Houston-area Organizations Receive $10 Million in Grants for Transition-Age Youths and Their Families

The Hogg Foundation for Mental Health at The University of Texas at Austin has awarded eight grants totaling $10 million to service providers in the Houston/Harris County area. The four-year grants are the latest milestone in an ongoing initiative to identify and address the mental health needs of transition-age youths and their families. A transition-age youth is a person between the ages of 14 and 25, a time of life when many people experience mental health challenges. Transition-age youths are faced with making complex decisions as they transition from adolescence into young adulthood. This can involve renegotiating personal relationships, health care, education, employment, housing and personal finances at the same time that the support and services they received as adolescents are altered or phased out.

The Hogg Foundation is committed to enhancing a system of care in the Houston and Harris County area that not only addresses these transitional needs, but also provides opportunities for transition-age youths and their families to have a voice as equal partners at all levels of program planning, development and implementation.

The grantees are:

• Baylor College of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics ($1 million) To enhance the participation of transition-age youths and their families in individual, family and group therapy, and to educate pediatric and adult mental health providers on the unique needs of transition-age youths.
• Communities In Schools of Houston Inc. ($1.4 million) To support efforts to implement care coordination, peer support and related services to transition-age youths at select high schools and community college campuses.
• Disability Rights Texas ($890,000) To provide legal services and self-advocacy skills training for transition-age youths, and to develop a curriculum to assist youth and family members with accessing services and support.
• Easter Seals of Greater Houston Inc. ($1.6 million) To support a collaboration of organizations that will provide a menu of transition services for teens and young adults living with co-occurring mental health challenges and autism spectrum disorder.
• Family Services of Greater Houston ($1.3 million) To develop individual and family counseling and navigation services to support the emotional and behavioral health needs of transition-age youths.
• Harris County Protective Services for Children and Adults ($1.2 million) To support the Houston Alumni and Youth Center, a one-stop center where foster care and former foster care transition-age youths can make use of a wide range of transitional resources and services.
• Houston Department of Health and Human Services ($1 million) To develop a curriculum in partnership with youth to train and certify transition-age youths as Peer Wellness Specialists and integrated health mentors.
• Star of Hope Mission ($1.4 million) To support the development and delivery of supportive services to transition-age youths who are current or former residents of Star of Hope Mission’s homeless shelters and transitional and supportive living programs.

“We’re excited to see these eight organizations launch the next phase of the multiyear transition-age youth and families initiative,” said Dr. Octavio N. Martinez, Jr., executive director of the Hogg Foundation and vice president for diversity and community engagement at The University of Texas at Austin. “They have just gone through a collaborative and highly productive planning process, generating momentum that the new grant funds will only magnify.”

The Hogg Foundation advances recovery and wellness in Texas by funding mental health services, policy analysis, research and public education. The foundation was created in 1940 by the children of former Texas Gov. James S. Hogg and is part of the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement at The University of Texas at Austin.