BY MARIJKE ROWLAND
CV Journalism Collaborative
By this time next year, a dusty patch of weeds and dirt should be bustling with activity and help for Valley youth.
The Modesto-based nonprofit Center for Human Services broke ground last month on a new outpatient youth mental health center.
The facility, being built on a vacant lot in front of the center’s current headquarters on Briggsmore Avenue, will offer mental health and substance abuse treatment, among other services, to Stanislaus County youth and their families.
Once completed, the new center will have capacity to serve more than 1,400 additional people each year.
In the past few years the organization has also opened a Youth Navigation Center, which helped more than 400 unhoused youth last year, and a 14-apartment permanent housing complex for homeless youth, funded through the state’s Project Homekey.
Steve Collins, director of behavioral health at the center, called the new facility a “win-win-win” for the community and the nonprofit.
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“We’ve had (the dirt lot) for at least a decade,” he said. “People just walked across it to get to our buildings after they parked. “But if you can just imagine the types of services and the lives that can potentially be changed where people have formerly walked….What will happen when that building comes and it opens and people can be seen (at the center)? It’s exciting.”
The new outpatient center is being constructed thanks to a $5 million grant from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Master Plan for Kids’ Mental Health, one of a series of mental health-focused policies his administration has supported which are largely aimed at reducing homelessness across the state.
The new building also continues the Center for Human Services’ ongoing partnership with the City of Modesto and county Behavioral Health and Recovery Services. In fact, it was officials at BHRS in 2022 who first alerted leaders at the nonprofit about the state grant which could fund new infrastructure.
It also helped that the center had purchased the vacant land years earlier. While leaders at the nonprofit didn’t have a specific plan for how the plot would be used at the time, having it in hand made the application and acceptance process much smoother, Collins said.
“I really enjoyed just the visionary aspect of the board to say, ‘Hey, this is right in our front yard. Let’s dream for the future,’” he said.
The new 7,000-square foot building will provide both one-on-one and group counseling services, including mental health and substance abuse treatment.
Besides providing a service hub for youth, especially those transitioning into young adulthood, the new center will offer mental health assessment and other services to school-aged children and their families. The center has contracts to provide counseling in Modesto City Schools, Riverbank Unified School District and some 30 local schools.
Other services, which the organization already offers but now will be expanded, will include counseling and treatment for anger management, anxiety and depression.
The Center for Human Services works with the region’s largest managed care health plans, including Health Plan of San Joaquin and Health Net. For non Medi-Cal clients, the center offers services on a sliding scale based on income. Mental health counseling can start as low as $20 per session, compared to more than $100 at private practices.
The new outpatient center will also make care easier for its unhoused clients currently using its Youth Navigation Center. The youth center, which opened in fall 2021, offers on-site shelter and housing support.
“The need is extremely high here,” said Emily Webster, director of the Youth Navigation Center. “Once this is open they will all be able to just walk across the parking lot to get counseling or treatment.”
Construction of the new facility is expected to take six to eight months. The center plans to open by the first quarter of 2025.
