As you’ve likely heard, El Futuro is excited to be moving to a 40 percent larger space in the Lakewood neighborhood in just under two weeks! In the wake of this excitement, we hosted a community work day on Saturday, April 28, dedicated to beautifying the green space outside our new clinic.
This work day was the beginning of our initiative to make the green space more vibrant and welcoming to our clients, made possible in part by a grant awarded from the During Giving Project, which you can read more about here. We will spearhead a continued effort to turn the area into a therapeutic garden for clients, staff, Lakewood community members, and our neighbors in the Lakewood Reuse Arts District. If you haven’t heard of this initiative by The Scrap Exchange, check it out! We’re super excited to integrate with this emerging effort, and to celebrate the rich cultural history of the neighborhood and our Latino neighbors there.
Almost 50 El Futuro friends and partners came to help on the Saturday of the green space kickoff work day, including staff, donors, board members, and new neighbors. We are grateful to Katherine Gill from Tributary Land Design + Buildand to Jeff Masten and Heidi Hannapel from LANDMATTERS for their expert design guidance and facilitation of the day. And, of course, we are grateful to our new neighbors, Leon and Arelli from Cocoa Cinnamon Lakewood for bringing churros and welcoming us to the area!
Spending a day beautifying our new space with our neighbors and friends truly elevates our excitement to transition to our new location. It is so vital in the treatment of mental illness to create an environment that lends itself to healing and creates opportunities to be a part of a community.
For many people, mental illness and the stigma associated with it creates a roadblock that prevents them from feeling valuable and like they are part of a community. Our new El Futuro clinic and therapeutic outdoor space gives us a greater opportunity to help more people feel like 
they belong, supporting familias to live out their dreams, like our mission says. We are so grateful to the many generous partners who are helping to make this healing space possible.
Alvely Alcántara, LCSW
Rossy C. Garcia, MEd 
Katy Sims, MD 
Everardo Aviles, LCSW, LCAS (Eve)
As a medical anthropologist and social work researcher, Dr. Gulbas’ research embodies interdisciplinarity through the integration of applied theories of health and human development with qualitative and ethnographic methodologies. Her work seeks to understand how people—children, families, and providers—navigate complex sociocultural landscapes in the pursuit of mental health. Most of her work, to date, focuses attention on developing more robust interpretations of suicide risk. With funding from the National Institutes of Mental Health, this body of research has contributed to advancements in theoretical and empirical knowledge of the broader contexts within which youth suicide risk is situated. 
R. Gabriela Barajas-Gonzalez is a developmental psychologist and an assistant professor of Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Dr. Barajas-Gonzalez is the principal investigator of a study that examines the impact of immigration-related threat and stress on school communities. She earned a PhD in developmental psychology from Columbia University and hold a BA in human biology from Stanford University. Dr. Barajas-Gonzalez is the daughter of Mexican immigrants and a first gen college student.
Dr. Parra-Cardona is an Associate Professor in the Steve Hicks School of Social Work (SHSSW) at the University of Texas at Austin. At the SHSSW, he serves as Coordinator for Mexico and Latin American initiatives. He also serves as Area Director for Research at the UT Austin Latino Research Institute. Dr. Parra-Cardona’s program of research is focused on the cultural adaptation of evidence-based parenting interventions for low-income Latinx populations in the US and Latin America.
Bianka Reese, PhD, MSPH is a research scientist and program evaluator specializing in adolescent and young adult sexual and reproductive health. Her previous research in the experiences of Latinx LGBTQ+ youth stems from her work as the Research and Evaluation Manager at SHIFT NC (Sexual Initiatives For Teens), where she led largescale evaluations of multilevel, community-based sexual health promotion initiatives and research projects aimed at elevating the voices of diverse youth in North Carolina. Dr. Reese is currently the Senior Research Strategist at Creative Research Solutions, LLC, an award-winning national evaluation, research, and assessment firm.
Tania Connaughton-Espino, MPH is an independent researcher focused on adolescent and young adult sexual and reproductive health. Her interest in the experiences of Latinx LGBTQ+ youth stems from her previous work with SHIFT NC (Sexual Initiatives For Teens), where she led the training and evaluation department, conducted capacity-building workshops for youth serving professionals including on the topic of how to be more affirming of LGBTQ youth, and from her extensive experience working with the Latinx population in NC.
Maru Gonzalez, EdD is an Assistant Professor and Youth Development Specialist in the Department of Agricultural and Human Sciences at North Carolina State University. Her areas of inquiry include youth development with a focus on activism, social justice, and the experiences of LGBTQ+ young people across familial, school, and community contexts. 
Nayeli Y. Chavez-Dueñas, PhD
Hector Y. Adames, PsyD