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.
2018: Imagining a Pilot
Under the leadership of Dr. Jonathan Sherin, the then-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.
2019: 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.
2021 - 2025: The Momentum Builds
Over the next several years, Heart Forward grew more confident in the transformative impact of Radical Hospitality through its practice in several residential communities and the LA County Jail.
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.
Through engagement in activities such as gardening, cooking classes, a chess club, art classes and civic action, community (and friendships!) were cultivated. Building upon these trusted relationships, Heart Forward was able to introduce the notion of a mental health clubhouse in Hollywood and build momentum for its arrival.
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. Heart Forward, undergirded by financial support from Kaiser and the Atlas-Kardia Foundation, launched an interim “pop-up” clubhouse in October 2023, while Fountain House worked through 2023 and 2024 to negotiate a contract with the LA County Department of Mental Health, secure philanthropic support, and hire staff.
While the pop-up clubhouse was humming, Heart Forward was approached by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation to assemble a diverse group of leaders and practitioners from throughout the United States to travel to Trieste to do a deep-dive into their system. That year-long project resulted in the recruitment and preparation of The Équipe, who studied the community-based system in late October, 2024.
With the Trieste study visit in the rear-view mirror, and Fountain House helming a full-time clubhouse, in 2025, Heart Forward’s Advisory Board took a beat to consider the strategic direction of Heart Forward. The Board could clearly see that Heart Forward’s modeling of Radical Hospitality and courage to speak truth about system change addressed a void that no one else was prepared to tackle.
2026 and Beyond
Six years in, we continue to evolve how we devote our precious financial, volunteer and staff resources. Clarified by our Strategic Direction, we seek to Pilot, Prove and Proclaim the transformative impact of Radical Hospitality.
With support from the Hilton Foundation, we will be prepared in early 2027 to recommend a pilot that will assure more positive outcomes for men and women diagnosed with mental health conditions who are diverted from incarceration in the county jail into community-based residential settings.
As part of a collaboration of six non-profit organizations in Hollywood, we are activating a local “Third Place,” guided by our peer advisory council, to serve as a focal point for our Radical Hospitality Initiative and community, connection and purpose. We also continue our Radical Hospitality Initiative as a consistent presence at multiple residential communities and the county jail.
Finally, challenged by one of our trusted donors to consider how to amplify the impact of Radical Hospitality through a curriculum that could be shared, we are incubating the notion of a Radical Hospitality Learning Lab that would exponentially plant the yeast of culture change into institutions, service providers, residential communities, carceral settings and beyond.
