Welcome to the CASRA Newsletter

In this issue:

-Therapy in a tent

-Moving the needle on homelessness

-Aiming at homeless prevention

-Therapy as a rite of passage

Enjoy!

If you have news you would like to share or a colleague you would like to spotlight because of the great work they do or just because they are a great person or both, let us know by contacting joe@casra.org.

A benefit of membership in CASRA is receiving four hours of training for your staff. For more information, please contact joe@casra.org

If you are a CASRA member agency and would like to advertise your learning opportunity, training or event for the benefit of other CASRA member agencies, please contact us at events@casra.org.
There are a few guidelines:
-You are a CASRA Member Agency
-Your event is free of charge
and, as a reminder the Newsletter is published on the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of the month

A Photo Gallery now resides on the EVENTS page of the CASRA website and currently consists of albums of the 2024 Spring and the 2025 Fall CASRA Gatherings. We plan on adding more albums in the future.

If you have photos of your agency's events you would like to share with other CASRA members, contact joe@casra.org.

To view the current albums in the Photo Gallery, CLICK HERE.

The  CASRA Learning Library and its contents are free to CASRA member organizations and their staff. The Library is located in the Member Portal on the CASRA website here. More detailed instructions on how to access and use the Library can also be found on the CASRA website when logged on the Portal.

Our hope is that the Library's offerings will provide learning opportunities that will serve as part of CASRA agencies' onboarding processes for new staff, as well as be a resource of Recovery oriented values and practices for all staff. 

Access to the Learning Library is currently limited to CASRA member agencies and their staff. We hope to expand availability in the future.

For questions and more information contact Joe Ruiz - joe@casra.org.

Our member agencies are continually looking for new employees or volunteers to join their workforce.

To see current openings and find out additional information about CASRA Member Agencies, please click below.

CASRA facilitates a number of support groups for people working at CASRA member agencies. The support groups provide people working in similar roles opportunities to share experiences, information, and challenges. They meet monthly for approximantely one hour. for more information contact the person listed for each group.

Social Rehabilitation Facilities (SRF)
Meets: First Tuesday of the month at 1 PM

Human Resources
Meets: First Thursday of the month at 11 AM

Employment/Vocational Rehabilitation Services
Meets: First Thursday of the month at 3 PM

For information regarding any of the above groups contact:
Chad Costello, chad@casra.org

Wellness Services (Well Talk)
The Wellness Services support group is now online. For more info contact Joe Ruiz, joe@casra.org

CASRA is a statewide organization of private, not-for-profit, public benefit corporations that serve clients of the California public mental health system.

Member agencies provide a variety of services that are designed to enhance the quality of life and community participation of youth, adults and older adults living with challenging mental health issues. Read more

The California Association of Social Rehabilitation Agencies

Mailing Address:
3350 E. 7th Street, #509
Long Beach, CA 90804

Email: casra@casra.org

Phone: (562) 343-2621

To reach us: use our Contact Form

Visit us on Instagram and Linkedin

   

Therapy in a Tent: The Healthcare Many Homeless Californians Need but Aren’t Getting

From calmatters.org
By Marisa Kendall, July 8, 2026

Like many people who are or have been homeless, Jessica Scott struggles with debilitating anxiety.

When she finally moved from her stepfather’s car into a Sacramento apartment a few weeks ago, she said one thing played a major role in helping her take that step: Therapy.

“When you’re panicking so much that you can’t really talk to people, it’s difficult to do anything,” Scott said. That included making – and keeping – the numerous appointments required to find subsidized housing.

Scott used to have her therapy sessions with Anthony Villanueva, a clinician with One Community Health, on a park bench because she had nowhere else to go. But her most recent session in early July was on a blowup couch in her new living room. She credits her ability to get this housing — her first in two and a half years — partially to Villanueva teaching her breathing exercises to calm herself down. Read More

California Can Move the Needle on Homelessness — If Local Governments Deliver

From sfchronicle.com
By Mark Ghaly, Jason Elliott, Contributors, July 7, 2026

For years, California’s county governments rightly demanded a sustainable funding source for housing the homeless and mental health treatment. Two years ago, that’s exactly what California voters delivered by passing Proposition 1, the Behavioral Health Services Act.

