The Future is US (Communities of Care)

In 2019 the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health awarded the ACCEs to Assets Collaborative with the Communities of Care grant. This five-year grant funds The Future is US, formerly referred to as the Communities of Care Initiative. This project focuses on the social determinants of mental health to improve racial equity in education for Galveston students and promote resilience and well being for youth and families of color. ACCEs to Assets Collaborative member Family Service Center of Galveston County coordinates this initiative as the Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR) in partnership with other collaborative members.

This project is led and facilitated by a Youth Advisory Council, Parent Advisory Council, Assessment Team, Evaluation Team, Community Engagement Team, and Policy Task Force with ongoing technical assistance and support from the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health and the Prevention Institute. By engaging all sectors of our community, conditions that lead to inequity can be addressed through community, school, family, and individual change, creating a Galveston Community that embraces diversity and achieves equity in resilience, mental health, and well-being of children and youth of color.

The mission of The Future is US is “to fight for Galveston youth through community voice so future generations can meet their full potential.”

Learn more about this project here.

Simmons Foundation - Policies & Practices

In year one, our project set out to meet with parents and students to better understand underrepresented forms of trauma, including racism and discrimination. We undertook a rigorous literature review of national trauma-informed projects, with an eye towards how social equity could be augmented for existing healthy relationship programs in middle and high schools. Additionally, we co-developed a texting series with high school students that focuses on the benefits of diversity among friends as well as the difficulties that differences can pose for certain students. For example: If you have a friend in the gender transitioning process, text MORE for examples about how to support them in public places. All text messages were based on a rigorous literature review of social emotional learning (SEL) from a trauma-informed social equity lens.  

In year two, a racially and economically diverse group of parents will participate in monthly research sessions to ensure that community members develop, plan, and implement strategies to strengthen community models of care.  Additionally, an adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) survey that was adapted from the WHO’s ACEs-International Survey will be disseminated to 10% of the Galveston ISD parent population.