LIVERMORE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Comcast NBCUniversal today announced it will donate $300,000 to Santa Rosa City Schools (SRCS) for the development of a new facility to serve communities impacted by the North Bay wildfires. Called the Santa Rosa Integrated Wellness Center, the facility will be designed to support the families within the Santa Rosa community who lost their homes or suffered in other ways during the fires.
This Saturday, April 21, Comcast and the SRCS will host a volunteer day and groundbreaking ceremony at the location, as part of the 17th annual Comcast Cares Day, when more than 100,000 Comcast NBCUniversal volunteers join together to make change happen across the country and around the world.
To further support the overall well-being of the North Bay community, Comcast will partner with the Arbor Day Foundation to plant nearly 400 trees along Fountaingrove Parkway where fires damaged roughly 90 percent of the landscape. Comcast volunteers will also beautify the campus of Santa Rosa High School, which will host the first graduation ceremony since the 2017 firestorm.
New Santa Rosa Integrated Wellness Center
More than 800 students within the Santa Rosa City Schools district lost their homes during the fires and many others suffered loss, trauma and other forms of distress. Due to three weeks of school closures and other issues during the fires, many students are now struggling to return to their pre-fire academic achievement levels. After assessing the overall impact to its community, the SRCS determined that the traditional school year and support model were not capable of addressing the full scope of needs the community is facing.
In response, SRCS formed a partnership with Comcast to create the Santa Rosa Integrated Wellness Center, which will provide the following services on a year-round basis to students and families impacted by the wildfires that ravaged the North Bay:
- Social-Emotional Support
- Academic Tutoring and Support
- Childcare Services for families using the Center
- Referral Services
Over time, the vision is for the Santa Rosa Integrated Wellness Center to expand its offerings to include medical and additional services. The SRCS is actively seeking partnerships and initiating a fundraising campaign to support those expanded services for the community.
“To fully recover from the devastation our children and families have endured, they need long-term care ranging from emotional support and medical treatment to academic support and childcare services,” said Steve Mizera, Assistant Superintendent of Student and Family Services, Santa Rosa City Schools. “The new Santa Rosa Integrated Wellness Center will provide services year-round – even when school is not in session – to mitigate the traumatic impact of the fires, help ensure the future academic success of our students and provide the overall community with the support needed to rebuild and recover.”
“The North Bay fires were the most deadly and devastating in California’s history and while the flames may be gone, the impact of the destruction continues,” said John Gauder, Regional Vice President for Comcast in California. “Comcast has over 500 employees in the areas destroyed by the fires and many of those were directly impacted by the devastation. Given our long term, deep ties to the community, we will continue to do everything we can to help. With this contribution for the Santa Rosa Integrated Wellness Center, and through our larger Comcast Cares Day initiatives, Comcast is gratified to support the communities we serve – and where we live and work.”
The Santa Rosa Integrated Wellness Center will be housed within the Lewis campus buildings at 2230 Lomitas Avenue, Santa Rosa. On Comcast Cares Day, April 21, volunteers will help repair and remodel the facility as the Center prepares to open this summer. Comcast executives, employees and their families, the SRCS leadership, government officials, community organizations and volunteers will attend an official groundbreaking ceremony in honor of the new facility.
This brings Comcast’s contribution to the fire relief efforts in the North Bay in October 2017 to $1.9 million in total in addition to 2,280 volunteer hours contributed to various Comcast Cares Day projects across California.
SRCS also has received a separate grant from the North Bay Fire Relief Fund to support the development of the Center.
To learn more about Comcast Cares Day, which is part of Comcast’s overall Community Impact initiatives, visit https://corporate.comcast.com/values/community-impact.
For more information about Comcast in California, visit http://california.comcast.com/.
About Comcast
Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA) is a global media and technology company with two primary businesses, Comcast Cable and NBCUniversal. Comcast Cable is one of the nation’s largest video, high speed internet, and phone providers to residential customers under the XFINITY brand, and also provides these services to businesses. It also provides wireless and security and automation services to residential customers under the XFINITY brand. NBCUniversal operates news, entertainment and sports cable networks, the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks, television production operations, television station groups, Universal Pictures and Universal Parks and Resorts. Visit www.comcastcorporation.com for more information.
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