The operational case
What partnership can look like
Partnership takes many forms. Any one of these moves this forward:
Data sharing
Help us build the case with real, local numbers — calls for service, transports, boarding times, referrals — that prove the need.
Referral pathways
Design how your agency would refer people to the Center, and how the Center would refer back to you.
Letters of support
A signed letter from your institution carries real weight in a grant application. We can provide a template.
Co-applicant on grants
Partner with us as a co-applicant on state and federal behavioral-health funding.
Fiscal sponsorship
Support the Center's early operations before it has its own 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status.
In-kind & facility support
Space, services, equipment, or expertise — contributions that don't require a check to matter.
Where this stands
Building the Coalition
This Center is being built with the community, not for it. Here is where that work stands today — openly, and in motion.
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County Government
The Starr County Commissioners' Court approved a Resolution in Support of the initiative on July 27, 2026. The resolution is a statement of support — it commits no county funding.
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Law Enforcement
Active engagement with the Sheriff's Office on crisis response and diversion.
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Hospital District
The Center has been formally presented to the Hospital District Board.
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Behavioral Health Authority
Coordination underway with the regional Local Mental Health Authority.
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Juvenile & Adult Justice
Engagement underway with juvenile probation, adult community supervision, and the District Attorney's office.
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Schools
Conversations underway with area independent school districts.
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State & Federal
Outreach underway to state and federal representatives, including on the authority state law already provides for local behavioral health capacity. No commitment has been made or sought from any office.
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Governance
Founding Board of Directors being seated; Texas nonprofit formation filed.
No institution is listed as a partner, endorser, or funder here unless it has confirmed that role in writing. We describe this work by sector, not by name — because we name an organization only after it tells us, in writing, that it's ready to be named.
The legal groundwork
The authority for this already exists in state law.
A local crisis center does not need a new law to be possible in Starr County. The Legislature already built the mechanism. It has simply never been used for behavioral health here.
A nonprofit the District may sponsor
Section 1076.113 provides that the Hospital District “may create and sponsor a nonprofit corporation” and “may contribute money to or solicit money for the corporation,” which may in turn “enter into a joint venture with any public or private entity” to provide services the District is authorized to provide.
Care defined broadly
Section 1076.111 authorizes the District to operate or provide for emergency medical services, home health, long-term and skilled nursing, hospice — and, in subsection (3), “any other reasonable or appropriate medical care or medical service.”
A permanent funding mechanism
Subchapter E authorizes revenue bonds and bonds payable from a combination of taxes and revenues. Section 1076.252 caps the District's ad valorem tax at 75 cents per $100 of valuation — a ceiling set by statute and approved by the voters.
Why we are pointing at a statute instead of a grant
Starr County's hospital was not built on a grant. It exists because the Legislature authorized a permanent local mechanism and the voters approved it. Grants start programs; they rarely sustain them. A structure that is already written into state law is a different kind of foundation — and it is worth finding out, in public, whether it fits.
To be precise about what this section is and isn't: it describes what state law permits. It is not a statement that the Hospital District, its board, or any public official has agreed to any of it, and nothing here commits any public body to anything. Those are conversations to be had openly, on the record, with the people the law puts in charge of that decision.
Read the statute yourself
We would rather you check us than take our word for it. Chapter 1076 of the Texas Special District Local Laws Code is the Starr County Hospital District's enabling act. It is public, it is short, and the sections above are quoted from it.
The PDF is an unofficial reprint we host so the link never breaks, retrieved August 3, 2026. The official text is the one published by the State of Texas; where the two differ, the state's text governs. Nothing on this page is legal advice.
Institutional endorsement
Add your institution's voice
Institutions don't fill out petition forms. If your organization is ready to formally support the Center, we'd be honored to work with you directly. You can submit a letter of support, request a template, or simply start a conversation.
One signed letter from a school district, hospital, or agency is worth more in a grant application than a thousand individual signatures. We track institutional endorsements separately from individual supporters, and carefully.
To submit a formal letter of support, email it to . Secure file upload will be enabled here shortly. Want a template? Check the box in the form and we'll send one.