About us
Our Vision
Healthy, thriving, connected communities reclaim their mental health through access to culturally-grounded healing spaces and services for the Latine Community.
Mission:
Our mission is to promote and strengthen the mental health, emotional wellbeing, and resilience of the Latine community through culturally-grounded, evidence-based practices, interventions, and initiatives.
our Values
We support participants to feel a sense of belonging and connection due to similar or shared identities, histories, and experiences. The community joins in empowering, reclaiming, healing and committing to emotional health and well-being.
COMMUNITY
We believe that trust is the foundation for healing to occur. We build trust with our clients by being honest, transparent, and respectful. We also build trust with our community partners by working collaboratively and respectfully.
TRUST
We believe that community wellbeing is essential for individual wellbeing. We work to promote community wellness by providing services that support the whole community, not just individuals. We also work to build community resilience by helping the community to cope with adversity.
COMMUNITY WELL-BEING
As a culturally specific nonprofit organization, we are committed to being responsive, informed, and integrated to honor, recognize, and celebrate the complexity of our Latine values, principles, and practices. Our cultural roots, ancestors, and collective wisdom are the cornerstone of mental and emotional well-being.
CULTURE
We believe that cultural diversity is a strength. We celebrate the diversity of our community and we believe that everyone has something to offer. We incorporate cultural diversity into our services by providing services in Spanish and by using culturally-appropriate language and materials.
CULTURAL DIVERSITY
We believe that sustainable change is achieved through collaboration. We work with multiple partners to promote mental health and emotional wellbeing in the Latine community. We believe that by working together, we can create a more mentally healthy and resilient community.
SUSTAINABLE CHANGE
Our History
Raíces de Bienestar was founded by Dra. Ruth Zúñiga and Bonnie Lerner, MPH in mid-2021 in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic and renewed reckoning in America on racial justice. Collectively, the founders brought over 25 years of collective experience to its mission of serving the Latine community in mental health and public health. They credit their inception to the Promotores de Salud and bilingual, bicultural mental health graduate students in which Dra. Zúñiga worked to co-create and offer Latine-rooted mental health trainings and programs in the Portland metro area. After the community responded with enthusiasm and passion for the work, reaching over 15,000 Latine individuals internationally between 2020-2021, it was decided that a non-profit needed to be founded to house, spread, and scale these mental health programs and services to reach more Latine Oregonians. Thus, Raíces de Bienestar was born.
Raíces de Bienestar was initially sponsored by United Way of Columbia Willamette, until they became a 501(c)3, effective in August 2021. We have been very fortunate and blessed to have the support and guidance from the Latine community, funders, government entities, and non-profit consultants. Raíces has grown substantially and intentionally. Today, we have an active mental health clinic, staffed by bilingual and bicultural clinicians who are dedicated to serving uninsured and under-insured Latine families. The mental health clinic also serves as a training site for graduate level bilingual mental health clinicians completing their practicums, internships, and post-doctoral fellowships. Our curriculum-based Latine mental health training for traditional health workers are certified by the state commission for continued education units and have reached hundreds of Latine community members across the state. We deliver programs and outreach that reach lay members in the Latine community to bring education and community support related to mental health and wellbeing, touching thousands each year. Finally, we are a sponsored organization by the American Psychological Association to provide continued education for psychologists and other mental health professionals to better serve Latine communities across the nation.
The vision is to create a resilient, culturally sensitive support system for the community.