Parkinson's Resource Organization: Southern California's Own Support Network

Health information, not medical advice. Talk with your doctor before starting a new exercise program.

Quick answer: Parkinson’s Resource Organization (PRO) is our own Southern California-grown nonprofit — headquartered in Palm Desert and founded in 1990 by caregivers who were overwhelmed, couldn’t find the support network they needed, and decided to build it themselves. Thirty-five years later, PRO offers support groups (including virtual ones anyone can join), the Wellness Village — a vetted directory of Parkinson’s-friendly service providers — the Together in Parkinson’s podcast, and steady educational programming. Reach them at (760) 773-5628 or toll-free (877) 775-4111. For families in the LA area, the Inland Empire, and the Coachella Valley, this is the local team.

Every other organization in this series is a national outfit. This one’s ours — headquartered two hours east of my gyms, serving the same families I coach, answering the phone in the same time zone. If you’ve read my other profiles and wondered whether anything on those lists actually knows your neighborhood, this is the one that does.

I’ve profiled the research giants and the national service networks, and they all matter. But there’s a kind of help that only comes from an organization rooted in your own region — one that knows the local doctors, the local facilities, the local families. For Southern California, that’s PRO.

Born from a caregiver’s breaking point

The origin story, straight from PRO’s own site: the organization “was established in 1990 by caregivers who were overwhelmed and struggling to find the support network they needed. So they decided to create one.”

Sit with that for a second. Not doctors, not philanthropists — caregivers, led by founder Jo Rosen, who turned the worst kind of firsthand education into an organization that’s now been serving families for three and a half decades as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

Readers of my Caregiver’s Corner know I believe care partners are the most under-supported people in the entire Parkinson’s world. PRO is what it looks like when those people stop waiting for help and build it — and that DNA still shows in how much of their programming serves the family, not just the diagnosis.

What PRO offers

Support groups — including virtual ones. PRO runs support groups for people with Parkinson’s and for caregivers, and their virtual groups mean you can join from a living room in Van Nuys or Ventura just as easily as from Palm Desert. If our own monthly Zoom group has taught me anything, it’s that the option to connect without a drive changes who actually gets support.

The Wellness Village. PRO’s signature: a directory of service providers — from care facilities to attorneys to therapists — who work with Parkinson’s families. Anyone who’s tried to find, say, an elder-law attorney who actually understands a progressive diagnosis knows why a vetted, Parkinson’s-specific directory beats a cold Google search. It’s the “ask a neighbor who’s been through it” experience, systematized.

Together in Parkinson’s podcast. Their podcast brings conversations about living with PD straight to your earbuds — a good companion on the drive to class, if I may plant a seed.

News, education, and a genuinely active calendar. Their news and articles run from research developments to caregiving realities, and their events calendar stays busy. They also maintain resources specifically for the newly diagnosed — a moment when a local hand on the shoulder means everything.

Who PRO is best for

Southern California families, full stop — from Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley out through the Inland Empire to the desert communities. If you’re local, PRO belongs in your contacts alongside the national helplines. Within that, they’re especially valuable for caregivers (it’s in their founding DNA), for anyone who needs a trustworthy referral to a Parkinson’s-aware service provider, and for people who prefer their support with a local accent — same freeways, same heat waves, same healthcare systems.

How to reach them

Local phone: (760) 773-5628
Toll-free: (877) 775-4111
Email: info@parkinsonsresource.org
Website: parkinsonsresource.org
Address: 42600 Cook St, Suite 210, Palm Desert, CA 92211

Put it to work: three moves this week

Assignments, SoCal edition:

Join one virtual support group session. Their groups page lists what’s running. You don’t have to talk your first time — most people don’t. You just have to be in the room, and the room comes to your living room.
Test-drive the Wellness Village with a real need. Whatever service your family has been putting off finding — legal planning, in-home help, a new care facility for a parent — look it up there first and see who’s already known to the Parkinson’s community before you start cold-calling strangers.
Put both numbers in your phone. (760) 773-5628 local, (877) 775-4111 toll-free, under “PRO.” Local organizations answer local questions national helplines can’t — which facility, which neighborhood, which doctor.

The case for keeping help local

One more thought on why regional organizations earn their keep, because it took me years of coaching to fully see it.

Parkinson’s is a global disease, but it’s lived locally. The question that actually derails a family’s week is rarely “what is the pathophysiology of dopamine loss” — it’s “who can drive Dad to his Thursday appointment,” “which assisted living community near us actually understands PD,” “is there a support group that meets somewhere I can park.” National organizations, by design, answer the first kind of question brilliantly and the second kind generically. A thirty-five-year-old local organization has spent three decades collecting exactly the second kind of answer.

That’s also why I’d encourage even well-resourced families to engage with PRO rather than just bookmark it. Every family that joins a group, uses the directory, or shows up to an event deepens the local knowledge pool the next family draws from. Local support is a commons — it stays rich because people keep putting into it.

Clip-and-save summary: Southern California’s own since 1990, founded by caregivers who built what they couldn’t find. Support groups (virtual included), the vetted Wellness Village provider directory, and a steady local calendar. Call (760) 773-5628 or toll-free (877) 775-4111, or email info@parkinsonsresource.org. The pick for every Parkinson’s household from LA to the desert.

Local roots, same fight

There’s a thing that happens in my classes when two members figure out they live ten minutes apart. The workout becomes a carpool, the carpool becomes coffee, and suddenly nobody’s fighting alone on a Tuesday. National organizations, for all their scale, can’t manufacture that. Local ones exist precisely to.

PRO has been building that kind of connection in Southern California since 1990. My gyms have been at it for a decade. Same fight, same neighborhood, different corners — and you’re welcome in both. Come take a free class anywhere in our LA and Ventura County locations, join our free monthly support group from wherever you are, and put PRO’s number in your phone next to ours.

Around here, nobody has to figure this out alone. That’s not a slogan. It’s a thirty-five-year-old promise some caregivers made in 1990 — and one we intend to keep with them.