Our Progress

The Relational Center was founded in 2007 to work against the often paralyzing effects of living in one of the most segregated and isolating cities in the country. We tailored our counseling services to the marginalized and impoverished residents of the Los Angeles metropolitan area who were in greatest need of community and connection. We offered counseling to adults, couples, youth and families. We also had a psychiatrist on site to provide medication support when needed. And we created issue-specific support groups for our participants.

Simultaneously, we offered intensive training to healthcare providers with the intention to build a workforce of professionals equipped to help the residents of Greater Los Angeles to build community and, with it, the health promoting effects of interdependency and cooperation. Our training included structured internships for psychology and social work graduate students as well as periodic continuing education workshops for licensed mental health providers.

As our impact grew and we developed wider support, we expanded our focus to include consulting services for other organizations interested in developing collaborative practices in their operations and business activities. We have already succeeded in building relationships with several businesses and agencies as a result of the consulting work we accomplished, focusing primarily on strategic planning, workforce development, and quality improvement projects.

Our Members

Since we first opened our doors, The Relational Center has served roughly 1,500 low-income participants with a combination of collaborative counseling, group work, resource coordination, and psychiatric support. We have seen a significant number of minorities (40 percent), with Latinos accounting for 30 percent of all our participants, African Americans 10 percent, and Asians 4 percent.

Thirty-three percent of our participants have identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ). In 2011 we started providing services to LGBTQ youth through a partnership with LifeWorks Mentoring, a project of the LA Gay and Lesbian Center.

Thirty-nine percent of our participants have had incomes below $10,000 per year, placing them below the federal poverty line, while 69 percent of all of our participants have reported annual incomes of under $20,000. Most of these participants paid next to nothing for their services (55 percent).

Our Trainees

The Relational Center has enrolled close to 100 students since we opened. Of those, 29 percent have been people of color and 22 percent LGBTQ (over half of our student body from minority communities). Over 80 percent of our student body has been women. Twenty-one percent of our students have provided services in Spanish. When beginning their training, 83 percent were enrolled in a graduate program in the Los Angeles area.