LEAP Lab

Community and Research Partners

The LEAP Lab has several important relationships with community organizations committed to mental healthcare access for children and families. In addition, the LEAP Lab collaborates with other researchers and research labs at the University of Texas at Austin and beyond. Below are some community partners with which the LEAP Lab is privileged to work with:

  • Integral Care is the Local Mental Health and Intellectual and Developmental Disability Authority for Travis County. They provide individuals with high quality mental health care, collaborate with community partners to strengthen programs and systems, and work to raise awareness of mental health issues in the greater Austin community. The LEAP Lab partners with Integral Care for an NIMH-funded project titled, Testing FIRST in Youth Outpatient Psychotherapy.
  • We partner with Corpus Christi Independent School District (CCISD), as part of the “Thriving Together: Corpus Christi” team in a research study to engage and support communities, parents, and early childhood teachers to strengthen children’s learning, behavior and health.
  • United Way is a non-profit organization committed to improving education, financial stability and health in the United States and throughout the world.
  • Child Inc provides early childhood education in the Austin area with a focus on delivering research-based curricula and high quality practices to the children and families whom they serve. The LEAP Lab partners with United Way and Child Inc to provide Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation services and classroom management training to Head Start centers in Austin.
  • The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is a nationwide organization that advocates for people with mental illnesses and their families. The LEAP Lab partners with NAMI to evaluate their NAMI Basics intervention aimed at empowering family members of people with mental illnesses.
  • Seton McCarthy Community Health Center, Children’s Wellness Clinic, CommUnity Care East Austin, and People’s Community Clinic are all community health centers offering primary care services to children and families. They partner with the LEAP lab on our Positive Parenting in Primary Care project. 

Here are some of the LEAP Lab’s research collaborators:

  • The LEAP Lab partners with Dr. John R. Weisz and his Lab for Youth Mental Health at Harvard University for the study “Testing FIRST in Youth Outpatient Psychotherapy.”
  • The LEAP Lab partners with Dr. Esther Calzada as part of the “Thriving Together: Corpus Christi” study.
  • The LEAP Lab partners with Dr. Kaya de Barbaro’s Daily Activities Lab as part of a study to detect parent-child interactions with wearable sensors. Dr. Barbaro’s lab uses sensors to examine interactions between infants and their parents in order to examine social-emotional development and develop interventions address risk.
  • Bridging Barriers is part of the Grand Challenges at the University of Texas. These are interdisciplinary research initiatives are aimed at identifying and addressing social, environmental and humanitarian crises that affect our community. Dr. Bearman is a member of the Organizing Committee for Whole Communities -Whole Health, a part of Bridging Barriers.

Please see our Projects page for more information on these project.