Blue Door now offers services at the JD Center
During the unsettling times of COVID, teens and young adults in Fort Bragg now have one more resource to count on. Blue Door, a community service offering free and confidential healthcare, is now offered at the JD Center next to Fort Bragg High School every Wednesday starting at 1:00 pm. Blue Door is a program of Mendocino Coast Clinics, the local community health center whose mission is to build a healthy community by providing quality, patient-centered healthcare to all coastal residents. Blue Door’s confidential services include birth control information, supplies, and behavioral health counseling. The expansion of Blue Door is part of the continued effort of the district to ensure that students are as safe and supported as possible. Blue Door began to respond to an expressed need for accessible and confidential healthcare for teens and young adults. “It started as a community collaboration, and it continues to be a community collaboration,” Stacy Pollina, Reproductive Health Program Manager at Mendocino Coast Clinics, said.
The expansion of Blue Door means even more potential for growth. “Blue Door is part of the overarching plan of the JD Center to be a hub that connects families with the resources they need,” Pollina said. On their first day of operation, Kei Velazquez, one of Blue Door’s medical providers, described their vision: “We want the process to be seamless—someone can be seen by a medical provider, and talk to a counselor, and participate in interactive art projects. We want to provide a safe space that offers tools for building self-esteem.” Soon, Blue Door will offer family advocates—including the two bilingual liaisons recently hired by FBUSD—to help connect families with the support and services they need, such as food stamps and MediCal. “The new location makes all of this possible,” Pollina said. “We are so excited to make Blue Door and its associated resources even more available to young people and their families.”
The entrance to Blue Door’s newest location has what one would expect of a clinic—a check-in desk, chairs on which to sit while you wait. There are also a couple of rooms for exams or counseling sessions. However, off to the right is a room one may not expect— a large room lit by two skylights on the high ceiling, a door propped open to let in a stripe of sunlight and fresh air, and walls adorned with art created by a range of age groups in the community. Blue Door partnered with FLOCKworks, a local nonprofit supporting local collaborative art initiatives, to create an inspiring and comforting space. “We hope to one day offer art workshops in that room, maybe even classes like sewing,” Velazquez said. “If nothing else, Blue Door will always be a safe place for teens and young adults to go.”