The Hogg Foundation for Mental Health and St. Luke’s Episcopal Health Charities together are funding four children’s mental health training programs for adults who work with children and youth in the Houston area but aren’t mental health professionals.
The Ima Hogg Community Education Grants will fund training for people who work with hundreds of children and youth of all ages, including those who live in Houston’s neediest neighborhoods. The training will enable participants to recognize the signs of mental illness in children, respond appropriately and help families locate services in the community.
The grants are in honor of Miss Ima Hogg, a beloved and influential Houston philanthropist who supported mental health, music and the arts, education and other causes in Houston and across Texas. In 1963 she directed the foundation to periodically fund children’s mental health training for adults in Houston and Harris County.
The recipients and their training programs:
Boys and Girls Country of Houston, Inc., a residential home for children ages 5 to 18, received a $12,671 grant from the Hogg Foundation to train the home’s staff on different kinds of mental illness and how to recognize them, psychotropic medications and how they affect children, and tools and strategies to help children achieve wellness and success. The home also will conduct sessions for its young residents on mental health and wellness.
Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston Houston will provide positive youth development training to 68 staff who work with children at St. Michael’s Home for Children, which has three locations to provide shelter for undocumented children who have been detained by federal immigration officials in Harris County. Thirty-five percent of the 347 children who lived at the center in 2010 had a diagnosed mental illness. The training funded by a $5,000 grant from the Hogg Foundation will help staff recognize the signs and understand the causes of mental illness in children.
NAMI Metropolitan Houston and NAMI West Houston will create a national demonstration project to train more than 300 school professionals and parents on how to work together to identify the warning signs of mental illness in children and adolescents, and where to seek treatment in the community. The “Parents and Teachers as Allies” children’s mental health training program has never been offered in the Houston area. The program is being funded with a $5,000 grant from St. Luke’s.
Texas Association for Infant Mental Health (TAIMH) will provide 24 hours of training in infant and child development and behavior to 60 child care workers in centers that primarily serve children of low-income families. TAIMH also will train 30 employees and biological and foster parents in Harris County’s Child Protective Services and Infant Toddler Court to contribute to their knowledge of babies’ developmental needs. TAIMH will provide the training with a $39,411 grant from the Hogg Foundation, while the Houston nonprofit Collaborative for Children will identify child care centers and make arrangements for the training classes.
The Hogg Foundation was created in 1940 by the children of former Texas Governor James S. Hogg, and is part of the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement at The University of Texas at Austin. The foundation advances recovery and wellness in Texas by funding mental health services, policy analysis, research and public education.
Through research-informed grantmaking to Texas nonprofits, St. Luke’s Episcopal Health Charities, a separate component of St. Luke’s Episcopal Health System, improves community health and reduces health disparities. The Center for Community-Based Research is dedicated to community-based participatory research practices that foster informed action, collaboration and empowerment for the medically underserved and other vulnerable populations.
