Building Our Path Forward
Reflecting on OCOF’s Strategy Retreat and the Road Ahead
Over the past several weeks, Our Community Our Future brought together our Steering Committee and community partners for two strategy retreats held on September 19th and October 3rd. These sessions represented a key milestone in OCOF’s evolution — a moment to pause, listen, and chart a shared path forward for our collective impact across the Heart of Texas region.
Listening to Our Community
Prior to and throughout the retreats, OCOF gathered feedback from community partners representing a wide range of sectors — including education, behavioral health, child welfare, juvenile justice, and family support. Their insights helped us identify both what’s working well and where there are opportunities to strengthen coordination, access, and collaboration across systems.
Crafting Our Shared Foundation
With this feedback as our guide, the Steering Committee worked collaboratively to develop OCOF’s vision, mission and values — statements that reflect our shared purpose and the principles driving our work.
Vision
Every child, youth, and young adult is healthy, connected, and thriving.
Mission
Collaborating to advance a cohesive, responsive, and accessible system of care serving children, youth, young adults, and their families across the Heart of Texas.
Values
Trust: We are committed to trustworthiness and transparency, as these are the foundations of effective partnership.
Excellence: We believe that an excellent system of care is collaborative, empowering, and sustainable.
Advocacy: We are committed to advocating for the children, youth, and young adults in our community and centering the voices of those with lived experience.
Community: We believe that individuals thrive when they have meaningful, healthy connections with others within their environment.
Hope: We are committed to creating a better future for all children, youth, young adults, and their families.
Establishing Strategic Priorities
Together, the Steering Committee defined six strategic priorities that will guide OCOF’s efforts in the months and years ahead:
Protective Factors & Early Intervention: Expand and enhance supports for children ages 0–5 and their families to improve present and future functioning.
School Attendance & Engagement: Support consistent attendance and meaningful engagement in school systems to promote student success and well-being.
Comprehensive Services for System-Involved Youth: Identify and strengthen supports for children, youth, and young adults involved with the behavioral health, child welfare, and juvenile justice systems.
Successful Transitions to Adulthood: Explore and develop opportunities in the community for 16- to 24-year-olds experiencing difficulties with the transition to adulthood.
Rural Engagement & Access to Supports: Support the stabilization and expansion of services in ways that best serve children, youth, and young adults in rural communities.
Access to & Knowledge of Services: Broaden community knowledge to simplify access to supports and services for children, youth, and young adults.
Looking Ahead
The retreats reinforced what has always been at the heart of OCOF’s work: collaboration, community, and advocacy. By defining our vision, mission, values, and priorities together, we’ve built a foundation that reflects the collective wisdom and dedication of our partners.
In the months ahead, OCOF will continue engaging community members to bring this strategy to life — through coordinated initiatives, shared learning, and a renewed focus on ensuring every child, youth, and young adult in the Heart of Texas can thrive.
