This school year, we are excited to have expanded our partnership with Bridges Academy at Melrose and to welcome a new team to the campus. Bridges is an elementary school located in the heart of East Oakland, and Seneca has a long-standing, deeply rooted partnership with the school dating back to 2016. Over the years, Seneca has provided a variety of services to the school including a Counseling Enriched Classroom and school-based outpatient therapy in support of students and families.

For the past several years, our Rooted to Rise program has delivered school-based outpatient therapy on site at Bridges. This year, we were fortunate to further expand services to include a Student Support Assistant (SSA) who provides behavioral and social-emotional push-in support in the classroom, in close collaboration with the clinicians. Coupling individual therapy with in-class behavioral support has proven to be a highly effective, holistic approach and has been very well received by our school partners.

Our program model emphasizes strong collaboration, integration, and partnership with school sites, and our new team has done an outstanding job building meaningful relationships with school staff to ensure high-quality, well-rounded support for students and families. Team members participate in weekly after-school teacher collaboration meetings to discuss intervention implementation, attend school site leadership meetings to identify students’ social-emotional needs, and actively engage as members of the school’s Coordination of Services Team.

Seneca’s self-named “Mariposa Team” consists of two bilingual Spanish-speaking clinicians, Maria Razo and Paola Meza, and an exceptional SSA, Julianne Kelleher—all of whom are new to Seneca this year! Each team member has brought fresh energy and enthusiasm to the program and a strong commitment to serving the Oakland community. They were thoughtfully supported by Mariela Zamarripa, the previous clinician, who played an integral role within the Seneca team. Since forming, the Mariposa Team has collaborated closely to provide highly individualized care to students and families at Bridges. The team has also gone above and beyond by organizing a bike giveaway for students in need and creating holiday activity bags to spread seasonal cheer.

RELATED | Counseling Enriched Classroom at Grant Elementary

We are thrilled about our continued partnership with Bridges Academy at Melrose, the expansion of services this year, and the addition of three outstanding new staff members to Seneca. We look forward to seeing how the strong foundation and deep roots we have established at Bridges continue to grow and flourish.