At allcove Beach Cities, the ‘all’ means everyone, even those who can’t afford psychiatric care

Redondo resident Tristan Sword, 17, has been dealing with PTSD for more than a year now. 

“I had a traumatic experience with a friend who tried to commit suicide. I had to wrestle with him to take away the object he was using,” Sword said. “I was having trouble sleeping afterwards, and I went to my [school] counselor to get help.”

Sword’s counselor recommended he turn to allcove Beach Cities, a nonprofit youth wellness center located in Redondo Beach. allcove Beach Cities is part of the larger allcove project, which currently has three centers across California serving those ages 12 to 25 at no cost.

allcove treatment has six service streams: peer support, mental health therapy, physical health therapy, education services, employment services and family support.The organization also holds free events targeted at teens: in addition to using their therapy services, Sword and his friends have been to clothing swaps and movie nights hosted by allcove.

Since the organization is nonprofit, it relies solely on grant money and philanthropic support to pay its staff and maintain its locations. All of the grants used to sustain the operation go through Ali Steward, the chief partnership development officer for allcove Beach Cities. 

“One of the challenges I wrestle with is how do we keep [allcove] sustained into the long-term future? We are on year four of the four-year $2.5 million grant from the Californian Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission that’s allowed us the opportunity to provide services free of charge,” Steward said. “I’ve been working with the state legislature and our funding agencies to see if we might be able to continue that grant, but there is a lot of uncertainty for what allcove will look like in the coming years.”  

Despite the emotional turmoil he felt coming into therapy, walking down the hallway to his first appointment, Sword felt put at ease by the warm lighting and hand-painted artwork surrounding him.

Far from clinical, the building’s rainbow decor gave it the appearance of a teenage recreation center rather than a mental health clinic. This decor was deliberately chosen by the student leaders who run the program: the center’s Youth Advisory Group members. The YAGS are a small, tight-knit group of 16-25 year olds from diverse backgrounds who work with the adult allcove staff to craft a space that caters to the unique needs of teenagers. 

“One of the biggest things that we always point out about our model is that everything is created by youth for youth. allcove wants to amplify youth voices and to bring their perspectives to decision making,” said Alina Rashidfarokhi, a YAG member since 2024.

Rashidfarokhi said she has dealt with her own mental health struggles in the past, and joined the YAG program to make a personal contribution to destigmatizing psychological issues.

A look into allcove’s bright interior. (Photo by Claudia Turner)

Redondo’s allcove currently employs 15 healthcare providers that offer sessions, support groups and community events in collaboration with allcove. The National Alliance on Mental Illness’s South Bay location is one of these providers, working with allcove to provide family support services free of charge. According to NAMI South Bay president Paul Stansbury, taking cost out of the equation is the first step in “achieving our long term goal of mental health parity.”

“I see true parity as having psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers available to you on a timely basis, regardless of insurance plan or income. And that’s just not the world we live in right now,” Stansbury said. “With the Affordable Care Act, there have been improvements, though we’re concerned about the current administration making financial cuts that could seriously impact the provision of mental illness treatment and research programs.”

As of January 2025, there are about 15 million people on Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program that provides health insurance to low-income individuals and families. Sixteen percent of South Bay residents rely on Medi-Cal for treatment of all kinds, including mental health services.

With Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” being passed by Congress on July 3, Stansbury worries that the more than $1 trillion being cut from Medicaid will leave more and more South Bay residents without affordable mental healthcare. 

“I want people to understand that we have to wage that battle with the private insurance sector, and with elected officials, to make sure that treatment is given to all people when they need it, no matter if they’re doing well financially or if they’re homeless,” Stansbury said.

Stansbury notes that the financial cuts will also have detrimental effects on potentially life-saving research programs. According to Stansbury, defunding these programs will make it “very hard to restart” any progress that is being made in finding cures for mental illnesses like schizophrenia.

For young people like Sword, services like allcove are important because they provide a safe space to receive therapy services without “feeling like a financial burden.” However, because of how many people were waiting to receive these free services, Sword’s trauma therapy sessions were ended after his immediate needs were addressed, preventing the teen from “digging deep,” he said, and fully healing from the experience.  

“The therapy was definitely helpful, but it was also limited. allcove only offers short term therapy, so you have to get what you can from it during your limited amount of free sessions,” Sword said. “It made sense because, with a free service, they need to get as many people in and out as possible. But I do wish I could’ve gotten more time before being told to seek out something else.” 

For the foreseeable future, all services at allcove will remain free, though the organization is collecting insurance information, knowing that eventually they will likely have to bill for things that are reimbursable. Some cases are just too extreme to be addressed by the short term therapy allcove provides. Steward says that allcove has adapted to these problems by establishing the “No Wrong Door Policy,” turning the space into somewhere that young people can find help for any issue they’re facing, even if that is in the form of referrals. 

“If it’s not a good fit for a young person to be seeking care in allcove, we make sure they are referred to another affordable agency or place that is a better fit for them. We want to make sure that anyone who walks in the door is going to get the support that they need,” Steward said. “We know that cost can be a barrier to young people when they need it. That’s why I think it’s critical that we continue to find ways to make more and more services accessible, because everyone deserves options.”

Though his “free trial” period is up, Sword still thinks fondly of his time at allcove, and visits it from time to time to do homework, study for tests, and attend free special events. He’s also recommended their services to his friends, even if their therapy capacity is a bit limited. 

“I know some people who use it as a supplementary mental health source and as a social environment,” Sword said. “It’s not just a clinic, it’s a community.”