With Prop 1, the people of California made their choice clear: treatment, not tents. Californians want their local leaders to prioritize housing that will get people living on city sidewalks and beneath overpasses into treatment under actual roofs.

Prop 1 went into effect on Wednesday, and California’s counties will now be expected to carry out the will of the voters, and every local government in the state needs to step up and meet this moment of accountability. Read More

California Takes Aim at Homelessness Prevention

For Every Person Housed Through Existing Services, Three More Become Homeless; Lawmakers Are Starting To Ask Why

From invisiblepeople.tv
By Robert Davis | July 8, 2026

Lawmakers in the California State Assembly recently passed a bill requiring the state to develop a statewide homelessness prevention strategy by 2027 to reduce housing instability for the most vulnerable Californians.

The bill, Assembly Bill 1924, was introduced by Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, a Democrat, and passed the lower chamber by a 77-1 vote on May 27. It was co-sponsored by the Inner City Law Center, a nonprofit poverty-law firm based in the Skid Row area of Los Angeles.

The legislation would require state agencies like the Interagency Council on Homelessness, State Department of Social Services, and the Office of Youth and Community Restoration to develop housing stability and homelessness prevention plans that identify people at risk of experiencing homelessness and provide targeted interventions, including financial assistance, eviction defense, and case management. Read More

Therapy as a Rite of Passage

From madinamerica.com
By Kristopher Drummond, June 30, 2026

When I took my first shame-filled walk to the campus therapist’s office on a crisp October day in 2010 after a series of traumas shattered my world, I had no idea what I was seeking. Nor what therapy was, for that matter. I just knew that something was wrong and according to my friend Riley who had just begun going himself, therapy was the thing to do about it. So when my efforts at simply hoping life would go back to normal kept failing, I mustered my courage to slink over to the counseling building.

Montana was like that, then. Men, at least in my social circles, didn’t talk about feelings unless heavy substance use was involved. If there was emotional struggle, it was hidden, or else enacted violently. Gossip abounded—I always knew who was “crazy,” who’d had a breakdown at last weekend’s party, who was fighting who, which friend was “whipped” by their girlfriend because of their public emotionality. I didn’t want that to be me, so the nuanced layers of grief, confusion, and doubt building up through the transition from high school to university lived in me as a stifled sense of “something wrong;” the happiness and exuberance that was, just last year, my baseline had been quietly replaced by a flat depression and gnawing anxiety.

Those first sessions were rough—my student intern counselor had her work cut out for her sitting across from my repressed 19-year-old self. I remember a lot of closed questions from her and a lot of short, empty answers from me. After each session ended, my counselor clicking the stop button on the tape recorder, I would get up and shuffle out of the office, sheepish and concerned with not being seen. I didn’t have a sense of anything happening in our sessions—what was the point of telling things I already knew to a stranger every week? Something was wrong, I couldn’t get back to happiness, and as far as I was aware, she was supposed to have answers. Read More

If you or someone you know is considering suicide or self-harm, there are resources available to provide free and confidential support. Call 988 or the Teen Line at 1-800-TLC-TEEN or The Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386 for LGBTQ young people.

Project Return Peer Support Network (PRPSN) Provides certified WRAP training

CASRA member agency Project Return Peer Support Network (PRPSN) is now a licensed Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP). PRPSN's Training Institute is now a leading provider of WRAP Seminars across the West Coast, helping individuals and organizations build wellness tools that foster hope, personal responsibility, and empowerment.

 For more information or to schedule a WRAP Seminar, please contact PRPSN's Training Coordinator, Gustavo Limas at glimas@prpsn.org.

Learn More

In Recognition of
Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness
Or
BIPOC Mental Health Month

"As I grow older part of my emotional survival plan must be to actively seek inspiration instead of passively waiting for it to find me."

Bebe Moore Campbell
Author, Journalist, Teacher