A Fort Worth nonprofit is beginning work on a new building its leaders say will offer critical resources to students struggling with mental health challenges, food insecurity and other issues.
Communities in Schools of Greater Tarrant County partners with 12 school districts in the Fort Worth area to provide mental health counseling for students. The organization is building a new headquarters on Hawks Creek Avenue in Westworth Village, just east of Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth.
The nonprofit expects to open the new headquarters in the fall of 2025. Once it’s complete, the new building will include a mental health counseling center, a fresh food pantry, a clothing and school supply pantry and training space for social workers.
Communities in Schools works with school districts to place social workers on campuses across the Fort Worth area to provide mental health support and case management to students who might not have access to those services otherwise. Lindsey Garner, the nonprofit’s CEO, said the counseling center at the new headquarters will allow the organization to build on the services it already offers.
On-campus mental health services have been an effective way of reaching thousands of students, Garner said, and the organization will continue to offer those services. But there are cases in which a student needs to meet with a counselor off campus, in a group session with a parent or sibling. The new center will give the nonprofit’s counselors the ability to see students in the setting that works best for them, she said.
In the meantime, the organization’s counselors are holding off-campus visits with students and their families at a temporary office in Fort Worth’s Como neighborhood. Counselors can offer up to 75 sessions per week at the temporary location.
Student mental health needs grew during COVID
Since the pandemic, public health officials have raised alarms about a growing number of students suffering from mental health issues , including an increasing number who say they’re having suicidal thoughts. In 2021, 42% of students across the country reported feeling persistently sad or hopeless, and one in 10 attempted suicide, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Rose Mary Neshyba, superintendent of the Lake Worth Independent School District, said Communities in Schools has been a valuable resource for students in the district for years. Their services were especially crucial during the pandemic, she said.
When schools across the state closed their doors and shifted instruction online, district leaders began to see how dependent some families were on their kids’ schools for counseling services, food and other needs, Neshyba said. In the early days as details of the public health emergency changed almost minute by minute, district leaders knew they weren’t meeting their families’ needs, she said. The fact that the district could call on Communities in Schools to help reach out to families helped ease that burden, she said.
Neshyba said she expects the new facility will be an even bigger resource for the district’s students. The building will be close enough to Lake Worth ISD that she expects the district will be able to connect with its services immediately.
“As soon as they’re open, we’ve already got a list of families for them,” she said.
On-campus centers offer help when students feel overwhelmed
Leilani Laderos, a student at Lake Worth High School, said she started going to Communities in Schools’ center at her school when she was in seventh grade. At the time, she felt cut off from the world because she was too shy to talk to anyone, she said. But after working with counselors there, she had an easier time opening up to friends. The center offers a safe place for her to go when she’s feeling overstimulated or just needs someone to talk to, she said.
Heidi Sarabia, a student at Fossil Ridge High School in the Keller Independent School District , joined the Communities in Schools program at her school recently. Sarabia has moved from one school to another several times, and each time she’s had a hard time adapting and finding anyone to talk to, she said. But when someone at Fossil Ridge told her about the center, she decided to give it a try. She quickly discovered it’s a safe place to go when she’s feeling overwhelmed, she said.
“I wish I would have found out about them a lot sooner, because it’s a great place to go to,” she said.
If you are having suicidal thoughts or know someone who is, call or text 988 to talk with someone who can help.
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