Half-Time	Full-Time
Program 1:	The Chicago School-Southern California	0	1
Program 2:	Alliant/CSFS-LA	0	1

Postdoc, or Practicum	Number
psychology practicum students
psychology postdocs	2
MSW	1
MFT

IMCES is a private, non-profit community clinic founded in 1989 by Dr. Tara Pir, aka Tahereh Pirhekayaty. Under her leadership, IMCES has become associated with the Department of Public Information / Non-Governmental Organizations (DPI/NGO) for human rights and has earned special consultative status with the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). The mission of IMCES is to promote human rights and social justice. Equal access to health and mental health services in our society is the human right of all. At IMCES we are committed to level the ground for all to walk on. Dr. Pir’s commitment to social justice and human rights is demonstrated by her development and implementation of high standard services to our community in two domains: One: clinical service delivery for our culturally diverse population; Two: professional workforce development/clinical training program for mental health professionals. This means we provide highly effective, culturally and linguistically competent services to the most needy, underserved populations in our community by professionals who are trained to the highest standard of practice. Dr. Pir led the Institute to become one of the few outpatient community clinics designed specifically to treat the varied needs of the underserved, culturally and linguistically diverse communities of Los Angeles. Every year, IMCES serves thousands of individuals and families who have been identified to be 100-200% or more below the poverty level. IMCES offers a variety of clinical programs developed to reach children, youth, families, and adults who have many barriers to their wellness, success, and sustainability within the community. IMCES is committed to helping underserved members of the community overcome adversity, achieve independence, and create sustainable and meaningful lives for themselves and their families. IMCES provides culturally proficient services to its clients based on the proven success of integrative model of service delivery through the utilization of prevention and early intervention strategies. IMCES makes a lifelong commitment to promote responsiveness to the need of our culturally diverse communities including ethnicity, age, and sexual orientation of all people from unserved and underserved populations. The agency is amongst the most culturally proficient service providers in the county, providing linguistically proficient services in ten different languages including Arabic, Armenian, English, Farsi, Hebrew, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Japanese, and Tagalog. We honor and respect the many different customs that cultural and ethnic diversity brings forth. At the same time, IMCES contributes to the wellness of our community, while promoting social justice and striving to eliminate the stigma, discrimination, and disparity associated with health and mental health services in our community.

Our philosophy is based on humanistic values and approaches. We operate based on the principle of inclusion by design to prevent disparities. We promote whole health. The whole health of individuals includes physical, mental, spiritual, social, as well as community health. We believe this overarching goal can be achieved and implemented by an integrative model of service delivery, which provides a continuation of care and advocacy for clients in the context of community. Our clinical training program is designed as an effective and necessary professional workforce development to respond to our community’s needs. Our operation has been based on the principle of commitment to “excellence” and “lifelong learning,” which promotes the high quality of our services to clients and the community.

Theoretical Orientation(s) of Staff:

Comments Regarding Theoretical Orientation of Staff

AGENCY ACCESSIBILITY AND DISABILITY ISSUES

Are you familiar with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990?	Yes
If not, would you like information?	No
Is the agency wheelchair accessible?	Yes
Do trainees have access to computers to do their paperwork?	Yes
Has there been a student/intern/trainee with a disability at the agency within the last five years?	Yes
Are there any training staff with disabilities at the agency?	No
Has the agency provided in-service training on disabilities in the past five years?	Yes

Comments on agency accessibility: