In 1975, Dr. Cecil Hoffman started Amanecer due to this simple belief:
The life-restoring benefits of counseling should be available to all who needed them.
In 1975, Dr. Hoffman was troubled by the glaring shortage of affordable psychiatric and psychological services for people living in the neighborhoods surrounding the University of Southern California. The area was woefully neglected and yet the needs of the population – primarily working poor – were significant.
With the support of the United University Church at USC, which provided free office space and phone service, Dr. Hoffman launched Community Counseling Service of Los Angeles. Pastors and church members provided a strong volunteer base, along with enough charitable donations to make services available for as low as five dollars.
One of the agency’s most devoted volunteers, Pat Hoffman, became keenly aware of the rapidly growing Latino community in the area. With such a diverse community-base, it seemed absurd that the lion’s share of their neighbors could not fully access the mental health services the agency was laboring to provide.
Soon, Dr. Arnold Herrera joined the organization as the agency’s first bilingual psychologist, and Pat had all materials printed in Spanish as well as English.
In 1984, the agency was awarded a contract with the County Department of Mental Health and began providing co-located services at La Clinica Oscar Romero, a public health clinic serving the Central American refugee population in the Pico-Union District.
The name of the counseling program at the agency was Amanecer, and many clients had taken to referring to the agency as a whole as Amanecer. Meaning “a new beginning” in Spanish, the word familiar and comforting to the community. So following their lead, we officially adopted the name Amanecer in 2005.
New funding became available in 1995 that allowed Amanecer to serve not only adults, but also the children of the area. Needing more space to accommodate its expansion, the agency moved to its current location on Wilshire Boulevard in Downtown Los Angeles.
Amanecer is always adapting to the needs of its clients. In 2017, we became a Trauma-Informed clinic. This approach emphasizes physical, psychological and emotional safety for both our clients and our staff, helping survivors to rebuild a sense of control and empowerment in their lives.
Today, Amanecer serves almost 2,000 individual clients annually. That is not including the 1,500-2,000 siblings, parents and other relatives that benefit from case management, family therapy, and parenting training.
