The overall mission of the Healthy Communities of Brownsville is “to develop and foster programs that promote social and political change through education, leadership and community action.” The Education Trendbender was created to focus on the educational aspect of our mission. The Education TB works collaboratively with like-minded entities, Environmental and Health TB, to accomplish our mission of education of Healthy Communities of Brownsville

The HCB has launched the Past Projects:

Implemented the MENTOR BROWNSVILLE program based on the "40 Assets" philosophy and the PASARLA BIEN Wraparound program. MENTOR BROWNSVILLE program matches at-risk students with caring, reliable adult volunteers from the community. The purpose of the program is to provide a path to college for Brownsville students by providing them with postive role models and with the information they need to reach their educational potential. This program was headed by Teresa del Castillo and Robin Brechot.

PASARLA BIEN program at a local middle school with plans to expand into an elementary school. The program combines teacher training on Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) with mental health services for students with identified behavior and emotional problems. The program serves as a filter that allows the mentally healthy students to go about the business of learning and growing, while the youth in need of extra services are directed to those services. Students with behavior and emotional problems are provided with “wrap-around” services to address parent functioning, youth functioning, and educational intervention.

YOUTH EMPOWERMENT PROGRAM (YEP)- The Healthy Communities of Brownsville, (HCB) Mentoring program is one of several activities provided under the UTB/TSC Youth Empowerment Program (YEP) grant. Each HCB mentoring session was held monthly for two hours at the Lopez High School. Speakers were invited to speak on each of the chosen topics. The program’s aim was to recruit 40 students. The program had approximately 20 students beginning in February when the HCB mentoring kick off session was held and had approximately 31 students recruited as of May 1st. At the end of the third year, 28 students who had committed to this program finished the program and continued to college. The parents, students and community all benefited from this successful program.