Building Confidence, Achieving Goals: April's story of Resilience

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Three years ago, April was spending the nights on the streets or in local parks in the bushes. April found the strength and courage to not only realize she needed help, but to ask for help from the Butte County Department of Behavioral Health. April was referred to Caminar and became a tenant of Avenida Apartments and an employee of Caminar’s vocational training program, Sensible Cyclery.    

When April started at Sensible Cyclery, it was difficult for her to make eye contact with her colleagues and her supervisor when speaking with them. After a few months, there was a dramatic change; April started to build the confidence she needed in order to achieve the goals she set for herself.

After completing and graduating from Sensible Cyclery, April enrolled in Butte College to take courses to become a computer programmer. April is now finishing her last semester and has been handpicked for an internship at a local computer programming company.

April is moving to a regular, non-assisted apartment in the community as of December 1, 2017. April did not have to leave Avenidas, and when asked why she was, she simply said that she wants someone else to benefit from the help and opportunity that she had from Caminar’s services.

Sincere thanks to April and Scott Walker, Program Manager for Sensible Cyclery, Pro-Touch and Avenida Apartments, Caminar Butte County Region, for sharing this inspiring story of resilience. 

 

 

 

Butte Region Updates and Celebrations

On Tuesday, November 20, our CEO, Chip Huggins, visited our Butte Region for a full day of updates, meetings, and celebrations. 

To kick off the day, Chip met with Butte County Department of Behavioral Health Assistant Director, Don Taylor. The two touched base on the status of programs and shared agency updates. Chip next met with Harry Ellis and Gina Muse from the Department of Rehabilitation. The three reviewed to current caseloads and discussed the referral process from the DoR to Caminar.

After his meetings, Chip toured Sensible Cyclery, one of our social enterprises, and chatted with crew members and Avenida tenants. Next, Chip held an all-staff meeting and provided agency updates, answered staff questions and listened to client stories. After the staff meeting, Chip joined our Friendship Circle Thanksgiving Feast. He even carved the turkey for clients, who delighted in his presence and the delicious food. 

A fitting end to the day, Chip joined the staff for dinner. All enjoyed spending time with colleagues outside of the office and celebrating the start of the holiday season.

Butte Region clients and staff greatly appreciated and enjoyed the visit and look forward to more visits, updates, and celebrations in the coming year. 

 

Caminar repairs bikes for homeless at "Project Homeless Connect"

It is with great pride that Caminar in Butte County participated in April's "Project Homeless Connect." Close to 700 Butte County residents (the majority homeless) attended the event and were given access to food, water, clothing and showers, as well as health screenings, pet care, identification cards and bike repair.

Caminar's Sensible Cyclery was on hand and repaired more than 40 bicycles. 

Information and services for housing, employment, public services, health care, addiction treatment, legal services, contraceptive services and children’s services were also provided.

In her article, Chico Enterprise Record reporter Ashiah Schraga wrote:

Caminar’s Sensible Cyclery vocational program participants Nate Russell and April Grous stayed active across the way, repairing bicycles for free all day.

“It’s really cool that we’re able to do this and help (people) out,” Russell said. “There’s nowhere else that they can go.”

“Some (repairs) are pretty minor, others are major, but we do what we can,” added Grous, a resident of Caminar supportive housing complex Avenida Apartments. “It’s kind of a way for me to show my appreciation, to help others.”

For the complete article, CLICK HERE. 

Caminar's Butte office was in the news earlier this year with a feature piece on the amazing garden on site at Avenidas Apartment. To read that article, click here.