Our Story
The genesis for Heart Forward LA and the Los Angeles-Trieste connection emerged from a question that Kerry Morrison felt compelled to ask:
“Why is it so hard to help people with serious mental illness move from the streets to a safe place?”
Her inquiry grew from her experience managing a business improvement district (BID) in Hollywood, where the plight of people abandoned with mental illness on the streets was tragically juxtaposed against the economic progress of jobs, tourism and entertainment.
Awarded a Stanton Fellowship (2016-2017), she was afforded the opportunity to pursue her inquiry to Trieste in July 2017 and view first-hand the remarkable culture and human support associated with their world-renowned community-based mental health system. Sensing that she had witnessed something very special, Kerry returned home to Los Angeles and organized a small delegation of leaders from Los Angeles County to return to Trieste in November 2017 to bear witness to the remarkable culture of the Trieste system.
Imagining a Pilot
Under the leadership of Dr. Jonathan Sherin, the director of the LA County Department of Mental Health, the delegation began to meet in 2018 to imagine a framework for a pilot project that could port the “guiding principles” of the community-based system in Trieste to a defined catchment area in Los Angeles County.
The County retained the services of Dr. Dave Pilon to draft a proposal to present to the state’s Mental Health Services Oversight & Accountability Committee (MHSOAC) to seek funding for a five-year “Innovations Pilot.” That proposal, entitled “The TRIESTE Project: True Recovery Innovation Embraces Systems That Empower”, was awarded funding by the MHSOAC in May 2019 to the tune of $116M for five years.
Heart Forward Finds Its Way
In the summer of 2019, Kerry officially formed Heart Forward LA as a fiscally sponsored project with the initial prospect to accompany a delegation of leaders from Los Angeles and Sacramento who were heading to the September 2019 bi-annual international mental health conference in Trieste.
And there was good reason to stay committed to this work: Heart Forward was prepared to both support LA County in their efforts to plan for the implementation of the state-funded pilot, and also envision ways in which we could advance the posture of Radical Hospitality in places where people with mental illness were living or being served.
Despite the monkey-wrench wrought by the pandemic in delaying implementation of the state-funded pilot, Heart Forward moved forward with its commitment to sharing the principles of Radical Hospitality. Invited into three permanent supportive housing (PSH) communities by People Assisting the Homeless (PATH) in 2020, we began to exercise our Radical Hospitality muscles. We also started a podcast, Heart Forward Conversations from the Heart.
The Momentum Builds
Over the next several years, 2021 – 2023, Heart Forward grew more confident in the transformative impact of Radical Hospitality through its practice in several residential communities and the LA County Jail.
Through engagement such as gardening, cooking classes, a chess club, art classes and civic action, relationships (and friendships) were cultivated. Heart Forward leveraged these trusting relationships to introduce the notion of a mental health clubhouse in Hollywood.
In the spring of 2023, Heart Forward entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Fountain House in New York City to collaborate around bringing a clubhouse to Hollywood, under the aegis of the state-funded pilot.
Further, the state-funded pilot was re-named “Hollywood 2.0”, and Heart Forward pledged to continue to support the roll-out of the initiatives associated therewith.
2024 and Beyond
In this coming season, Heart Forward is looking to expand our footprint to introduce Radical Hospitality into various settings to which we are invited. We commit to continuing our support of the clubhouse-in-formation in Hollywood. We will be embarking upon a strategic planning process to engage board, staff and partners in a discussion about our vision and future direction. And we will continue to work alongside our community partners and the L.A. County Department of Mental Health on the implementation of the Hollywood 2.0 Mental Health Pilot.
