Every day and every year bring fresh opportunities for MPTF to continue making a positive impact on our community. When an industry member needs help, a place to live, support through trying times, we take care of our own. These are our family! They are MPTF. When you make a contribution of time or money, you are MPTF. Read these pages and be amazed and inspired by all the good we do together.
In 2015, true to our mission, we brought much needed support and services to those who work within the film and television industry and are faced with trying times. Our Wasserman Campus in Woodland Hills continued as a home and resource to over 200 residents, providing a rich, loving, and engaged community for our industry’s seniors, along with services like long term care, Palliative Care, dementia and Alzheimer’s support for those in need and geriatric behavioral health. In the community, we have helped support those who choose to “age in place” with home safety assessments and financial assistance, resolved VA benefits claims for industry members with military service, and watched young minds blossom at the Samuel Goldwyn Foundation Children’s Center. We’ve asked “what matters most?” and helped women in our industry “deal with it.”
We ask you to review this annual report and discover for yourself all that MPTF stands for — what we offer and how you too can be MPTF.
With the truly generous fiscal, emotional, and volunteer support of many, we continue to be able to take care of our own.
*We celebrate long time Board members Roger Mayer who passed March 24, 2015 and Darcie Denkert who passed June 9, 2016.
For their service, we thank Board members Patrick Purcell and Robert Pisano whose terms ended.
It’s said that money doesn’t fix everything, but try telling that to an industry friend who, through no fault of his or her own, cannot afford to pay rent due to an injury, to the retired actor who can’t afford groceries, to the industry spouse who can’t go to work unless someone provides healthcare to a loved one at home. To them, and to the 426 industry members we helped in 2015 with our financial assistance program, money is at least the short-term solution to a real and immediate crisis. The concept of providing a safety net has been at the core of MPTF since its start in 1921. Then and now, work in our industry can be unpredictable: shows get cancelled, pilots don’t get picked up, films don’t get greenlit, and jobs disappear. It’s not unusual to have a dozen W-2’s at year’s end and still be struggling to pay the bills.
With the globalization of our industry, with production work migrating to other states and countries with attractive tax incentives, the challenges are even greater. That’s the beauty of our commitment to the community. We understand the work you do and the industry you are a part of, and that means we can provide you the help you need when you need it. An integral part of our Financial Assistance program is connecting industry members needing support with our team of dedicated social workers. It starts with handling the immediate issue, but these leaders in their field craft more long-lasting solutions for their industry clients: what starts with a missed mortgage payment can become life-changing lifetime support. You are MPTF.
MPTF helped out with my mortgage payment, water, and power. It might not seem like a lot, but after you spend all your savings, anything that keeps you from becoming homeless is priceless. They helped keep us afloat.
Is there any other place where you can find a stuntman living next door to a set designer who lives next door to an actress who knew Elvis? Where you can write, produce, and edit your own media projects at a working TV station with the assistance of a steady flow of intergenerational volunteers? Where you can learn about the Hollywood Blacklist from a resident who lived it and watch a first-run feature film in the Louis B. Mayer Theatre? Where can you meet with your primary care doctor and then walk over to the Saban Center for Health and Wellness and the Jodie Foster Aquatic Pavilion for all your workout needs? Where you can run your dog in the park, join a walking group to circle the campus, and then come home to a delicious meal using locally sourced ingredients?
Welcome to the Motion Picture Country Home, the residence of over 200 senior industry members. Located for the past 74 years on 23
Welcome to the Motion Picture Country Home, the residence of over 200 senior industry members. Located for the past 74 years on 23 beautifully landscaped acres in Woodland Hills, The Wasserman Campus is replete with magnificent gardens (many of them drought-tolerant), walking paths, koi pond, and cafes. Day-to-day living is full of activity — many residents say they’ve never been so busy — and thanks to frequent gatherings with studios, talent agencies, and other industry organizations, our residents remain connected to the industry.
You’ll never find another place like the Country Home. One other unique aspect of it is the fact that 40% of our residents receive financial assistance to live here. And if you outlive your financial reserves while at the Country Home, you are supported with financial assistance for your lifetime. As our community lives longer and arrives on campus with fewer resources, we can only expect these costs to grow. But this is one of the most central aspects of our mission and one to which we are deeply committed.
For nearly 50 years, the Country Home and MPTF have been blessed with a volunteer corps that itself is a reflection of the mission of “taking care of our own.” Competent, caring, and committed volunteers are at the core of everything we do. We could never accomplish our goals without their devotion. Our Volunteer Guild began with nine women in 1966. It has grown to 400 industry volunteers with varying career affiliations. High schoolers, college students, and young industry members also lend a hand for the privilege of supporting our community. Every MPTF volunteer, young or old, says the same thing about their experience: they are getting more out of giving than they ever expected. They are MPTF.
