The Bridge NY

The Bridge proves every day that persons with serious mental illness or substance abuse, the homeless, and persons with HIV/AIDS can live productive lives in the community.

The Bridge mission is to change lives, by offering help, hope and opportunity to the most vulnerable in our community. We offer a comprehensive range of evidence-based rehabilitative services, including mental health and substance abuse treatment, housing, vocational training and job placement, healthcare, education and creative arts therapies.

The Bridge was founded in 1954 by a group of men and women who had been together in a psychiatric hospital and, upon returning to the community, found that there were no programs to support them. While they were given prescriptions for psychotropic medication when they were discharged from the hospital, they had no experience living in the community, having been hospitalized for many years. The self-help program they created, supported by volunteer fundraising, provided mutual social support and recreational activities for more than 150 men and women during the next fifteen years.