El Futuro is a nonprofit outpatient clinic that provides comprehensive mental health services for Latino families within a bilingual environment of healing and hope.
Nurturing stronger familias
to live out their
dreams
TOGETHER WE GROW
El Futuro provides direct services to clients, as well as training to help others provide more effective services.
Outpatient mental health services
We provide treatments that foster emotional health and wellbeing for the entire family. Clients can engage in individual or group therapy and access psychiatric and case management services.
Training and technical assistance
Our Latino Mental Health Provider Network (La Mesita) connects providers around North Carolina who serve the Latino community, helping decrease professional burnout and improve the quality of care for Latino families through the broader use of evidence-based practices.
Community and rural support
Because we believe accessibility is important, we provide school-based and telehealth services. Since we’re the leading bilingual clinic offering comprehensive treatment in NC, families from over 20 counties come for our services.
Research and evaluation
We actively engage in patient-centered research when it furthers our mission and helps the people we serve. We’re actively expanding our applied research, program evaluation, and dissemination activities. Our long-term goal is to develop into a national model and resource center for Latino mental health and substance use treatment services.
Hands Project
When she first came to El Futuro as an 8th grader, she was thinking about dropping out of school and couldn’t stop crying because of her sadness. She didn’t want to listen to her parents and bristled when anyone tried to give her advice. She found out about El Futuro when we made a presentation at her middle school. As a result of therapy and targeted treatment, she gradually became more hopeful and a lovely smile returned to her face. In 9th grade she made the soccer team. In 10th grade she celebrated her Quinceañera. In 11th grade she took her first AP class. In her senior year, after receiving a letter of acceptance from UNC Chapel Hill, she dashed off an email to El Futuro to share her exciting news: “Thank you for helping me and encouraging me!” Her note was signed, “A fresh new Tarheel to be.”
Awards
Mental Health Association in North Carolina Heroes in the Fight Award
North Carolina Latino Diamante Award
GuideStar 2018 Gold Seal of Transparency
AHEC Center of Excellence
North Carolina Nonprofit Stewardship Award
El Futuro is a United Way of the Greater Triangle Community Impact Partner
El Futuro is a United Way of Chatham County funded agency
La Mesita Latino Mental Health Provider Network
In our years of experience providing mental health and substance use services to Latino immigrant families, one thing has become clear to us — we need others in order to keep it up! We need community!
That’s why we’re building a network to connect people providing services to the Latino community. We call the network “La Mesita” to keep in focus that the network is like coming around a table to talk, share, and learn together.
Interested in joining? Read more here!
Impact
Clients
Treatments
Counties Served
%
Improved function in social and family roles
%
of clients were unaccompanied minors
%
clinical improvement or stabilization
%
of clients were victims of a crime
(in their home country, during migration, or in the U.S.)
*All numbers reflect data collected in FY2020
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