Our History
Via Hope traces its’ roots to the 2003 final report of the President’s New Freedom Commission Achieving the Promise, which called for fundamentally transforming the nation’s mental health system to a consumer, family, and youth-driven Recovery Model, a system in which recovery is the expected outcome for everyone with a mental health challenge.
In response, SAMHSA awarded Mental Health Transformation Grants to several states, including Texas, to begin developing the infrastructure needed to support a transformed, recovery-oriented mental health system. Via Hope is a key component of this new infrastructure. We provide training and consultation for people in recovery, their family members, youth, and mental health professionals to help make Texas’ mental health system become more focused on recovery and resilience.
Via Hope first created a training program for Certified Peer Specialists in 2010 and followed that with training for Certified Family Partners in 2011. In 2012, we launched the Recovery Institute, a set of programs designed to help provider organizations examine their culture and practice to become more recovery oriented, strengths-based, person-centered and focused on resilience. Via Hope continues to emphasize peer support services as a key element in recovery-oriented organizations and to promote the voice and influence of all individuals with lived experience of mental health recovery within the Texas Behavioral Health System.
When Via Hope started in February 2009 it was a program housed within an existing nonprofit organization. Later it was part of the Texas Institute for Excellence in Mental Health at The University of Texas at Austin. In 2014 a new nonprofit organization, Mental Health Resource of Texas, was created to be the permanent home for Via Hope. This nonprofit has operated as Via Hope since September 2014.
What is the meaning of the name Via Hope?
The word Via means “traveling through (a place) en route to a destination”. “Hope” is an important concept in recovery. Together, the words “Via Hope” symbolize the journey individuals take to recovery. The tree in the logo symbolizes, among other things, the continual cycle of renewal and rebirth.