It's a big year for Life Link/La Luz, the Santa Fe nonprofit, which serves hundreds of people coping with mental illness, addiction and homelessness.

Life Link is celebrating its 20th year of providing housing, therapeutic services, employment assistance and programs for addiction and substance abuse to those in need.

Life Link also just received an award from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration for its CRAFT — or Community Reinforcement and Family Training — program through which friends or relatives learn to let the substance abusers experience the negative consequences of their actions. The award was one of 20 given nationwide for evidence-based practice.

And finally, the busy nonprofit is expanding its services by building a 5,000-square-foot behavioral health center, called "Las Alas" or the wings, next door to its current facility.

Life Link was founded two decades ago when Carol Luna-Anderson and two friends purchased a dilapidated motel near the intersection of Cerrillos and
St. Michael's Drive in the hopes of helping the area's homeless. Working with volunteer help and donated materials, they transformed the building into 11 units for homeless families. By 1988, a nonprofit was formed.

Life Link/La Luz has morphed into a full-service, community mental-health center with 40 employees, including case managers, therapists, housing specialists and job counselors who serve more than 600 clients.

The goal of finding homes for the homeless remains at the core of Life Link's mission.

"Home is the foundation and a necessary first step towards recovery," she said.

Adding to the original 11-unit facility, Life Link built a HUD-funded 24-unit residence for people with psychiatric disabilities called "La Luz."

In 2000 Life Link created a residence for 12 men and women with chronic mental illness located south of Santa Fe called "Casa Milagro, or Miracle House.

Forty-four more individuals receive subsidized housing vouchers that enable them to live in rental units throughout the city.

Substance-abuse treatment is a primary target of the mental-health center. The CRAFT program first began at Life Link in 2000 and is already being utilized around the globe.

"It's very typical for a treatment center to receive a call from an anguished relative complaining of the alcoholism or drug addition of a family member," said Michael DeBernardi, director of Life Link's Behavioral Health Services.

Usually, he added, the person who calls is the substance abuser's spouse, but it might also be the abuser's parent, grandparent, son, daughter or close friend. In times past, DeBernardi said, the staff at the treatment center would have to tell the caller that there was nothing they could do until the substance abuser decided to seek treatment for themself.

During the 1980s, University of New Mexico researcher Robert Meyers decided to develop the CRAFT protocol in order to help family members change the substance abuser's environment so much that the abuser would be more likely to seek treatment.

According to Meyer's Web site, www.robertjmeyersphd.com, the approach "steers clear of confrontation and emphasizes learning new skills to cope with old problems" through positive communication, rewards and "allowing for the 'natural consequences' of use."

Beginning in 1999, Meyers taught Life Link counselors the new protocol he continued supervision as therapists began working with family members.

"It was very exciting to finally have something to offer these desperate spouses, sons, daughters ... especially in Santa Fe, where family connections are so strong," DeBernardi said.

Results of the three-year program were dramatic — participation in the program greatly improved the lives of the family members whether or not their relative went into treatment. News from substance abusers was also good: Sixty percent of those whose relatives participated in the program chose to enter treatment. The rate, DeBernardi said, is a far higher number than normal.

At the conclusion of the project, LifeLink joined forces with Robert Meyers to create the Life Link Training Institute, which promotes the CRAFT ideal worldwide. So far, 300 providers from seven countries have received training.

Also new and exciting at Life Link is the new building now under construction next door.

"We simply outgrew our space," Luna-Anderson said. "We had two to three therapists sharing one office. We didn't have enough space for classes on anger management or job-skills training."

The addition will include another nine offices for therapists and a number of group rooms, and the new building will free up space in the existing facility for case managers and housing counselors.

When asked what the group's 20th anniversary means to her, the emotion in Luna-Anderson's voice was clear.

"When we started tallying up the number of people, not just individuals but families we've served, and the number who have walked back in here and told us how much Life Link meant in their lives — the chance to start recovery, to get back on their feet. It's just been fantastic," she said.