Our volunteers provide support on our campus and in the community. Whether it is a studio sending a group to campus to play poker and enjoy an ice cream sundae with residents, a crew from Local 44 fixing up the
Our volunteers provide support on our campus and in the community. Whether it is a studio sending a group to campus to play poker and enjoy an ice cream sundae with residents, a crew from Local 44 fixing up the home of an ill colleague, an industry member being a Gym Buddy to someone who needs help exercising, a team of volunteers helping at meal-time with our long-term and dementia care residents, or a college film student coming to teach Final Cut Pro to a creative senior in our Media Center, MPTF offers countless soul-satisfying ways to get involved. Other current programs include:
The beauty of all our volunteer programs is they provide a meaningful way to engage with fellow industry members and take care of our own.
MPTF has been ahead of the curve in providing Palliative Care both on campus and in the community to industry families who are dealing with serious illness. The goal is to provide relief from the symptoms and stress and improve quality of life for both patient and the family and MPTF’s thought leadership and innovative practice has received national attention. Medical care is provided by a boardcertified Palliative Care physician from UCLA Health; social service support, chaplaincy, nutritional advice, and all else — a truly breathtaking cocoon of compassionate care — is funded through philanthropy. As more of us begin to understand the power of Palliative Care in providing comfort and quality of life, the need for this program is sharply increasing and its impact is profound.
On The Wasserman Campus in Woodland Hills we offer Long Term Care for those requiring skilled nursing and Harry’s Haven for those who
On The Wasserman Campus in Woodland Hills we offer Long Term Care for those requiring skilled nursing and Harry’s Haven for those who need Memory Care. Both of these programs are growing in need with an aging population and increasing prevalence of multiple chronic illnesses and dementia. We understand the enormous challenges and strains these illnesses put on a patient and their families. Our caregivers know this and are united in providing the most comforting and patient-centered solutions to our residents.
The Samuel Goldwyn, Jr. Center for Behavioral Health on The Wasserman Campus provides a thoughtful and holistic approach to behavioral management for patients over 55 years old. This small (12 bed) facility, led by a UCLA Health medical director, is designed for an older population and staffed by a team that understands the complexities associated with aging, multiple medications and mental health.
The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of those depths.
We touch old and young and every age in-between. The Samuel Goldwyn Foundation Children’s Center in West Los Angeles is a place where families are provided a loving and nurturing pre-school and day care facility for entertainment workers’ children, ages eight weeks to six years. It’s a safe and fun environment for children, allowing industry parents to work with the comfort of knowing their children are happy and prospering. Extended care in both the mornings and evenings account for some of the challenges of working long hours in our industry.
years. It’s a safe and fun environment for children, allowing industry parents to work with the comfort of knowing their children are happy and prospering. Extended care in both the mornings and evenings account for some of the challenges of working long hours in our industry.
You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.
The entertainment industry is a community
unlike any other. Our life is our work and our
work is our life. We need each other, we
depend on each other day in and day out,
and we take care of our own. Over the past
95 years the industry has changed. The human
need has not. It is community members like you whose
generosity allows MPTF to continue to provide
vital charitable services and programs to the
entertainment industry community. We are
here for you and because of you. Each and
every one of our donors makes a difference
and the full list can be seen online at
mptf.com/supporters.
continue to provide
vital charitable services and programs to the
entertainment industry community. We are
here for you and because of you. Each and
every one of our donors makes a difference
and the full list can be seen online at
mptf.com/supporters.
We serve you and we are here because of you. Thank you for your financial support, your time and commitment, and for being a vibrant part of the community we all treasure. Taking care of our own isn’t just our mission; it’s a good philosophy to live by. This year, please consider us when prosperity reigns and lean on us if trouble knocks.
We Bring it Home
Community Social Service
MPTF supports our community by offering a broad range of programs and services to people of all ages, from Financial Assistance to Counseling, from Child Care to Elder Connection, from Home Safe Home programs to keep you safe in your home, to programs to connect you to the right health insurance plan.
Is it your parent or spouse who needs help? We are here for you. Just call our Social Workers. They understand the challenges that exist in a crazy industry with unpredictable employment and work schedules. They understand the stress associated with caring for an ill parent or a disabled child. And they can provide support and connection to resources you may not even know exist. There are so many ways we can make life better:
MPTF is the go-to resource for anyone in need in the entertainment industry and we have been at the forefront of pioneering services for the elderly, for military veterans, and for families. And you know what? We’re just getting started!
3,793
Helping 3,793 Men And Women
MPTF's net costs for this program in 2015
were approximately $3 million.