About Us

In September 2022 with our chosen work complete, the Board of Directors of the Community Network elected to dissolve the corporation. Entries about the Community Network for Appropriate Technologies, the Journey Project, Community Network personnel and associates anywhere on this website remain as archive records for historical reference only. Please keep that in mind when viewing this section and related pages. Thank you!

Who We Are

Community Network
The work assembled and organized on this site was made possible by the Community Network for Appropriate Technologies (The Community Network) with funding provided by our funders and supporters. The Community Network is a 501(c) 3 nonprofit tax-exempt educational and charitable organization serving the greater Sonoma County region since 1978. We work primarily as public interest planners, consumer advocates, and community educators with special emphasis on self-help. In the process of our work we routinely produce works in print, audio and video. Susan Keller, M.A., M.L.I.S, was a founding member of the Community Network and has served as Executive Director/Principal Planner since its founding.
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Community Network Journey Project
Journey to Life’s End: A Traveler’s Guide is an example of work that we have produced and publish. The Journey Project launched by the Community Network in the early 1990s inspired and assisted with this work. The Journey Project was conceived in response to the absence of palliative care and community-based long-term care for the frail elderly and dying.

The Traveler’s Guide and related community workshops came about as the results of scores of volunteers doing work needed to bring all this to life. This tradition of volunteer support carries on as a diverse coalition of agencies and individuals help guide and support work we’ve been doing since the mid-1990s dedicated to improving end of life care.

Behavioral Health ACP/PC Integration Program. Since 2015, the Community Network has been engaged with the Behavioral Health community developing tools, resources and trainings aimed at integrating advance care planning and palliative care into the care of people living with serious mental health challenges. Sonoma County Behavioral Health Division Older Adult Team helped to clarify needs, nature of pilot testing, tools of value and other related aspects of program development. As a result, the Making A Plan: Thinking Ahead toolkit was created for this special population, their families and caregivers. The Mental Health (MH) Peer community has been and is an integral part of program development. As time and resources permit, we are working with Sonoma County MH Peer Programs to nurture widespread use of trainings and materials helpful for guiding a person’s care when the person is unable to do so.

Advisory Council and Work Groups
From 2004 – 2010 the Latino Program Development Team assisted the Network developing educational materials and training programs in Spanish language. Additionally, ongoing Latino advisors help guide us on issues concerning outreach and inclusion of other diverse cultures in our region.

A diverse coalition of professionals dedicated to improving end of life care worked with the Journey Project from 2009 – 2014 helping to produce the Sonoma County POLST Implementation Program operated by the Community Network. A Physician Education Work Group comprised of several palliative care and hospice physicians helps ongoing with physician insight and education.

Since 2016 the Network has facilitated engagement of a Planning Work Group comprised of behavioral health professionals including peer counselors assisting with development of the Behavioral Health Advance Care Planning/Palliative Care (ACP/PC) Integration Program.  This program is designed specifically to offer assistance and support for people living with mental health challenges. In 2018 the Peer Pilot Leadership Team was convened including peers who had been engaged with ACP/PC Pilot work to guide development of the Peer Pilot program.