Philly health organizations partner to expand care, survive looming funding cuts under the Trump administration
The Center for Families and Relationships and Project HOME have partnered to open a new mental health unit in North Philadelphia at the Helen Brown Community Center.
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Ryan Keough, chief clinical officer at Center for Families and Relationships, leads a tour of the new mental health unit at Project HOME’s Helen Brown Community Center at an open house on May 30, 2025. (Nicole Leonard/ WHYY)
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Two longtime Philadelphia organizations have formed a new partnership to bring more behavioral health care services to North Philadelphia.
Leaders at the Center for Families and Relationships, or CFAR, and Project HOME also say collaboration is the future for organizations hoping to survive possible federal funding cuts under the Trump administration.
“It’s a time when we really need to pull together resources to be able to support the community,” said Jordan Brogan, CEO of CFAR. “Because we don’t know what’s coming.”
CFAR recently opened a new outpatient mental health unit at Project HOME’s Helen Brown Community Center near Strawberry Mansion. The program serves adults, couples, families and children as young as 3 with Medicaid health insurance.
At a time when many health care and social services organizations face uncertainty about the future of their programs, the two Philadelphia organizations have banded together to expand care in the region.
Donna Bullock, president and CEO at Project HOME, said after the pandemic, the housing assistance nonprofit began hearing from parents that they needed more mental health resources as children returned to school.
So it made sense to collaborate with CFAR, “which is a community partner providing mental health resources in a setting that is comfortable and has less barriers and is more accessible,” Bullock said.
The new mental health unit is staffed with counselors and therapists who can see people through virtual appointments and in person. The community center already has a food pantry, programs that help with housing and energy assistance, and spaces for meetings and activities.
Several offices on the first floor are furnished with couches, posters with inspirational sayings and colorful, fluffy rugs.
“It just gives a nice feel to it,” said Jamica Cropper-Pam, CFAR senior director of outpatient programs. “The therapist feels good in here, the client feels good in here, everybody leaves feeling good.”
CFAR founder Maryann Volk said her hope for the behavioral health organization has always been to fill gaps in care in vulnerable communities.
“There is so much need,” she said, adding that a well-trained counseling staff helps families and traumatized children.
Brogan said the new partnership benefits everyone, because now CFAR’s clients who are already getting behavioral health care can get referred to Project HOME’s housing assistance and other social services directly down the hall, and vice versa.
The idea of collaborating and co-locating services had been in the works for several years, said Brogan and Bullock.
But now, they said pooling resources together has become critical as the Trump administration seeks to cut government spending — and Republicans in Congress look at programs like Medicaid.
Changes to provider reimbursement payments or eligibility criteria would likely hit organizations serving large populations of people on the public health insurance program the hardest.
“We have to look at how we’re leveraging resources, streamlining services and really working together to address any of the care gaps that may exist from any other providers or from government programs that may no longer exist or eligibility criteria that may change,” Bullock said.
The new outpatient mental health program is already taking appointments and referrals.

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