Immigrant Mental Health Solidarity Network (IMHSN)
Building a Stronger Mental Health System for Immigrant Communities in North Carolina
From 2023 to 2026, El Futuro led the Immigrant Mental Health Solidarity Network (IMHSN), a statewide collaborative created to strengthen North Carolina’s capacity to support the mental health and well-being of immigrant communities.
Launched with support from the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation, the Network brought together community organizations, healthcare providers, educators, researchers, advocates, policymakers, and individuals with lived experience to build stronger partnerships, elevate community voices, and advance culturally responsive mental health systems across the state.
Today, the IMHSN continues under the leadership of NC Counts Coalition, ensuring that this important work will continue to grow and strengthen immigrant communities across North Carolina.
Why the Network Was Created
North Carolina’s immigrant communities continue to grow and enrich our state, yet many families face significant barriers to accessing mental health care. Community members experience ongoing stress related to language barriers, discrimination, family separation, immigration-related uncertainty, limited access to culturally responsive services, and the lasting effects of trauma. At the same time, organizations across the state often work with limited resources while navigating increasingly complex community needs.
Recognizing that no single organization could address these challenges alone, El Futuro convened the Immigrant Mental Health Solidarity Network to create a statewide space for collaboration, learning, and collective action. Together, Network members worked to strengthen relationships, build shared understanding, and develop solutions that reflect the strengths, resilience, and lived experiences of immigrant communities.
Our Impact
Over three years, the IMHSN grew into a statewide infrastructure for collaboration and systems change. Together, Network members achieved:
- 50+ organizations participating across North Carolina
- 58 of North Carolina’s 100 counties represented
- 175 participants** attending two statewide Immigrant Mental Health Convenings
- Publication of North Carolina’s first Immigrant Mental Health Landscape Analysis
- Development of two statewide policy recommendations focused on linguistic access and sustainable funding for community mental health programs
- Dissemination of Landscape Analysis findings in 14 languages
- Quarterly meetings, trainings, and healing-centered gatherings that strengthened collaboration across sectors
What We Built Together
Statewide Collaboration
The Network created trusted spaces where organizations from across North Carolina could learn from one another, share promising practices, strengthen partnerships, and coordinate efforts to improve immigrant mental health.
Through quarterly meetings, statewide convenings, workshops, and trainings, participants explored topics including immigrant mental health, Medicaid eligibility, language access, coalition building, grant writing, and community-based care models.
Healing-centered practices were intentionally integrated throughout the Network’s activities, creating space for connection, reflection, and resilience during a period marked by heightened fear and uncertainty in immigrant communities.
The Landscape Analysis
One of the Network’s most significant accomplishments was developing the Immigrant Mental Health in North Carolina Landscape Analysis in partnership with the North Carolina Institute of Medicine (NCIOM). The report established the state’s first shared evidence base describing immigrant mental health needs, strengths, barriers, and opportunities. It has become an important resource for community organizations, funders, policymakers, and healthcare leaders working to improve mental health access across North Carolina.
To ensure broad accessibility, the Landscape Analysis summary was translated into 14 languages commonly spoken throughout the state.
Policy and Systems Change
Building on the findings of the Landscape Analysis, the Network convened statewide policy workgroups to identify practical recommendations that can improve access to culturally responsive mental health care. Together, participants developed policy recommendations focused on:
* Expanding North Carolina’s bilingual behavioral health workforce
* Improving language access within behavioral health services
* Strengthening sustainable funding for community-based mental health programs
* Supporting Community Health Workers
* Building collaborative partnerships across philanthropy, healthcare, and government
These recommendations continue to inform conversations among government agencies, managed care organizations, funders, healthcare providers, and community organizations across the state.
Community Leadership
From the beginning, the IMHSN was guided by the belief that immigrant communities should help shape the systems designed to serve them. Community leaders, providers, researchers, advocates, and individuals with lived experience contributed to every stage of the Network’s work—from governance and research to policy development and statewide convenings.
The Network prioritized transparency, multilingual engagement, and culturally responsive practices to ensure that diverse immigrant communities across North Carolina were represented and heard.
The Future of IMHSN
As the Network matured, members worked together to identify the best long-term home for this statewide initiative.
Following a collaborative and transparent selection process, NC Counts Coalition was selected to become the Network’s new anchor organization. With extensive experience coordinating statewide coalitions and engaging diverse immigrant communities, NC Counts Coalition is well positioned to expand the Network’s reach while continuing to advance immigrant mental health, policy, and systems change.
El Futuro is proud to have launched and stewarded the Immigrant Mental Health Solidarity Network during its foundational years and remains committed to supporting its continued success.
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