Every year 7,000 Americorps members prepare for a life of service as they serve in the VISTA program to support an organization to make sustainable change for members of the community. This year 3 of them will be at El Futuro to expand our capacity to support Latine mental health in Durham and across NC!
WHAT WILL THEY DO?
The Mental Health Communications Specialist volunteer will build up El Futuro’s Latino Adolescents and Young Adults Mental Health Program by developing and implementing a mental health communications and outreach program that engages Latino adolescents, young adults, and the broader community.
The Latino Community Engagement Programs Specialist volunteer will promote community partnerships, education, and awareness around Mental Health for immigrant Latino individuals and families in Durham, NC.
And The Advancing Latine Mental Health Access (ALMA) Program Specialist volunteer will develop new tools and resources for El Futuro’s technical assistance program to enhance access to mental health care for Latino communities across NC.
WHAT DO WE NEED?
These volunteers receive a living allowance ($22,882), monies toward their education ($6,895), and health care coverage. Unfortunately, because of the cost of housing in Durham, the applicants we’ve had so far can’t afford to take the positions. We’ve learned that other sites provide housing or supplement the cost of housing—if we are going to fill our positions, we need to help with housing.
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
If you or an academic you know are going to be out of the area for a semester and were concerned about leaving your home vacant, you could support our work by opening your home to our VISTA volunteers. Your home would be secure and you would help El Futuro secure VISTA candidates.
Not going away but you have a spare room, a mother-in-law suite or an ADU where one of our VISTA volunteers could stay at no or minimal cost? We could repost the El Futuro positions as including not just the living allowance and educational monies, but also free/affordable housing. We are confident that without the high cost of housing barrier, we can find candidates to serve in all 3 Vista roles.
Thank you for making space for El Futuro and Latine mental health.
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