The plan
We are not promising a finished hospital tomorrow. We are building the capacity Starr County needs step by step — and telling you exactly what each phase delivers, and what it still depends on.
Everything is bilingual (English and Spanish) by design, from the first day. A person in crisis should be met in the language they think in.
Phase 1 · Year 1
We start with what can serve people soonest: outpatient behavioral health care and the foundation of crisis services, built alongside partnerships with local schools so young people can be reached early, close to home.
Phase 2 · Year 2
Next, we add 23-hour crisis observation — a place where a person in acute crisis can be safely observed and stabilized locally, instead of being transported out of the county.
Phase 3 · Year 3
Then we build residential crisis stabilization: 18 to 26 beds for people who need more than a day of care. The long-term goal is 24/7 capacity — a door in Starr County that never closes.
How it gets funded
The Center's funding strategy combines state and federal grant programs aimed at rural behavioral health, philanthropic support, and partnerships with local institutions. That work is underway.
Nothing here is secured yet.
We will not publish specific grant amounts or claim awards we have not received. When funding is secured, it will be reported here — with the same discipline we apply to everything else on this site.
SAMHSA's Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) pathway is the national model for exactly this crisis-center role, alongside HRSA rural-health and rural opioid-response programs. Nonprofits are eligible; deadlines and eligibility are verified each cycle.
Texas HHSC administers community mental health, crisis, and 988 build-out funding, plus the state CCBHC program. Early on, our realistic path is as a partner or subrecipient with Border Region — the Local Mental Health Authority for Starr County.
USDA Rural Development's Community Facilities program explicitly funds behavioral-health facilities in rural communities like Rio Grande City — a loan-and-grant blend we are exploring for the physical center.
Texas-focused funders such as the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, alongside other health-equity foundations, support community and rural behavioral-health work. Several are invitation- or letter-of-interest based.
The hospital, county, schools, courts, and the regional mental health authority are partners in both the data and the delivery. A local coalition strengthens every application we submit.
Endorsements and gifts from neighbors prove local demand — which is exactly what funders and partners look for. This is where you come in.
These are researched avenues, not commitments. Program names, deadlines, and amounts change every cycle; we verify each on the funder's own site before pursuing it, and we never present a program maximum as money we have.
Help build it
See why Starr County needs this, then add your name — local demand is what turns a plan into a place.