In 2020, Dr. Leti Cavazos saw a need for more culturally sensitive services to diverse individuals and marginalized groups. Non-English speaking individuals, specifically Spanish speaking, lacked a place that understood them and could help them heal while exploring their generational and cultural traumas. There was a need for a place with ethnic perspectives around their mental health. Cannenta Center for Healing and Empowerment was established in 2021.
After realizing that a high percentage of our Spanish speaking clients were unable to afford our low costs of counseling, we set out to resolve that barrier. Founded in 2022, the goal of Cannenta Foundation is to help ensure mental health services are accessible and affordable in a manner that is inviting, understanding, and engaging. We provide counseling services in English, Spanish and sign-language.
We strive to offer more culturally sensitive services to diverse individuals and marginalized groups. Spanish-speaking individuals and marginalized groups lack a safe place where someone understands their needs and can help them heal while exploring their generational and cultural traumas along with ethnic perspectives around their mental health.
Our mission is to provide access to compassionate, culturally sensitive mental health care with improved outcomes by removing financial barriers and offering a comprehensive list of services to ensure exceptional care.
The Hispanic population is the fastest growing population in Texas. It is predicted that in the next few years, Hispanics will be the majority in Texas. As a result, there will continue to be a need for bilingual mental health services.
Studies have shown that older Hispanic adults and Hispanic youth are especially vulnerable to psychological stresses associated with immigration and acculturation, and Hispanics are more likely to report poor communication with their health provider. Several studies have found that bilingual patients are evaluated differently when interviewed in English as opposed to Spanish and that Hispanics are more frequently undertreated.
In addition, there is a lack of bilingual clinicians. According to an APA report, there are only 5.5% of psychologists who can provide mental health services in Spanish. As an organization, we’ve found that this remains true in other mental health fields such as counseling and social work. Social workers who are bilingual (with English as a second language) have a lower pass rate than their monolingual counterparts.
Our need is to provide funding for our two projects that push forward culturally sensitive and bilingual mental health care for our community.
Our Project Ayuda strives to help pay for culturally sensitive mental health services for those who need it. We believe that everyone should have access to evidence-based, culturally and linguistically sensitive mental health care.
Our Project Adelante strives to empower Hispanic mental health clinicians to complete requirements for clinical licensure in the state of Texas by removing financial barriers of supervision hours and testing. We seek to double the number of bilingual female clinicians that receive supervision and support for their clinical license.
Cannenta Center is passionate about providing services that are diverse and inclusive while ensuring equity in access to mental health services and uplifting minority providers.
Organization name
Cannenta Foundation Inc
Causes
Mental and Behavioral Health
Operating Budget
$100,000 - $249,999
Counties Served
Collin, Dallas, Denton, Tarrant
BIPOC Serving
Hispanic or Latinx
BIPOC Leadership
Board Chair
Equity Statement
Equity Statement
Address
15851 DALLAS PKWY STE 600