The 2025 Texas System of Care (TxSOC) and Community Resource Coordination Groups (CRCG) Conference is an event for children and youth, family members, state and community leaders, and child-serving providers. The conference will take place from July 15-17 in Austin, TX.
Our planning partners include the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, CRCG leaders, and TxSOC communities statewide. We’re proud to organize an event that brings the community together to share ideas, hear from those with lived experience, and build partnerships that’ll help improve mental health outcomes for youth and families across the state.
In this post, we’ll share more about our conference goals and introduce a few of our guest speakers, exhibitors, and workshops. In-person registrations have closed, but you can still join virtually if you haven’t registered already.
About the 2025 TxSOC & CRCG Conference
This year’s conference goals are:
Strengthen Systems Integration: Enhance systems coordination in serving families by promoting resource sharing among partners across state, regional and local levels, and pursuing methods of sustainable funding.
Enhance Accessibility: Increase access to systems of care by addressing barriers, with a focus on rural areas and underserved populations. Improve communication by using plain language.
Amplify Voices of Lived Experience: Actively engage people with lived experience, including youth and their families, in meaningful collaboration, planning and decision-making to inform and improve systems of care. Strive to center strategies and interventions around the voices and experiences of those who are impacted most by the children’s behavioral health system to improve outcomes.
Support Workforce Development and Wellness: Provide skill-building opportunities, promote evidence-based practices and encourage prioritizing self-care to prevent burnout among professionals and caregivers.
Meet our keynote speakers
Elizabeth Waetzig
Elizabeth is a founding partner and chief executive officer with Change Matrix, LLC, a women-owned small business that motivates, manages and measures change to support systems that improve lives. Change Matrix partners with individuals, organizations and systems as they define, create, measure and sustain change.
She brings substantive experience in the areas of children’s mental health, a public health approach to mental health, early childhood systems, evaluation, child welfare, conflict engagement, change management, youth engagement and systems building. Elizabeth is a co-author on “A Public Health Approach to Children’s Mental Health: A Conceptual Framework”, published by Georgetown University.
Christopher Michael
Christopher is a registered nurse and entertainer who uses the literary arts through spoken word poems to address mental health, relationship accountability and Black American history. He is a nationally acclaimed poet’s poet, publisher, professor, pappy and person, Haiku Death Match Champion and resident host for the Flow International Showcase and Austin Poetry Slam.
Pritika Kharkwal
Pritika is a passionate youth advocate who believes in the power of amplifying the unheard voices in unconventional settings. Winner of the 2023 National Excellence in Mentoring Award for Corporate Youth Leadership, Pritika led a successful nationwide mentoring initiative called “Career Camps” under the Step Up organization. She worked with congressional staff on passing the 2023 Foster Youth Mentoring Act.
Pritika is the podcast host of Talk It out with Pritika Kharkwal, author of “It’s Time to Start Looking In”, student advisor at the Digital Wellness Lab (which works with Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital), youth ambassador at the Step Up national organization, Youth Advisory Board member at Peer Health Exchange and youth mindfulness ambassador at the Art of Living Foundation.
Lizzy Pérez
Lizzy is an executive coach, consultant and Certified Dare to Lead™ Facilitator trained by Dr. Brené Brown. With over 30 years of experience in education and leadership, she specializes in emotional intelligence, tough conversations and values-based leadership.
As principal and founder of Lizzy Pérez, LLC, she helps organizations cultivate courageous leadership and collaborative environments. A passionate advocate for mental well-being, Lizzy empowers leaders to navigate difficult conversations with clarity, compassion and confidence.
Exhibitors and workshops at a glance
Our exhibitor hall will feature state and local organizations that provide helpful services and resources for youth and families. If you’re joining us in person, you’ll receive an exhibitor quest activity booklet that’ll help you connect with exhibitors and enter a prize drawing!
A few of the exhibitors we’ve invited to the conference are Texas HHSC Waco Center for Youth, Austin Child Guidance Center, Heartfulness Institute, Center for Mental Health Implementation Support, United Way for Greater Austin 2-1-1 and ConnectATX Programs, and National Alliance on Mental Illness. You can find a full list of this year’s exhibitors on the conference site.
We’re excited to host a wide range of workshops, including sessions on fatherhood engagement, preventative self-care, collaborating with education agencies, and much more. Check out our agenda page to see the full list of workshops available in each breakout series.
Learn more about the conference
You can find a frequently asked questions page with more information about registration, shuttle services, CEUs, the conference center, and more. We hope to see you there!
