists students so they can come to school ready to learn.
For more information on this program, please go to www.lakecoe.org and search for “Healthy Start.”
