Who We Are
Our Mission
Transforming the American mental health system through Radical Hospitality.
We promote bold system change, advance Radical Hospitality, walk together in recovery and thrive in community. Heart Forward seeks to challenge the American institutional norms by introducing the cultural posture and guiding principles witnessed in the world-acclaimed mental health system in Trieste, Italy:
RIGHT TO
A PURPOSEFUL LIFE
SOCIAL
RECOVERY
SYSTEM
ACCOUNTABILITY
WHOLE PERSON
CARE
What Is Radical Hospitality?
Radical Hospitality is informed by the Italian word accoglienza, a concept ubiquitous in the community mental health centers of Trieste. It connotes a posture of horizontality, requiring that we come alongside people as human beings, subverting the expectation that status, education, class or privilege creates a worthiness that elevates one human being over another.
Built upon four pillars which are co-equal and interlinked, we define Radical Hospitality as a posture to assume relative to another human being:
We see you
We hear you
You are safe here
Your voice matters
Practicing Radical Hospitality
Supported by our donors and volunteers, we practice Radical Hospitality through:
Programming in our Third Place, Willow Brook, permanent supportive housing communities, board & cares, our local clubhouse and the county jail. We engage our staff and volunteers to build consistent community with residents through purposeful engagement that activates new interests, unearths dormant passions, supports goal setting, and celebrates thriving.
Innovating through collaboration, curiosity, and nimbleness. We work with our partners to pilot programs that embrace our guiding principles, substantiate our findings through research, and confront the fragmentation of the American mental health system.
Our Logo
When a delegation from Trieste came to view LA’s system in 2018 and sat down with our county supervisor for Hollywood, Dr. Roberto Mezzina said, "You may think you closed the asylum in the United States, but what we witnessed here today was an open air asylum." We had just come from a tour of Skid Row.
The symbol of the horse – cavallo in Italian – symbolizes freedom from the asylum.
Marco Cavallo was a horse that pulled the laundry cart at the San Giovanni mental asylum in Trieste. In 1959, he was scheduled to be “retired” and replaced with a truck. However the residents prevailed upon the authorities to spare his life, thus allowing him to live out his retirement on the grounds of the asylum.
