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David Lawrence Foundation History



Home   »  David Lawrence Center History  »  1990's
By the 1990’s, the David Lawrence Center was treating over 8,000 people each year more than doubling the number of clients served in the 80’s. Throughout the 90’s the Center began to focus heavily on community-based prevention and intervention programs to help educate individuals, the school system, law enforcement and parents on the warning signs of mental health and substance abuse problems.

In 1991, the Center began to outgrow the space available on the Golden Gate parkway main campus. Through a generous donation, the Center acquired a satellite location on Tamiami Trail North to house a new employee assistance program called Employee Assistance Services of Southwest Florida and Life Works of Naples, a private behavioral healthcare outpatient practice subsidized by Center staff.

In 1993, the children’s substance abuse residential treatment program was reformatted to better serve the residential mental health needs of children in Collier County. The name was changed from Banyon Pavilion to Bridges. In 1996, the Bridges program was expanded from a 12-bed unit to a 20-bed unit.

As Naples popularity continued to make national headlines and property values continued to rise, the Center realized quickly that affordable housing for clients with a persistent mental illness who were on disability could not find housing. As a result in 1996, the Center acquired a housing project on Thomasson Drive with 20 units. In 1997, an additional housing project was acquired with 9 units on Biscayne Avenue and in 1998, a third housing project located in the Golden Gate Estates area with 6 units was purchased.

In 1999, the Sarah Ann Drop Inn Center was opened in a rented facility on Horseshoe Drive. This facility offered socialization, prevention of isolation, and education for individuals with a persistent mental illness.