Job Announcement
AmeriCorps Advancing Latine Mental Health Access Program Specialist
El Futuro is North Carolina’s leading provider of bilingual and culturally-responsive mental health services for the Latine community. Our mission is to nurture stronger familias to live out their dreams. We are based in Durham NC, a vibrant, diverse city and part of NC’s Research Triangle region.
The AmeriCorps VISTA Volunteer Advancing Latine Mental Health Access (ALMA) Program Specialist will build the capacity of El Futuro’s ALMA program by developing and growing training and technical assistance programs aimed at improving access to mental health care for Latino communities across NC.
They will support El Futuro’s ALMA program by creating tools, resources, and outputs that advance program goals.
Activities include but are not limited to:
Create training materials, including videos, for building up best practices for working with Latino populations, Latine mental wellbeing trainings, and Plácticas Prácticas
Develop and refine communications and outreach materials for partner agencies and lead recruitment efforts
Obtain participants’ and/or prospects input by administering surveys or assessments to support continuous quality improvement and research
Support enrolling and facilitating training or consultation sessions
Create social media posts about Latine mental health
Develop a Sustainability Plan
Investigate, coordinate response to, and analyze El Futuro in the Community requests
Identify Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) & Emerging HSIs with BSW programs for outreach to increase the pipeline of Latino mental health clinicians.
Potentially co-design other projects in response to emergent needs
Evaluation development for new TECS initiatives
In addition, the AmeriCorps VISTA ALMA Program Specialist will:
Create and maintain positive relationships with all partner organizations and community stakeholders.
Collaborate with El Futuro staff to expand the deposits to the presentation bank
Help to gather information from Technical Assistance partners across the state to report on the most pressing mental health needs of Latino community members around North Carolina.
Participate actively in regularly scheduled individual and team meetings.
Support data collection and tracking
Participate actively in All Staff Meetings.
Engage in learning opportunities through “La Mesita”, El Futuro’s training platform and network of bilingual providers in North Carolina.
Qualifications:
Experience with community/non-profit mental health/health organizations and demonstrated experience working with or awareness of the context of traditionally under-resourced communities, preferably the Latino community
Required: Must be able to document professional reports, program outcomes in English.
Strongly preferred: Spanish language proficiency
Demonstrated enthusiasm and ability to build effective relationships with internal and external staff at all levels
Excellent communication skills
Strong organizational and time-management skills, including the ability to self-monitor
Flexibility, creativity and a spirit of collaboration to address developing programmatic needs
Computer skills with ability to use Google suite products, cloud-based file management software (e.g., Box.com), online data collection (e.g. Monday) and web conferencing skills (e.g. Zoom)
This position is a full-time, year-long volunteer service opportunity with AmeriCorps VISTA.
The AmeriCorps VISTA program offers the following benefits:
• Living allowance (currently $22,882 per year)
• Choice of education award (currently $6,895) or end-of-service stipend (currently $1,800) upon successful completion of service
• Childcare assistance if eligible
• Health coverage
• Relocation allowance
• Training
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