STORY BY NAINA SRIVASTAVA, PHOTOS BY ARYA NASIKKAR

Public facilities in Los Altos will reopen for in-person service beginning Sept. 2.

Since Mar. 2020, all city facilities — including City Hall, the Police Department and the Maintenance Service Center — have been closed to the public in adherence with county COVID-19 guidelines, offering services virtually instead of in-person. 

Los Altos’s “Return to In-Person Plan” consists of altered facility hours and new safety protocols that align with COVID-19 guidelines.

The new facility hours are as follows.

• City hall: Tuesday–Thursday, 7:30 a.m.–12 a.m., 1–4:30 p.m.
• Police department: Monday–Friday, 8 a.m.–5 p.m.
• Maintenance service center: Monday–Friday, 7 a.m.–4 p.m. Closed every other Friday.

“We recognize the pandemic is not over and have taken the appropriate steps to reopen our facilities,” said City Manager Gabriel Engeland in a city press release. “We are eager to serve the community in-person again, and welcome residents back to our facilities safely.”

With increasing concern over the COVID-19 delta variant as in-person services resume, facilities will take proper precautions, including the usage of air purifiers and plexiglass dividers.Visitors will be required to wait outside of facilities until called by staff in order to prevent crowding within the spaces, and facilities will continue to sanitize high-touch surfaces, provide hand sanitizer and enforce social distancing.

To ensure safety, staff will be extensively trained and provided with resources and support. Many practices which have been implemented during the pandemic will remain as options in order to maintain accessibility and flexibility in city services, including filing documents online and meeting with staff virtually.

“It is a requirement inside City facilities that all employees and visitors wear masks and practice physical distancing,” Engeland said. “We will also continue offering online services and virtual appointments to lessen the number of visitors to our facilities.”

The city will continue to monitor the current COVID-19 situation, and newly-implemented measures will be reevaluated after 30 days. 

STORY BY NAINA SRIVASTAVA, PHOTOS BY ARYA NASIKKAR

The highly anticipated Los Altos Community Center is scheduled to open on Oct. 2. 

The 24,500 square foot–center consists of 12 rooms, including a community room, three multipurpose rooms, conference rooms, a dance and fitness room, an arts and crafts room and dedicated rooms for preschoolers, teens and seniors.

“I think it’s been a long time coming that the community, the people in Los Altos have really wanted a new space to gather in,” said Mary Jo Price, the recreation supervisor for the City of Los Altos’ Recreation and Community Services Department.

The space will also feature public art curated by the Los Altos Public Arts Commision and an array of recreational games, including two outdoor bocce ball courts, a play structure and a ping pong table. 

Each room in the community center will be used to host various activities and programming, and all are named after a different tree species, sporting names such as Grand Oak, Manzanita, Sycamore, Juniper and Birch. Larger rooms will have a rental fee, however there will be discounted rates for Los Altos residents.

Environmental sustainability has been a priority throughout the design process of the building, allowing the center to be Leadership and Energy in Environmental Design Gold equivalent. 

“It is all electric, it has 7,500 square feet of solar panels on the roof and those are going to provide 60–90% of the electricity for the building,” Price said. “Everything in the building was created with environmental sustainability in mind, from the shape of the building to where the windows are.”

Representing Los Altos’s rich history has also been important throughout the process. 

“The most exciting thing [is] these two murals that are being painted on the walls of the community center, [which] is going to happen mid-September,” Price said. 

Painted by Morgan Bricca with research and design by Linda Gass, both murals will depict the landscape of Los Altos along Permanente Creek during different time periods, which have been extensively researched by the artist. The first mural will illustrate the landscape of Los Altos during the time which Ohlone inhabited the region, while the second depicts the same area of the creek in 1948, featuring the apricot orchards which once covered Los Altos. 

According to Price, the center’s predecessor, which shared the same location, was originally built in the late 1940s and early 1950s as an elementary school, and was later converted to a community center in the 1970s.

Led by a task force of volunteer Los Altos residents, the pre-planning phase of the community center began in 2017 and lasted two years. Shortly after breaking ground in 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic began, which caused a short pause in construction and extended manufacturing delays.

