Impact100 Philadelphia’s 2026 $100,000 grant recipient, La Puerta Abierta (LPA), provides trauma-informed, culturally and linguistically responsive mental health care to immigrant community members who face profound barriers to accessing support. Through therapeutic services, community engagement and advocacy, they help individuals and families heal from trauma, rebuild stability and strengthen their sense of connection and dignity.

Beginning in rural and indigenous communities in Ecuador as part of a collaborative effort to train mental health practitioners, the organization was formalized as a nonprofit organization in 2005. It localized its programming in the Philadelphia area in 2010, with current clients coming primarily from Philadelphia and as parts of Delaware County. What started as a small, volunteer-led effort offering free therapeutic support has evolved into an organization providing individual therapy, navigation and school-based mental health programming.

LPA envisions a region where immigrant individuals and families can overcome the compounded challenges of trauma, poverty and systemic inequities to build lives of dignity, purpose and connection. Toward that aim, they also have developed and deepened partnerships with organizations that address interconnected needs including housing insecurity, food access, legal support and health care.

Clients who utilize LPA’s services include unaccompanied minors, recently arrived youth, caregivers and adults. Their ages range from 12 through 60+. Most have come to the US from low-income, underserved regions of Latin America and the Caribbean where chronic poverty, limited schooling, community violence and political instability shape daily life. All are uninsured or uninsurable and speak limited English; many face high levels of trauma connected to migration, family separation, and violence. LPA serves individuals from West and Central Africa and the Middle East as well. Many clients also face disability-related needs such as learning differences, chronic health concerns, and trauma-related symptoms. The multilingual staff provides services in Spanish, French, and English.

Broadly, services provided by LPA include individual counseling; therapeutic case management; structured therapeutic spaces for women, men, and youth aged 12-21; and school-based check- ins at Furness High School. Care is centered on community and is provided by a bilingual and bicultural team who share lived, linguistic, and cultural connections with the communities they serve. Participants determine their own goals and the pace and type of support they want. At clients’ requests, LPA team members provide information to and coordinate with other services while keeping the work grounded in mental health.

Referrals to LPA come from the Department of Human Services, the Defender Association, schools and the Department of Public Health. The organization’s numbers have risen because the needs are growing and because LPA is increasingly trusted as a reliable resource. All who are served are uninsured or uninsurable. In the last fiscal year, LPA supported approximately 240 unduplicated community members through individual therapy, therapeutic groups, school-based supports, and system navigation. LPA’s youth program supports approximately 140 adolescents each year through counseling, therapeutic art groups and school groups that help youth improve emotional regulation, stability and resilience. LPA facilitates community members’ connections with entities related to housing, food access, school enrollment, legal processes and medical care. All services are cost-free.

In addition to the direct treatment provided by LPA, they support the broader community of professionals who work with newcomer youth and families. Consulted often by others (school staff, social workers, legal advocates) navigating complex situations, they advise on issues about which they have developed expertise. As part of this effort, they co-facilitate the Newcomer Youth Learning Collaborative, a cross-sector opportunity for professionals who serve young people to strengthen their capacity to support recently arrived students. Their model addresses both immediate needs and sustainable community well-being.

Community voices guide the work of LPA, as clients contribute insights that inform program adjustments. Services are adapted in real time based on what families identify as necessary for safety, stability and connection. Staff receive continuous training so they remain knowledgeable about the issues facing their clients and the most effective ways to address them.