A new child wellness center opened in downtown Half Moon Bay this week, offering free developmental services for hundreds of children from birth through age 5. The Colibrí Child Wellness Center sits in the La Piazza courtyard, built as part of the ALAS PRIMES partnership between a local farmworker advocacy nonprofit and Stanford researchers, according to the Bay Area News Group.
The center is a collaboration between ALAS and Stanford, as reported by Telemundo Área de la Bahía, which placed the new location at 640 Main Street. Families can access pediatric care, speech and physical therapy, positive-parenting classes, home visits, child-development classes and diaper assistance, all at no cost, the outlet reported. The new site sits across the street from Camila Court, where the Colibrí Child Wellness Program first opened a developmental service space inside a second-floor office in 2025, per the Bay Area News Group, and the new location has roughly twice as much room as that earlier site.
Built on a Five-Year-Old Partnership
The center grows out of ALAS PRIMES, described by Stanford Medicine as a unique collaboration between the university's School of Medicine Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics division and Ayudando Latinos A Soñar. The program provides culturally and linguistically relevant care coordination and advocacy to families in the largely Latino and Hispanic community ALAS serves, according to Stanford Medicine. A Stanford team embedded within ALAS identifies children at risk for developmental disorders and helps families access care from local service agencies, the program notes.
ALAS PRIMES debuted in 2020 and is supported by a California Department of Developmental Services Service and Equity Grant, per the Bay Area News Group. Stanford researchers screen young children for developmental delays and guide families through referrals to the Golden Gate Regional Center in San Mateo, which provides early-intervention services for infants and toddlers who may have developmental delays or high-risk conditions, according to Golden Gate Regional Center, which serves people with intellectual and developmental disabilities across San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin counties. ALAS PRIMES serves children with autism, Down syndrome and ADHD, and the program observed that Half Moon Bay immigrants and farmworkers lacked convenient access to developmental services in the first place, the Bay Area News Group reported. Children must be referred through the ALAS PRIMES partnership to receive care.
A Center Families Can Reach
Belinda Hernández-Arriaga, founder and CEO of ALAS, said a center close to the community is necessary. Patricia Hernandez Cruz, who lives in Pescadero, said she was glad to have nearby support from ALAS PRIMES, according to the Bay Area News Group. First 5 San Mateo County supported the expansion of ALAS PRIMES into the Colibrí Child Wellness Program in 2025, helping fund the growth from the original Camila Court office into the larger Main Street space.
Antonio López serves as director of research and advocacy at ALAS, and Dr. Annie Berens, a Stanford developmental-behavioral pediatrician, is a leader on the Colibrí effort, per the Bay Area News Group. State Senator Josh Becker, who represents District 13 covering San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, has supported the ALAS PRIMES program's work, the outlet reported.
Why the Coast Needed More Than a Pilot Office
San Mateo County officials estimate as many as 2,000 farmworkers live in Half Moon Bay and along the coastline, a population ALAS has worked to serve since long before Colibrí opened. A 2025 statewide study found Latinos make up 40% of California's population, yet about 30% report having no usual source of health care and roughly 22% rely primarily on community clinics or hospital systems, according to the Bay Area News Group. The same reporting noted that Latinos are more likely to seek care when providers share their cultural backgrounds, a dynamic that has shaped ALAS's approach from the start.
That need for accessible, culturally grounded support sharpened after the 2023 Half Moon Bay mass shooting, which killed seven people. The need for mental-health counseling in the farmworker community doubled after the shooting, according to CBS News, prompting ALAS to launch art and music therapy programs so community members could process trauma through shared cultural experiences. ALAS has continued expanding its reach beyond Colibrí, including its solar-powered Equity Express bus, which El Tecolote reports offers Wi-Fi access, telehealth consultations, tutoring, English classes and mental-health services to coastal families who might otherwise go without.
Half Moon Bay already has at least one longstanding option for pediatric therapy. Coastside Pediatric Therapy Center, located at 101 Main Street, began in 1997 and is an association of occupational therapists and speech-language and learning therapists, according to Coastside Pediatric Therapy Center. The evidence does not indicate whether that practice offers the same free, integrated model Colibrí provides, but its decades-long presence underscores how long the coast has sought dedicated services for young children.