In adherence with COVID-19 guidelines, all visitors will be required to wear masks inside the center. 

“We had hoped to do a big grand opening and just have it be an open house, but we realized that at this moment that isn’t a safe option and we want to make sure that everybody is safe and feels comfortable,” Price said. 

Instead, the opening will be spread over the length of multiple days and only a small group of residents will be permitted to tour initially.

Bocce ball courts and the senior center will be available following the center’s opening, however programming — classes, activities and special events — is expected to begin later in the fall.

“It’ll be exciting that when we’re all ready to do that, in Los Altos, we’ll have this beautiful brand new space,” Price said.

Monday, Aug. 23: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the community center is LEED certified (it’s LEED equivalent) and that it will have a basketball court (it does not). The names of the artists painting the murals have also been added.

STORY BY NAINA SRIVASTAVA, PHOTOS BY ARYA NASIKKAR

Teens in the Palo Alto area now have access to a groundbreaking walk-in mental health clinic, allcove, a newly-opened network of integrated youth mental health centers. Recently launched alongside a location in San Jose, allcove’s Palo Alto location provides free or low-cost walk-in mental health services for youth aged 12 to 25.

allcove — which is run by Santa Clara County Behavioral Health Services in collaboration with multiple agencies, including Stanford’s Center for Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing — reimagines how mental health issues in the community are addressed through an approach of early intervention.

This approach diverges from traditional mental health services, specifically targeting a demographic of youth and aiming to prevent the progression of mental health issues as opposed to mainly treating patients with problems of high severity. 

allcove’s opening is the product of years of planning and preparation to bring the unique clinic model, which was inspired by similar programs in Australia, to the United States.

“Having a space for young people, up to 25, which is when many mental health conditions have sort of shown themselves, becomes an important age period to be able to do early intervention for mental health–related issues,” said clinical professor and Associate Chair for Community Engagement Dr. Steven Adelsheim. 

Each allcove clinic offers physical and mental health support through services ranging from advice and treatments regarding physical and sexual health to counseling, support groups and substance use services. Professionals provide both medical and emotional advice and treatment.

Patients may schedule an appointment with their local allcove center in advance or simply walk in, where they can tour the space and team members assist them in determining which services meet their needs. Patients are not required to be accompanied by guardians, although allcove encourages involving supportive family members. 

The majority of services offered by allcove do not require parent or guardian consent, and services which do are disclosed by team members. Visits are always confidential, unless any information shared threatens the safety of the individual or someone else.

Due to its commitment to prevention and early intervention, allcove is designed to be a short-term service, however, allcove centers work with pre-existing mental health programs, such as those in schools and within the community, and refer individuals to long-term services which will meet their specific needs.

“We also want to be able to connect people to other services they might need in the community, whether it’s support for housing, or for more intensive mental health services.” Adelsheim said. “Complex mental health [support] needs to be able to be a place where we can link people to other services and support they want.”

Local youth voices play an integral role in shaping allcove through their involvement in the decision making process. Youth advisory groups, consisting of local teens work alongside experts and have a large influence in determining allcove’s design, atmosphere and the support groups offered, among other aspects.

“What’s really critical is the voice of young people on the development of the services and the name and the design, and the idea that this space is reflective of the voice and needs and wants of the young people of our community,” Adelsheim said.

By creating “an environment designed by and for young people,” Adelsheim said that allcove facilitates a comfortable space for young people to talk about mental health and is able to better assist individuals seeking support within the community.

Through its services, allcove aims to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health, a barrier which often leads to people to neglect their mental health issues, and not seek help until they face a crisis.

“Within many of our cultures and families, there is a lot of stigma around accessing mental health services,” Adelsheim said, “We want to break through that and create comfortable spaces where young people feel okay about going in early.”

According to Adelsheim, more allcove sites within California communities are currently in the works, and allcove hopes that this mental health model spreads beyond the state.

“We’re creating a space where young people are going to walk in and feel more like it’s for them, instead of some typical mental health clinic,” Adelsheim said.