The REACH Center is a walk-in resource center offering housing navigation, homeless prevention, mental and behavioral health support, legal aid, and violence prevention and other support in one location.
The Partners and Their Vision
The REACH Center was created by local nonprofit organizations who frequently collaborated but experienced the difficulties of doing so from various locations. These organizations envisioned a space where they could remove service barriers while realizing the power of collaboration in improved efficiency, client service, and cost sharing.
The REACH Center is the result of this vision.
A coalition of partners – Couleecap, Independent Living Resources, Legal Action of Wisconsin, New Horizons Shelter and Outreach Services, Salvation Army, Scenic Bluffs Community Health Centers, St. Clare Health Mission, and YWCA La Crosse - came together to execute this vision through a community housing and resource center. Many other nonprofit and government partners worked alongside us to make REACH into what it is today.
The REACH Center provides a place where social service agencies collaborate to improve outcomes for individuals facing economic, health, or housing insecurity. The Center facilitates weekly case conferencing, coordinated outreach planning, joint grant writing, and aligned leadership across agencies. This integrated approach reduces service duplication and enhances administrative efficiency.
The REACH Center also supports emerging nonprofits that address critical service gaps but lack the capacity to operate independently. By providing the space, resources, and guidance, the Center helps them grow and strengthen their impact.
The REACH Center was unique in Wisconsin when we opened in 2021. We have since served as a model for other communities and continue to share the benefits of place-based collaboration with others.
Our Purpose
The core goal of REACH is to provide a centralized “hub” for the public to get connected to nonprofit services to advance a healthy and thriving community.
REACH is also intended to support the physical and conceptual collaboration of social service organizations to produce better outcomes for persons experiencing financial hardships.
The space is designed to create an accessible community center that allows any community members to simply enter and become immediately connected to shelter and housing, mental health and long-term case management services, community health programming, addiction treatment, and landlord liaison or housing placement services.
REACH partners strive to create a solutions-based model in partnership with program participants, residents, city officials and emergency responders, healthcare professionals, and social service providers that serves as a best practice within the region and state.
We also work together to build service capacity and strengthen the nonprofit network through a cooperative space and operational model which may help organizations of all sizes realize cost savings and efficiencies.
The REACH Center Serves the Entire Community – Join Us!
All collaborative partners have an on-site presence with staff and volunteers. The space offers private offices for accessing confidential services and infrastructure necessary for meeting health and hygiene needs of program participants. The space also offers conference spaces for larger program offerings and community meetings.
Community groups or individuals may offer services in the building, either on a permanent or temporary basis, to aid our neighbors who utilize the building.
We invite a diverse menu of services and partners into the space to join the collaborative effort to address the collective community need.
