Posts By: Sondra Lehmann

The devastation of Hurricane Harvey was hard to deny in the immediate aftermath of the storm – pictures and videos showed startling images of businesses destroyed and survivors fleeing their damaged homes. Now, just a little over a year after the hurricane hit, the visuals may not be as striking but the impacts are still… Read more »

The new Statewide Workgroup on Youth Homelessness kicked off its first meeting on October 4, providing a space for state agencies, statewide organizations, and local entities to collaborate on efforts to strengthen services and supports for Texas’ homeless youth. Although the Texas Interagency Council for the Homeless addresses the issue of homelessness broadly, there has… Read more »

For more than 30 years, TNOYS has hosted PEAKS Camp – a therapeutic, experiential camp for youth in foster care. PEAKS is one of TNOYS’ longest-running and most successful programs, during which licensed professionals regularly take paid time off to volunteer with and enrich the lives of the youth who attend. The week-long camp experience helps… Read more »

Research shows that when youth have a voice in decisions that impact their lives, it contributes to their own future success and strengthens the systems that serve them — particularly in the case of those who are recovering from trauma. But for service providers, finding ways to authentically engage youth isn’t always easy. Guided by… Read more »

Last month, TNOYS hosted a meeting of its Emergency Shelter Task Force, with organizations from across Texas traveling to Fort Worth to hear important updates that affect their work. We’re grateful to Superior Health Plan for helping to sponsor the meeting and sharing information about their work with attendees, and to ACH Child and Family… Read more »

By Dr. Katherine Byers, TNOYS Director of Child Welfare Policy The absence of community based mental health care results in those who need treatment ending up instead in hospitals, on the streets, and in the foster care and juvenile justice systems. To help address this problem, Texas applied for and received the Youth Empowerment Services… Read more »

THRU Project, TNOYS’ newest member organization, was created after CEO Elaine Andries Hartle saw personally the lack of mentorship available to youth aging out of foster care to help them navigate the realities of adult life. “In my efforts to help my own teenage foster sons I learned about the resources available to them and… Read more »

In early September, TNOYS kicked off the first in-person meeting of our new Young Adult Leadership Council (YALC), the latest in our efforts to elevate youth voice in our work and within the organizations in our network. The initial membership of the YALC includes eight youth and young adults from TNOYS member organizations, who traveled… Read more »

For several years, TNOYS has heard from our members and others that there simply are not enough opportunities for high-level leadership training and professional development in the nonprofit sector. In an effort to meet that need, TNOYS partnered with the RGK Center and St. David’s Church to host the first-ever Leading Through Change conference last week… Read more »

We know that there is a lot of room for improvement when it comes to preparing foster youth in Texas for the transition to adulthood – youth who have aged out of the system disproportionately suffer from homelessness, unemployment, criminal involvement, and many other challenges. SB 1758, passed during the 2017 Texas Legislative Session, is… Read more »