Weingart Foundation Awards $150,000 Grant to The Guidance Center

The Weingart Foundation has awarded The Guidance Center, a nonprofit child and family mental health service provider headquartered in Long Beach, a $150,000 unrestricted operating support grant. These funds will support The Guidance Center in increasing its organizational capacity to expand current and develop new mental health programs that focus on the advancement of social and economic equity in marginalized and under-resourced communities.

Established in 1946, The Guidance Center provides comprehensive mental health treatment to the most disadvantaged children and families who are struggling with mental illness and abuse throughout greater Long Beach, Compton, San Pedro, and Avalon on Catalina Island. However, barriers to mental health treatment, like access due to finances or transportation and stigma, still disproportionately impact marginalized communities who are in need of support.

Recognizing its role in helping to eliminate these barriers, The Guidance Center has recently built upon its existing core services and developed initiatives that seek to impact these communities at a macro level, with the goal of changing the conditions that lead to poverty and mental health struggles in the first place.

With support from the Weingart Foundation, The Guidance Center will continue to develop existing prevention programs and pursue new partnerships to create innovative initiatives, in addition to increasing participation in advocacy, policy and systems change at the local and state level.

“At The Guidance Center, we see a great number of families empowered through mental health treatment, but so many in our communities are still unable to access the support they need to thrive,” said Patricia Costales, LCSW, CEO of The Guidance Center. “We’re grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with the Weingart Foundation. Together, we will work to eliminate barriers, create lasting system change, and provide more children and families with the opportunity to positively change the trajectory of their lives.”

Recently established programs include It’s About T.I.M.E., Trauma-Informed Movement in Education partnership with Long Beach Unified School District to support educators in better addressing the emotional and psychological needs of their students; Whole Child, a collaborative care initiative with Miller Children’s and Women’s Hospital and The Children’s Clinic to integrate physical and mental health into their respective treatment plans; and Roll Call Mental Health Training Videos, a collaboration with Los Angeles and Long Beach Police Departments and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to make training accessible for law enforcement across the country on how to interactive more effectively with disenfranchised individuals on the street, particularly those with a mental health issue.

As a part of its new initiatives, The Guidance Center is pursuing sustainable and scalable solutions that will bridge the mental health gap for young people who need help and aren’t able to access it. One such new initiative includes exploring the viability of hosting an online, youth peer-based mental health support platform that is accessible and generationally appropriate to a population that would otherwise not access treatment due to a variety of barriers, or would only access it once they have experienced a mental health crisis and are in need of intensive services.

The Weingart Foundation seeks to achieve inclusion and opportunity for all Southern Californians, especially for those who have historically been excluded due to their race, income level, gender, religion, immigration status, disability, age, sexual orientation, or zip code. To achieve this goal, the Foundation’s grantmaking program and other support are designed to strengthen the capacity and effectiveness of nonprofit organizations, like The Guidance Center, working to meet essential needs, expand opportunity and eliminate structural barriers to equity by building the community power required to sustain long-term prosperity.

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About The Guidance Center

Established in 1946, The Guidance Center provides comprehensive mental health treatment to more than 3,000 children and families in the communities of Long Beach, Lynwood, Compton, Paramount, San Pedro and Avalon annually. The Guidance Center offers individual, group and family therapy, crisis intervention, case management, community education and outreach, and intensive mental health treatment. Headquartered in Long Beach, The Guidance Center also has clinics in Compton and San Pedro. For more information on The Guidance Center, please visit www.tgclb.org.