California Endowment Grants Loaves & Fishes $400,000 To Provide Mental Health Services to Sacramento Homeless
The California Endowment, the state's largest health foundation, has given the not-for-profit group Loaves & Fishes about $400,000 for a new program designed to provide mental health services for homeless people, the Sacramento Bee reports. Loaves & Fishes is an interfaith ministry group that "feeds the hungry and shelters the homeless." The new program, called Genesis, will provide services for those who do not qualify for other mental health programs. With the three-year grant, the program will provide mental health evaluations, referrals, case management services, psychiatric medications and individual and group therapy. Genesis officials expect to provide services for 100 homeless people per month. The Bee reports that one-third of Sacramento homeless have mental disabilities, and of that number, one-third have been "denied health services," according to a 1999 study by the city and county Board of Homelessness. Laura Hogan, senior program officer for the California Endowment, said, "Loaves & Fishes is the ideal organization to do this. They already have the trust of the homeless population." The program opened last week (Crump, Sacramento Bee, 7/6).
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