ALAS Unveils New Colibrí Child Wellness Center in Half Moon Bay, Building a Path to Early Intervention, Trauma Recovery and Prevention

New permanent center will provide free therapy and wellness services for children from birth to age five, addressing the various layers of trauma children and families experience, from the aftermath of the 2023 Half Moon Bay mass shooting to immigration concerns and other ongoing stresses.

Thursday, October 8, 2026 | 10 a.m.

Press Conference & Ribbon Cutting

Colibrí Child Wellness Center | La Piazza, 604 Main Street, Half Moon Bay, CA

HALF MOON BAY, Calif. — ALAS (Ayudando Latinos a Soñar) and its partners at Stanford

Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics, the Promoting Resilience/Innovation Medical community partnership and Early Start (PRIMES) program will celebrate the opening of the Colibrí Child Wellness Center at La Piazza, Suite H with a press conference and ribbon cutting on Thursday, October 8, 2026, at 10 a.m. The press event will include remarks from ALAS leadership, community partners and invited elected officials, including State Senator Josh Becker and Assemblymember Marc Berman, followed by media interviews and a tour of the new center.

A community open house will follow from 3:30 to 5 p.m., featuring activities for children,

refreshments and an opportunity for families to meet and connect with Colibrí and PRIMES

service providers and learn more about the services available to their children.

The new center marks an important milestone in work ALAS and its partners have been

developing for years. The Colibrí Child Wellness Program partners with Stanford PRIMES

and local service agencies to provide free parent-child developmental classes, early childhood home visitation services, family advocacy support for developmental and special educational service access, and diaper distribution. PRIMES has also led partnerships with Speech Goals and the Golden Gate Regional Center to provide on-site access, in ALAS facilities, to physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy for young children, helping Coastside families access specialized services close to home.

From Responding to Crisis to Building a Healthier Future

The need for accessible childhood wellness services has taken on greater urgency following

the 2023 Half Moon Bay mass shooting, which claimed the lives of seven farmworkers and

deeply affected farmworker families and the broader community.

The shooting put a spotlight on farmworker families, making visible a community that had too often been overlooked. But the trauma did not end when the news cycle did. For ALAS, the experience raised a fundamental question: How do we move from reactive to proactive?

Trauma does not require a child to understand what happened. If a child sees their family

afraid, or sees their community afraid, that experience can affect their body and development regardless of what they can articulate. For children already facing developmental or other challenges, those experiences can compound what is already there.

For many families ALAS serves, trauma also comes in layers including the aftermath of the

shooting, immigration concerns, fear related to immigration enforcement and other ongoing

stresses that can affect children and families.

Colibrí is part of ALAS’ effort to move beyond crisis response and toward proactive, long term support, creating a place where children receive specialized services early and families can find support close to home.

“One thing we’ve learned from years of walking alongside families at ALAS, in partnership with PRIMES, is that a referral to therapy to support a child’s development is not enough,” said Dr. Annie Berens, developmental-behavioral pediatrician and leader at Colibrí. “Supporting child thriving requires long-term, caring acompañamiento, or accompaniment: service providers who meet families where they are, understand their joys, hopes, and traumas, and repeatedly help them break down barriers to services, opportunities, and resources. That kind of support matters even more now, as children and families carry heavy loads of immigration-related fear and stress.”

“For us, this is about a building, but it is not the beginning,” said Dr. Belinda Hernández-

Arriaga, Founder and CEO of ALAS. “We have been doing this work for years. What this

center gives us is a permanent, accessible space where children and families can receive the

support they need, while allowing us to deepen the research and advocacy that can lead to

lasting change.”

“I applaud ALAS for focusing on the next generation. This is about making sure children and

families can get the support they need early, close to home, and in a place where they feel

comfortable and understood,” said Ray Mueller, San Mateo County Supervisor. “ALAS has

been there for Coastside families through some incredibly difficult moments. Colibrí builds on that work by giving children and families a place to get the care and support they need to

thrive.”

The new ground-level center is ADA and wheelchair accessible, providing a dedicated space

for families who previously received Colibrí services in a small second-floor office. The

program has been built through years of partnerships with health, education and community

organizations, including Dr. Tina Buysse, Stanford PRIMES and the Golden Gate Regional

Center.

ALAS is grateful to the County of San Mateo and First 5 San Mateo County, whose funding

has made it possible for Colibrí to bring support directly into families' homes through regular home visits. Many of the children Colibrí serves have a range of developmental needs, including Down syndrome, autism and ADHD. Alongside home visits, the program offers in-person classes and speech, occupational and physical therapy, delivered in partnership with Stanford PRIMES, led by Dr. Tina Buysse, with family care advocate Erendida Gonzalez and family care advocate Kimberly Hernandez, and funded by the California Department of Developmental Services.

Connecting Services, Research and Advocacy

Colibrí is also the flagship program of ALAS' research department. ALAS researchers have published more than a dozen peer-reviewed articles, on topics ranging from the impact of gun violence to cultural arts as a form of healing.

That pairing is rare: most community organizations either deliver services or conduct research. ALAS does both, so that what families experience can inform the systems meant to serve them.

Guided by ALAS’ La Cultura Cura (culture heals) approach, Colibrí addresses some of the

challenges families face in accessing early childhood services, including language barriers,

fragmented referrals, limited access to specialized care and distrust of institutions. The

goal is to create a model of care that meets families where they are, while honoring their

culture, language and lived experiences.

That work received significant national recognition in December 2025, when ALAS was

selected from more than 300 applicants nationwide as one of only five organizations in the

United States to receive a prestigious $200,000 research grant from the Robert Wood

Johnson Foundation to advance the Colibrí Child Wellness Program.

The grant is supporting ALAS’ efforts to connect direct services with research and advocacy to better understand and address the needs of young children and families.

“Our families have always known what they need. What's been missing is a place to get it, and a way for their experience to count as evidence; said Dr. Antonio López, Director of Research & Advocacy at ALAS. "Colibrí gives us both. Every family we serve helps us build

the knowledge that can change how the county and the state support young children,

especially children whose families have been left out of the research for far too long.”

ALAS also works with families navigating systems such as special education and

developmental services, helping parents advocate for appropriate evaluations, Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), accurate diagnoses and meaningful treatment.

As ALAS emphasizes: “A diagnosis without services is a piece of paper.”

The organization hopes the new center will help more families access the services their

children need while generating knowledge that can inform broader systems and policies.

Families interested in Colibrí services can contact colibri@alasdreams.com

Press Conference & Ribbon Cutting

Thursday, October 8, 2026 | 10 a.m.

Colibrí Child Wellness Center

La Piazza, 604 Main Street, Half Moon Bay, CA

The event will include remarks from ALAS leadership, community partners and invited elected officials, followed by media interviews and a tour of the new center.

Community Open House

Thursday, October 8, 2026 | 3:30 p.m. –5 p.m.

Families, community members and supporters are invited to tour the new center and learn

more about Colibrí’s programs and services.

About ALAS

ALAS (Ayudando Latinos a Soñar) is a community-based organization serving farmworker,

immigrant and other historically underserved families on the Coastside and beyond. Founded in 2011 by Dr. Belinda Hernández-Arriaga, ALAS is rooted in its guiding philosophy of La Cultura Cura (culture heals) and works at the intersection of community wellness, education, cultural arts, research and advocacy to create greater access to health, opportunity, healing and belonging.

For more information, please visit: www.alasdreams.com

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Media Contact:

Victoria Sánchez De Alba

De Alba Communications

victoria@dealba.net | 650-270-7810