On November 19, 2019, around 20 staff members working on the Campus of Caring met for lunch to talk about mental health; specifically, the programs available through Coastal Behavioral Healthcare.
"For nonprofits like us, it's extremely important to collaborate," Coastal's Director of Development, Marlene Hauck told the group. She says Coastal currently collaborates with 17 nonprofits in their efforts to provide wraparound services for their clients, and they are always looking for more partners.
Coastal's reach is vast, and is set to expand even further as they plan to join forces with First Step of Sarasota, another tenant partner agency with offices at the Center. Together, their sliding-scale services will span locations in Manatee, DeSoto, Sarasota, Charlotte and Lee counties.
Staff in attendance had questions about how to access mental healthcare for their clients, noting that knowing where to start can be the biggest hurdle. Hauck described Coastal's Access Center, where individuals can call to find guidance for their next steps.
Coastal currently offers inpatient and outpatient clinical and medical mental health and substance abuse services. In addition, they offer programs specific to at-risk youth, people who are in crisis, and people who simply need assessments, resources or guidance. Their programs include youth outreach, with prevention classes in 13 schools and five after school programs.
The group was particularly interested in an emerging program to provide postpartum support for pregnant women and nursing mothers, noting that many clients shared a similar need. Perhaps it is the beginning of another important collaboration.
We are grateful to Apple Spice Catering for providing five free box lunches, making it possible to gather for this meeting of minds!
Real estate is one of the greatest costs in a business budget. Our partnership with The Glasser/Schoenbaum Human Services Center allows more money to go towards our mission. And what better place to house our office than on a campus with nineteen other outreach agencies.
Collaboration is key to the success of our work. The Campus of Caring is a unique space where we can easily join forces with other agencies to make the best use of our resources and maximize our community impact. The affordable rent allows us to allocate more funds to our mission of transforming the lives of students and their families.
As a small organization with a staff of two, employee safety was a big consideration when we were looking for office space. We did not want our employees to be in a place where they were alone. Being on the GSHSC campus has been great because there is a whole community of like-minded professionals.
