Arch Collaborative pivots to help lead new California-funded regional behavioral health initiative

Just a few months after being denied state funding for a proposed behavioral health campus, Arch Collaborative is pivoting to help lead a California-funded behavioral health initiative which will emphasize collaboration between counties across the North State. 

The Redding-based nonprofit, in partnership with Rural County Representatives of California, was just awarded a state grant of $5 million through California’s Innovation Partnership Fund to pilot a project titled the Rural Behavioral Health Action Collaborative. 

The 30-month project, which was chosen by the state agency out of 307 applications, is not a direct service, but rather an attempt to create a “shared regional infrastructure model.” In a press release today, RCRC referred to it as an initiative to strengthen county collaboration and “behavioral health implementation capacity across rural Northern California.” 

RCRC is a convening agency that advocates for small and rural California counties at the legislative levels. The organization is leading the project with Arch Collaborative, a nonprofit that provides support services for victims of trauma, supporting. CEO Kimberly Johnson has been a vocal advocate for inter-county collaboration in behavioral health since she founded the Children’s Legacy Center, which has since been wrapped into the organization known as Arch Collaborative. 

Last year, Arch Collaborative submitted a proposal for California funds to build a regional behavioral health facility that would provide psychiatric and crisis services. Known as True North, the proposed project received avid support from an array of regional and Shasta County officials and community members, before facing last-minute opposition from some leaders, led by Supervisor Kevin Crye. The campus project was denied state funding in March. 

While the organization’s new project is a pivot from the True North campus proposal, it emphasizes many of the same principles of inter-county collaboration and would provide a formalized way for counties in northern California grappling with similar issues to collaborate on behavioral health reforms, Johnson said in an interview today. 

“We’re going to bring together about 15 counties in the far rural North State, and it’s going to be very county-led, behavioral health-driven,” Johnson said. “The counties will be able to collaborate around key priority areas such as BHSA implementation in terms of idea sharing, technology integration, workforce development, contracting and billing.” 

Behavioral health is a term which collectively refers to mental health and substance use, addressing the intersection between the two issues, which are often co-occurring. California has seen a large shift in behavioral health policies over the past few years, particularly as the state implemented the Behavioral Health Services Act or BHSA, as Johnson referred to it, which replaced the Mental Health Services Act or MHSA in an attempt to better focus state mental health resources towards the needs of vulnerable populations. 

The shift is what Johnson and others have called “a once in a generation type of change” for behavioral health care, leaving rural counties with unique challenges as they work to respond to and implement the changes.

“Most urban counties have teams of people whose responsibility is to implement state policy, and there’s been so many state mandates rolled out from the governor’s office,” Johnson said. “Often rural counties just need to rely on one another to see that implementation at scale.” 

Collaboration on the newly-funded project came together in a very short time period, Johnson said, after former senator Brian Dahle suggested to Johnson that Arch Collaborative reach out to RCRC to co-apply. The organizations rallied together within ten days to complete the application and gather letters of support, she recalled. 

“I believe we had 12 or 13 county letters of support that were turned around literally within less than 48 hours,” she said. “It was really, really inspiring.” 

Plumas and Glenn counties in particular, CRCR’s press release noted, played significant roles in developing the project, and will serve as co-chairs of the steering committee. The press release quoted Glenn County Administrative Officer Scott De Moss’s strong support for the project.

“Rural communities deserve behavioral health systems that are every bit as strong, responsive, and innovative as those available elsewhere in California,” De Moss wrote. “This grant gives counties an unprecedented opportunity to work together, build shared capacity, and develop solutions that reflect the realities of rural service delivery.”  

By phone today, Johnson also noted how the project came together at the right time for Arch Collaborative, adding that previous efforts, including the True North campus proposal, played into this successful application by helping her understand the need for a definitive collaboration model. 

“Even had the True North campus been awarded, a formalized collaborative table where the behavioral health departments from counties could all come together was still going to be a gap that we didn’t really have a solution for yet,” she said. “So the fact that this is what came together is so beautiful because whether or not we have a campus, this was still needed.” 

Shasta’s Health and Human Services Agency did not respond to a question about whether Shasta County would be participating in the initiative, but CRCR’s press release noted that Shasta has expressed interest and Johnson said she hopes to work with Shasta’s leaders as the project moves ahead. 

“For years, rural counties have looked to Shasta County as an informal source of insight and support in translating state mandates into solutions that work in rural communities,” Johnson said. “I am hopeful that, through RCRC’s leadership, we will see a more formalized regional effort in which Shasta County is an active partner.”

The project is expected to conclude in December 2028, RCRC said, and is designed to provide a set of lessons and best practices that can be applied across rural California.

Moe Shimizu is a student at Yale University. She’s reporting for Shasta Scout as a 2026 summer intern, with support from the Nonprofit Newsroom Internship Program — created by The Scripps Howard Fund and the Institute for Nonprofit News.

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