M2G Ventures’ Soar Partners with Meadows Institute on Tarrant County Mental Health Initiative

By Fort Worth Inc Staff, Fort Worth Inc, August 20, 2026

Soar, the nonprofit mental health initiative of Fort Worth-based M2G Ventures, is partnering with the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute on a three-year effort to expand trauma- and grief-informed care for children and families in Tarrant County.

The Tarrant County Trauma and Grief Collaborative will bring the Meadows Institute’s Trauma and Grief Center model into local schools and communities. Soar’s funding will support the Tarrant County-specific program, which the organization said would not otherwise move forward.

The need is significant. A Meadows Institute assessment estimates 78,000 Tarrant County youth ages 10 to 19 experience the death of a loved one each year, while more than 58,000 are exposed to multiple traumatic events, according to a press release. Few school- and community-based treatment settings are equipped to provide evidence-based trauma and grief care.

Over three years, the TAG Center plans to train at least 180 school- and community-based clinicians in Tarrant County through annual learning collaboratives. Those clinicians are expected to serve about 1,440 young people. The collaborative also will provide workshops for parents, caregivers, and educators to help them identify traumatic stress and grief and determine when children may need additional support.

“When we started Soar, it came from something deeply personal, the belief that no family should face a mental health crisis without the right support in place,” Soar co-founder Jessica Miller Essl said in a statement. “This partnership isn’t just an expansion of what Soar does, it’s a signal of what Soar has become: a long-term investor in the mental health of this community through research, advocacy, and community building.”

Soar was established in 2019 by M2G Ventures co-founders Susan Miller and Essl following a personal family tragedy. Its model focuses on identifying mental health needs, finding expert partners, and providing sustained funding for solutions.

Its first partnership, with UT Southwestern’s Center for Depression Research and Clinical Care, focused on expanding youth depression research and clinical resources in North Texas. A subsequent partnership with the Jordan Elizabeth Harris Foundation expanded Soar’s work into evidence-based suicide prevention and education. The TAG Center partnership adds trauma- and grief-informed care to that work.

Soar said it has raised more than $2 million through its partnerships and art-centered events, including Muse at the Modern and its annual Art of the Mind fundraiser.

“Far too many youth in the region are struggling to overcome a pervasive but silent epidemic of childhood trauma and grief,” said Dr. Julie Kaplow, executive director of the Trauma and Grief Center. “This partnership will allow us to empower clinicians, parents, educators, and other caring adults to help children heal and lead happier, healthier lives.”