Non-Profit Meets Needs of Community for 30 Years

The Honoree – Substance Abuse Treatment Center Tarzana Treatment Centers Thirty-two years ago, Scott Taylor co-founded Tarzana Treatment Centers. The one-time lawyer’s primary goal at the time was to help others in his spare time away from his legal practice. More than three decades later, Taylor remains at the helm of the behavioral healthcare organization that provides high quality, cost effective abuse and mental health treatment to adults and youths. The Center is non-profit and community based. Under Taylor’s aegis, it has expanded to include a psychiatric hospital, residential and outpatient treatment centers and family medical clinics. “Our foremost accomplishment has been to maintain a high level of care for the community for the past 32 years. It’s extraordinary in this day in age when a non-profit can survive in the healthcare field and maintain and grow at a time when the needs for the community are so great. I’m proud that we have expanded the kinds of services based on the needs of the community,” Taylor, the center’s chairman of the board and president said. “During the AIDS crisis, we expanded to serve the HIV/AIDS community which was extraordinary for an organization like ours. When we realized that we needed to bring smaller primary care clinics to the community, we created two of them. We’ve been responsive to the community which is the number one thing that an organization like ours has to do.” The Treatment Centers maintain a youth services department, centralized in Northridge. Additionally, it operates residential treatment sites in Tarzana, Long Beach, and the Antelope Valley. It also runs two medical care clinics, one in Tarzana and the other in the Antelope Valley. The Center’s genesis arose out of a collaborative effort between Taylor and a colleague who had been involved in the drug treatment community. The pair had the foresight to realize that the future of drug treatment lay in local community-based organizations rather than large medical mental hospitals. Despite the pressures induced by various propositions that have impacted the center’s revenue stream, the center has thrived by diversifying its revenue streams and patient bases. Taylor predicts a future of continued success for the center and wants to continue its leadership role in the community. “I want the Tarzana Treatment Center to continue to be an important part of the community and to maintain its position as a leader. I want to continue to make certain that we are strong enough, resilient enough and flexible enough to maintain that position,” Taylor said. The Finalists El Proyecto del Barrio Why has El Proyecto del Barrio expanded as much as it has? Simple: supply and demand. With an increasingly diminishing number of non-profit clinics providing health care in low-income neighborhoods, El Proyecto has filled the void over the years. In recent years, El Proyecto has expanded from the northeast Valley to include the western half, opening up a 30,000 square foot facility to provide healthcare, youth services for employment and education, an HIV/AIDS clinic, drug counseling and outpatient counseling. Yet El Proyecto has also expanded its outreach into the community through other arenas, establishing a foundation entity to help address the needs of the Valley. Additionally, it has increased its revenue stream by receiving funding from private entities such as the California Endowment, the Kaiser Foundation, the S. Mark Taper Foundation, and the Weingart Foundation. These funds have enabled El Proyecto to increase its staff to 250 employees. Corinne Sanchez, president and CEO of El Proyecto, attributes the non-profit’s success to the benevolence of a dedicated management team and staff. “We have a very strong board with great longevity among its members. The continuity and commitment of the board has helped a great deal, along with our strong executive management team,” Sanchez said. “We strive to be involved in the community. We’re involved in the Unity Coalition, the Red Cross board and the United Way. ” Jeff Weiss Northeast Valley Health Corp. The NVHC, incorporated in 1971, opened its Substance Abuse Division in 1977. The original included two programs: one for people with DUI offenses and the other for people with abuse problems who may have not necessarily tip-toed over the law but were seeking help for their problems. In 2004, the programs are still alive and well. In fact, between 800 and 850 people are enrolled in this particular division within NVHC. For DUI, some participants are court-referred and have to pay for participation themselves, said Kim Wyard, the NVHC’s director. The DUI program is located in Sylmar and the Adult Community Prevention and Recovery program in San Fernando. It is headed up by Vince Avila. To fund the participants in the second program mostly women but also males NVHC receives county funding, Wyard said. “Between the two programs, we have approximately 15 staff,” with some being part-time, Wyard, a Cal State Northridge alumna, said. In 2004, the DUI program had a budget of about $500,000, whereas the “social model,” as Wyard put it, was funded with $220,000. The NEVHC is one of the largest community health centers in the nation. The non-profit provides services in primary care centers, on school campuses, in homeless shelters and in community-based locations. Slav Kandyba