Buckelew Programs

Buckelew Programs was founded as Buckelew Farms in November 1970, largely through the efforts of Murray Richards and his wife Harriet, who provided the first facility. The name came from Thomas Buckelew, an early settler and Spanish land grantee on whose tract the house sat.

Buckelew was Marin’s first community-based 24-hour facility serving local residents with a mental illness. The clients, late teenage and young adult women, moved into the house in early l971. The program was organized on a traditional halfway-house model, and initial financial assistance came from the San Francisco Foundation and the Babcock Endowment. In 1973, the first satellite house was rented, but a year later it was apparent that more beds and expanded services were needed. In l975, with significant help from the Cowell, Hewlett, Lurie, and Irvine Foundations, Buckelew began a long period of significant expansion in developing supported housing in Marin County.

Buckelew Employment Services (BES) began in 1986 as a Transitional Employment Program (TEP) to provide vocational counseling and job training to clients, with employment offered in work-crews that performed basic janitorial and maintenance services at Buckelew facilities, and at local homes or businesses.

Later on, this social enterprise component of BES came to be known as Blue Skies Janitorial Services. Over the years BES has expanded its services and payers, and now includes a large evidence-based Supported Employment Program, the Blue Skies Personnel Services, the Blue Skies Café, and the Ticket to Work program.

In the spring of 1994, Buckelew Programs was selected to implement a pilot project known as The Avenue, at three residences on the grounds of Napa State Hospital. Marin, Napa, Sonoma and Solano Counties jointly chose Buckelew to provide a transitional residential treatment program for their clients who would otherwise be in institutional placements. That pilot project became a springboard for additional Buckelew Programs growth in Napa County.

In 1999, Buckelew was selected by the County of Sonoma to provide independent living services for adults with a mental illness. In early 2001, the County of Sonoma expanded its contract with Buckelew to provide new services to mental health clients in the County’s Forensic Assertive Community Treatment (FACT) team. Since then, we have seen significant growth in our Sonoma County programs, and now provide employment services and family support services in addition to our supported housing programs in Sonoma County.