The Hogg Foundation seeks to address a lack of understanding of how communities support resilience and mental health, the significant inequities that exist in Texas, the community conditions that contribute to mental health disparities, and how people come together to create and implement community-driven solutions.

Five organizations were awarded $410,000 each to create or build on an existing community collaborative. A sixth organization, Alliance for Greater Works, received grant funding to provide coordination for the initiative.

Background

Nationwide, there is growing momentum to address health disparities and inequities, and a number of philanthropic efforts to improve health outcomes in communities. With this project, we join these efforts by partnering with rural communities as they work with diverse and historically excluded groups, facilitate courageous conversations, and implement improvements to support resilience, mental health and well-being.

As our population evolves to be more ethnically diverse, efforts must be made to address mental health needs in ways that recognize and are sensitive to individual cultural experiences. This new initiative addresses a lack of understanding of how communities support mental health, the significant inequities that exist in Texas, the community conditions that contribute to mental health disparities, and how people come together to create and implement community-driven solutions.

People in Texas experience more mental health challenges as a result of differential exposure to community conditions that negatively influence health and well-being. These conditions, including social, environmental and economic factors, often stem from structural and historic differences in power and resources. This is exacerbated by information associating mental health and violence, and opportunities exist to address this stigma and misperception in community settings.

For the purposes of this project, the foundation defines rural as counties of 250,000 people or less, with a preference for smaller communities. Multiple counties may collaborate as long as each county in the collaboration has 250,000 people or less.

Questions: Contact Tammy Heinz, Program Officer and Consumer & Family Liaison, or Rick Ybarra, Program Officer