Overview of Brookline Center
The Brookline Center for Community Mental Health has been providing innovative and field-defining mental health services since 1958. Our mission is to transform the mental health system to be effective and equitable for all. Building on our strong history as a provider of outpatient mental health services, we are now growing our ability to transform the system through program and practice innovation. Our vision is to become a center for designing, developing, and sharing ground-breaking, cross-sector programs and services. To that end, we have launched the Innovation Institute, accelerating our capacity to design, test, and share mental health care innovations – either our own or those of our partners – to make the system more equitable, accessible, and effective.
Our Ask
The Brookline Center is seeking to generate $10 million in philanthropic investment over the next three years to advance the Innovation Institute’s next phase of growth. Philanthropic capital of this magnitude will allow us to accelerate the Institute’s evolution and impact. This funding will directly support three critical areas of work: advancing current program and practice innovations ($5 million), generating new innovations ($4 million), and deepening ecosystem engagement ($1 million).
Core Programs
The Brookline Center’s Innovation Institute has already established a track record, leadership, and reputation to succeed. When traditional care cannot meet the community’s evolving mental health needs, we leverage our expertise to create new community-responsive practices. Examples of our effective innovations include bryt, which partners with schools in six states to bring vital mental health services to students, preventing disruptions in their education; and our ground-breaking community-based early psychosis care, through which we have become a leading provider in Massachusetts.
The Innovation Institute operates under a three-phase model. Once we identify a pressing mental health need that aligns with our mission and expertise, we implement the following steps:
Design: Based on evidence-informed research and strategies, we source ideas from community, staff, and external partners; determine whether ideas are mission-aligned and evidence-informed, and create interventions to pilot.
Test: We pilot the intervention to gauge viability and efficacy. If appropriate, we expand the pilot to additional populations or communities. We gather evidence and feedback, refine the model as needed, and assess the sustainability and viability of the intervention.
Share: We share program or practice innovations through diverse channels and approaches. These include through training and consultation; licensing our models to partner organizations; open-source sharing; and by serving as a design partner for other organizations interested in replicating or piloting similar initiatives.
Needs
Over the next three years, we will expand our pipeline of high-impact program and practice innovations while strengthening the Institute’s internal capacity to ensure every innovation is rigorously tested, community-responsive, and designed for scale.
We will focus on three core goals:
- Advance Proven Program and Practice Innovations. For example:
- Triple bryt’s reach, aiming for 80% adoption across Massachusetts high schools and entry into one new state at scale.
- Stand up three new early psychosis clinics statewide and develop a psychosis-informed care training program.
- Expand integrated care models into five or more primary and specialty care settings.
- Generate New Program and Practice Innovations. For example:
- Source, design, and test three to five new innovations that address high-need, high-opportunity gaps in mental health care delivery.
- Use a rigorous design/test/share model to refine and validate each innovation for long-term viability and scale.
- Deepen Ecosystem Engagement. For example:
- Partner with six to eight new organizations—including schools, health systems, and other community-based providers—to co-design and test innovations.
- Host regional and national convenings to share findings and cultivate a network of innovators and partners.
Together, these goals represent the next steps in transforming the mental health care system through program and practice innovation.