The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated mental health problems in the Latinx community, a community already facing mental health disparities pre-pandemic. Although culturally and linguistically aligned community-based mental health services are available to address Latinx mental health needs services far exceed the capacity to meet them. At El Futuro, we work to extend the capacity of the Community Health Workers (CHWs) to meet the growing mental health needs of the Latinx community in Durham and surrounding areas.
We are focusing on developing two methodologies to meet the need of the Latinx community better:
1. Increase access to mental health promotion services for Latinx families that are on the waiting list at El Futuro or are identified as distressed by community health workers currently engaged in COVID-19 work. For this, it is necessary to enhance the mental health competencies of community health workers.
2. Bridge the community health worker community and EL Futuro to better meet the mental health needs of the Latinx community.
We are forming partnerships that build a strong foundation for ongoing training and capacity-building of Community Health Workers to meet increased mental health needs in the Latinx and other immigrant communities in the wake of ongoing pandemic impacts.
Along with partners, we increased awareness of Community Health Workers as an essential component of Latinx community COVID response strategy.
We provided more than 38 hours of training to more than 426 Community Health Workers who serve more than 39 North Carolina counties. Community Health Workers were receptive and engaged; many requested ongoing training and support.
Upcoming activities include the training of one more agency in Cuidar La Mente Es Cuidar La Vida in Fall 2022. Additionally, we are finalizing MOUs with 3 agencies to devote CHW’s time to even deeper training in mental health using the Strong Minds, Strong Communities curriculum. Each agency has committed to using the skills from Cuidar La Mente Es Cuidar La Vida and the additional training to provide mental health support to members of the community who might otherwise wait for services.
We are currently tracking the development of new and strengthened community partnerships and how many Community Health Workers we are training. Now that we have trained a significant number of CHWs, we (and our partners) will also begin tracking how many families and individuals the CHWs have served since the training. To support our goal of reducing El Futuro’s waiting list, each agency has committed to taking at least 5 referrals from the El Futuro waiting list. Every quarter, each agency will report how many clients the CHWs served and which tools were used.
We will also measure the number of people on El Futuro’s waitlist. It has decreased from consistently 75 – 100 people throughout the year, to 4 people, representing a significant increase in access to services.
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