New Milestones Foundation

(left to right) Dawn Handley, Mayor Lee Leffingwell, Diana Kern, Joyce Orr, Patricia Young Brown, Mike Maples and David Evans inaugurate the Next Step facility on North Lamar.

Beyond funds raised or pledged through the Building Productive Lives event held in March of 2009, generous grants from the Lola Wright, Tocker, JP Morgan Chase and Periman Hilfer foundations had brought fundraising efforts near the half-way mark when the Meadows Foundation of Dallas stepped in with a major gift of $150,000 in January. “We are soliciting additional foundations, corporations and individual donors and are looking forward to having this effort wrapped up by the end of the year,” said Paul Leeke, NMF President. NMF is a volunteer organization whose mission is to raise funding to support the needs of the people served by Austin Travis County Integral Care (ATCIC).

The Crisis Respite “Next Step” program is based upon an innovative model that provides intensive, short-term life-coaching services for individuals who are recovering from a psychiatric crisis. Next Step has not only proved effective in helping individuals rebuild their lives, but has cut down significantly on far more expensive options including stays in private or public hospitals, emergency room visits, and incarceration in the criminal justice system.

A residential room at the Next Step facility on North Lamar.

NMF committed to raising $500,000 as part of a local match for an $8.2 million competitive grant awarded to ATCIC by the Texas Department of State Health Services to upgrade mental health crisis services. The funds are specifically being used to renovate two buildings for psychiatric crisis respite services. The facility at 6222 N. Lamar opened its program last year. The second facility at 403 E. 15th St. will house Project Recovery, a program for individuals with a combined diagnosis of mental illness and alcohol dependency, and restoration of competency programs for people in the criminal justice system, and is slated to open in January. “We are grateful to the many donors, both large and small, who have made this project a reality,” said Leeke.

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Thank you to our Campaign Donors

With Special Thanks to the Meadows Foundation