For this episode, we offer a look back at Young Minds Matter 2023! We drop in on some of the attendees, as well as our featured guest, Brandie Meister, youth advocate, published author, and vice president of Real Queens Fix Each Other's Crown, an Austin-based organization devoted to improving the mental health of women and girls. it is also the debut of our first guest host, Nakia Sims, a member of the Hogg Foundation Contributors Circle!

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The theme of our 2023 Young Minds Matter conference is Transforming Our Communities Collectively. With a focus on collaborating with children, youth, and families as decision-makers and leaders in community transformation, it promises to be an energizing opportunity to learn about and from young change-makers.

On our most recent podcast we visited with two such young people, Erika Ngo and Alexander Lopez of the Gulfton community in Houston. They joined us to discuss the essential work of empowering youth to engage in civic discourse and their participation in the upcoming conference.

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This episode is dropping on World Mental Health Day, October 10. World Mental Health Day 2023 is an opportunity for people and communities to unite behind the theme ‘Mental health is a universal human right.” From its inception the Hogg Foundation has been working to raise awareness and drive transformative actions that promote and protect mental health as a universal human right.

But what does it mean to see mental health as a basic human right? What specific obligations come with that? Joining us today to discuss this question is Anna Gray and Janet Paleo, both with Prosumers International, a grantee partner of the Hogg Foundation. At different times they have been on the board of the World Federation for Mental Health, a driving force behind World Mental Health Day.

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U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, issued a public advisory earlier this year titled, the Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation in the U.S. To quote: “Our epidemic of loneliness and isolation has been an underappreciated public health crisis that has harmed individual and societal health. Our relationships are a source of healing and well-being hiding in plain sight – one that can help us live healthier, more fulfilled, and more productive lives."

How big a problem is loneliness, and what can be done to addess the problem? Here to provide some answers is Jacki Hecht, managing director of the Center for Health Equity Research at the School of Nursing at The University of Texas at Austin and head of the AMEN Program.

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Kids in 2023 are going back to school at a particularly fraught moment for schools, teachers and parents in Texas.  What do kids need this school year in order to thrive? What kind of support do parents and teachers need? Joining us for this conversation are Maria Arrabo of the Amala Foundation, a grantee partner of the Hogg Foundation. And Sharon Vigil, executive director of Communities in Schools of Central Texas.

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Back to School in 2023: Overcoming Fear, Stress, and Anxiety

School-Based Crisis Group Intervention

What does it mean to do public policy work in a state with as challenging a policy environment as Texas? And for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities, what particular challenges confront them in the mental health policy space? And for younger people, who are just learning, just finding their footing, just finding their identity, how is more challenging still?

For this second podcast of Minority Mental Health Awareness Month we are talking to Lily Trieu, interim director of  Asian Texans for Justice (ATJ), a statewide nonprofit serving the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community in Texas, connecting them to civic action to build personal and political power.

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DAWA, standing for Diversity, Awareness and Wellness in Action, is an Austin-based organization that honors, celebrates, and empowers the essential work of community frontliners and creatives of color through direct financial support, and culturally relevant health-centered programming. In the process they are modeling a form of social entrepreneurship that shows how small organizations can make a big difference, in ways even a major philanthropy like the Hogg Foundation can learn from. Their founder and director, Chaka Mahone, is in our studio today to tell us all about it.

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Hogg Foundation Co-signs Statement in Response to Supreme Court’s Affirmative Action Decision https://ow.ly/JNoi50P7OB7

APA Speaks Out Against Supreme Court Ruling on Affirmative Action in Higher Education https://alert.psychnews.org/2023/06/apa-speaks-out-against-supreme-court.html

Minority Mental Health Awareness Month https://hogg.utexas.edu/minority-mental-health

Episode 69: Mental Health and the Musician's Life https://hogg.utexas.edu/podcast-musician-mental-health