In early 2024, we launched the Communities of Care Policy Exchange to support Houston-region community leaders working at the intersection of youth mental health, education, and equity. The exchange creates space for collaborative learning, mutual support, and collective action—bringing together community members to strengthen policy advocacy rooted in lived experience.

Through the exchange, participants identified education equity as a shared priority, recognizing the critical role schools play in shaping mental health outcomes for young people—particularly Black, Latine, and AAPI students in the Houston region. Our collective efforts focus on advancing safe and supportive school environments by prioritizing:

• Access to appropriate mental health care in schools
• Reducing exclusionary discipline practices and technology-based surveillance
• Resisting curriculum censorship and book bans

Examples of our work include:

• Testifying in Austin during the Texas Senate Health and Human Services Committee’s 2024 Interim Hearing on Children’s Mental Health
• Tracking legislation across our three focus areas and activating community members to submit written testimony and contact elected decision-makers
• Co-organizing, planning, and sponsoring the 2025 Texas State Capitol Advocacy Day with Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT), which brought together approximately 300 participants—about 80 of whom were students, along with collaborative leaders and adult partners from Communities of Care collaboratives (Asian Americans Attaining Awareness, East End Communities, Reaching Richmond Community Collaborative, and The Future is US – Galveston) and partners at the UTHealth Action Lab