Building on its dedication to helping individuals and communities thrive, La Clinica has brought its educational and support services together under a new name, The Learning Well. The new service offers personal and professional development workshops, health-education classes and groups, and workforce training available to the entire community.
“We recognize that traditional health care is just one of many factors contributing to a person’s health and well-being,” said Margie McNabb, who heads the new service for La Clinica. “This inclusive learning community can supply tools and coaching to help address other factors such as social connections, education, and employment. The Learning Well is here to support anyone in creating wellness in every part of life.”
The Learning Well aims to harness the transformative power of education to improve whole-person well-being and build healthy communities. It uses a wellness wheel to illustrate key parts of overall wellness—body, mind, spirit, emotions, relationships, career, and environment—and guide people in focusing on the parts of their life that matter most to them as they learn how to craft their healthiest and most satisfying life. Each course touches on one or more of these areas.
For example, people who want to work on their physical health might enroll in online or in-person exercise classes. Those focused on building a career will find workshops in communication, leadership, and equity, as well as classes on becoming a healthcare interpreter or learning CPR and other basic life-saving skills.
For years, La Clinica has offered movement, mindfulness, and healthy cooking and eating classes for patients for free or a low cost. In 2016, La Clinica bought Wings Seminars, a Eugene-based organization offering personal growth workshops, with the aim of expanding that learning and development opportunity to patients while continuing to serve people across the region. This spring, La Clinica is integrating the grief and loss support and education programs of WinterSpring, a longtime Rogue Valley nonprofit. The Learning Well unites all these focuses in one service.
The Learning Well is open to anyone in the community. An income-based sliding scale, payment plans, discounts, and scholarships strive to make all courses affordable to all. Learn more about the service and see a complete list of classes, workshops, and support groups at www.thelearningwell.org.
About La Clinica
La Clinica offers wellness-focused medical, dental, mental health, and substance use disorder care at 26 sites: six primary health centers, an Acute Care Clinic, East Medford Dental Clinic, 17 school-based centers, and a mobile center. Although its mission focuses on providing access to low-income people, La Clinica is open to everyone. La Clinica was founded in 1989 to serve the primary and preventive care needs of migrant and seasonal farm workers in Jackson County. In 2001, in response to an increasing need for affordable primary health, La Clinica expanded its scope to serve every member of the community. All services are offered regardless of a patient’s ability to pay, and on a sliding-scale basis for the uninsured and low income.