Connecting It Works Inc

Programs: Mission statement: to provide nonpublic charitable mental health services: as an agency: to ensure that clients who can not afford our services and want/need to continue or start new mental health services: will be served. This will be a sliding scale nonprofit mental health tax exempt 501(c)(3), indebted to servicing clients and family members of clients who would otherwise not have the means to access much-needed services. Connecting- it works! (hereon referred to as ciw) will ascertain those who havent the means to pay as per pay stubs, last years taxes, and hardships such as recent unemployment or divorce/illness/death/loss of breadwinner that can be proven. As well, ciw will see clients that have maxed out sessions from other nonprofit organizations those who still need services when grants or funding such as medi-cal or restitution fund (victims of crime) can no longer cover expenses. Summary of mission: making a difference holistically: mind/body/soulwe want to work with others in our holistically inclined building. We have a suite of 7 offices, next door to a dentist and underneath us resides an acupuncturist (who approached us to work as a team), a chiropractor and a yoga specialist. Were one super long block from nature trails and the beach. With all of this, its a natural that ciw board members would like to try natures way of healing with cognitive behavioral empowerment techniques alongside mild-movement exercise and noninvasive healing (east meets west) techniques to re-create negative mind/body patterns that cause so many illnesses both physical and mental. In other words, we are here to not only treat but also to prevent. We hope to turn almost no clients away. Though ciw is not a shelter-based agency, board members would like to have more and more means to help the huge homeless population around our beach cities. When we dont have resources, we are equipped (as we have a sister nonprofit that helps victims of crime and school children in watts, carson, etc. ) to refer to centers/housing that can help. We already have links to la countys department of mental health and are a community partner of dcfs through our sister organization (connecting mental health & education providing in home and in school services). Ciw clients, on the other hand, will not be so much out in the field as here in our building on-site; and on local nature paths. We have already been trying to help some of the homeless population here for example, a woman and chihuahua who for six months lived downstairs in her parking lot in her car. Ciw plans to help interns and trainees, pre-licensed marriage & family therapists as well as social workers, accrue necessary state-licensure hours. Ciw welcomes contracting with local universities to do so, such as cal state dominguez hills, etc. As well, ciw plans on forming an eventual licensed group which will be applying for medi-cal. Eventual funding may come from in-office fund-raising as well as from the la county department of mental health and nimh/nih. This is our mission. Here, at ciw, we believe that through local fund raising, in a down-time economy, staff will not have to rely solely on government grants but will be able to survive, and eventually thrive, by providing services to those in our community, who especially because of stigma, may be too ashamed to even try to receive services otherwise or elsewhere.