What is Nuci's Space?
On Thanksgiving Day in 1996, just like 85 other people that day or any given day in America, 22-year old musician Nuçi Phillips killed himself in Athens, Ga. Linda, Nuçi’s mother, decided to turn her son’s tragic death into a life-affirming mission. Two years later, she began molding an abandoned machine warehouse into Nuci’s Space, a musician’s resource center that strives to fight the stigma of mental illness.
The primary purpose of Nuçi’s Space is to provide musicians with low-cost professional counseling. Linda personally evaluates and sets up each patient with a professional counseling service or psychiatrist. After that, Nuçi’s Space takes on 95% of the patient’s bills for the treatment and medication.
At Nuçi’s Space, musicians can rehearse in one of the four climate-controlled practice rooms (all of the rooms are equipped with drums and a PA system). The Space also hosts benefit concerts, free health screenings, music workshops, a children’s music program and group meetings for Survivors of Suicide. Twice a month, a physician visits Nuçi’s Space to see uninsured musicians.
The importance of counseling
Without insurance or the necessary funds to make an appointment with a therapist that may charge upwards of $200 per session, a depressed musician has nowhere to turn for treatment, relief. For the artist seeking help, today’s health-care system is a labyrinth of dead-ends, paper-work and costly bills.
What this GivingGroup Will Do
We have budgeted roughly $4,000 per month towards our Counseling Assistance Program. This translates to approximately 40 musicians/artists receiving counseling who would normally not be able to afford help.