
The January meeting of the Culver City Woman’s Club hosted Andrea Tan of the Alcott Center, focusing on community mental health and resources for the unhoused. The club’s new meeting location at the VFW Post 46 on Sepulveda Boulevard, was very well attended, and gave members a chance to connect.
Tan stated that the Alcott Center had been working to provide mental health and housing services since 1989, but had just recently moved to Culver City. The effort to get people into housing and attend to their needs is the kind of wraparound support that Alcott offers.
Tan noted “If people have been unhoused, and we can help them move in somewhere, we also like to give them a ‘Welcome Home’ basket with some basic supplies. You’d be amazed at how much joy someone can express over something as simple as a sponge or some dish soap, when they have not had a kitchen in a long time.”
The need to erase the stigma of mental health issues is also central to Alcott’s work. “Getting people to understand that it’s okay to ask for help, it’s okay to let someone know that you have a problem. When we deny there’s a problem, there’s no way to get it resolved.”
The organization gives away between 20 and 30 “Welcome Home” baskets every month, giving a concrete reality to how many people they are helping into housing. They are currently working with almost 20,000 clients on mental health issue, employing case workers and counselors to facilitate solutions.
For more information, or to donate, contact the Alcott Center at www.alcottcenter.org/
Photo – Andrea Tan of the Alcott Center with Carol Oblath of the CCWC