Union Rescue Mission

Since January 2001, the Psychology Division of GSEP has partnered with the Los Angeles Union Rescue Mission (URM) to provide mental health treatment services for the homeless community. GSEP operates a mental health clinic at URM's main campus in central Los Angeles. Clinic services are provided at no cost to homeless and poor persons and include individual and group therapy, psychological assessment, and psychoeducational programs.

This collaboration with URM, led by Dr. Cary Mitchell, professor of psychology, and Dr. Aaron Aviera,  director of the West Los Angeles Psychological and Educational Clinic, has been supported by grants from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, the Weingart Foundation, Pepperdine University, and URM. The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation Fellowship was established in the Psychology Division of GSEP as a permanent endowment to support Pepperdine's mental health treatment program for homeless and poor persons in Los Angeles County. Program Fellows, typically Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) students, receive clinical supervision and professional training as they provide psychological services at the URM-Pepperdine mental health clinic. URM has also become a setting for applied research and multiple PsyD dissertations have been completed to date. For more information, contact Dr. Mitchell or Dr. Aviera.