Houston –Located towards the northside of Houston off Beltway 8 and JFK Blvd, you will find A Brighter Day Therapeutic Services, which is a top-of-the-line clinic that provides high quality therapeutic and behavioral health services to children and adults around the inner city. They mainly serve the underserved Black and Hispanic/Latino communities, but all are welcome to the arms of A Brighter Day and the programs they offer. Just like the saying “no child left behind,” their motto is, “mental health is the best health.” One of their main programs consist of opportunities for training kids in home and in school that are diagnosed with a mental health disorder.
A Brighter Day has come a long way since its original launch back in 2016, but the work is still far from being done. Director of Outreach, Mr. Brown, has been a long-time member with the company and reflected on his first day starting out. Mr. Brown went on to say, “We got our first contract with Blackshear Elementary in 2017, a school that was on the verge of being shut down by the state.” He carried so much weight on his shoulder during that time. Mr. Brown did not hesitate to help as he did it all. He found himself doing the cafeteria and behavioral duties, and after school tutorials with students. Luckily, the principal of Blackshear opened the doors to A Brighter Day, and with the services provided at that time, the school was able to stay open and has remained open to this day.
Another standout member of a brighter along-side with Mr. Brown is Yared Salazar Lopez, Director of Clinical Services. A Latino minority herself, her job title stretches out much further just before the real work of caring for kids jogs the track. She helps sign off on specific cases such as skills training, therapy, medication training support, medication management, and case management. Mrs. Lopez went on to say, “There are different stages of change, and every child we’ve encountered sometimes are at different points of it; wherever they are, we want to meet them and be a part of that change.” Another thing that makes A Brighter Day even special is that they have their own psychiatrist on site that works with parents directly, to ensure the cohesiveness is intact at home between the parent and child. All of this is made possible through the hard work and passion from case managers who Mrs. Lopez works closely with.
Now being in the industry for seven years, A Brighter Day Therapeutic Services has done over a dozen partnerships around the Houston area. They’ve partnered with the City of Houston, Houston ISD, non-profit organizations, and Aldine ISD as well. They’ve also worked with the Harris County Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Resources. Having already reached tremendous milestones so far and touching so many lives of parents and kids every day, A Brighter Day’s story is far from being over. In fact, their organization plans on expanding all over Houston in the near future. Their amazing services will help make that future come true by helping families in the Black/Latino communities each day.
A Special thanks for everyone that are members of this beautiful organization. Another special thanks to:
Jason Ford, Owner
Lance Taylor, Owner
Dr. Eryca Neville, Education Consultant
Mrs. Kierra Montague, Operations Director
Yared Salazar Lopez, Director of Clinical Services
Daren K Brown, Director of Community Engagement
Dr. Dawn Brown, Health Advocate and Psychiatrist.
These are the people that manage the day-to-day operations of the agency. Thank you all so much for making A Brighter Day come to fruition.
