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GBA Continues After California Camp Fire

  • Writer: Catherine Nguyen
    Catherine Nguyen
  • Nov 30, 2018
  • 1 min read

Updated: Jul 12, 2022

Due to the Camp Fire, GBA’s now-former bricks-and-mortar home in Paradise, California, is no more. And yet, within a couple of days, GBA and its team were back consulting with a renewed commitment to serving nonprofits and make their missions possible.



On November 8, 2018, the town of Paradise, in which GBA is located, was the victim of a raging, wind-driven fire that started early in the morning. As a result of a “perfect storm” of extremely dry conditions and gusty winds, the blaze covered 18,000 acres in one day. The entire town and surrounding smaller communities were evacuated and several thousand structures in Paradise (a small Sierra Nevada foothill town of 27,000 people, surrounded by forests) were destroyed, including GBA headquarters. In addition, five of our close-knit staff lost their homes, though everyone was safely evacuated.



A cloud of smoke being blown west towards the coast from the city of Paradise in California due to the Camp Fire


As a consultation company largely driven by computer-based projects, emails, and phone calls, a building is almost of secondary importance these days. In fact, several members of our team not living in the Paradise area already worked remotely for GBA. Within a few days, all GBA staff followed this model and are now working from spaces throughout the state. Thanks to Gary Bess’s fortitude and loyalty to clients, both new and old, employees were given the tools they needed to carry on with their work.

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South Central Alabama Mental Health Center (SCAMHC) | Andalusia, Alabama

"After we received our SAMHSA CCBHC PDI Grant, we engaged Gary Bess Associates as our Project Evaluator. They have been more than just a “Project Evaluator," they have worked with us on just about every aspect of the CCBHC project. They essentially handed us our Diversity Impact Statement when we started the CCBHC project. This was a tremendous help when we were overwhelmed with work and information during the initial months of the project. GBA has been able to help us with any questions concerning the CCBHC criteria and supported us through the evaluation and data planning process working with us on our sampling plan, the list of measures, and our internal data collection process and plan. ​We worked with GBA on our CCBHC Attestation and the supporting documentation. GBA provided us with a roadmap to develop our Attestation document and provided us with support, suggestions and help along the way. If you work with GBA, follow their roadmap and put the work in, you will be successful with your CCBHC. They are a pleasure to work with. GBA and their staff have been the best decision I’ve made through our entire CCBHC journey and my staff feel the same way!”

- Tommy Wright, Chief Executive Officer at SCAMHC

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