We are pleased to announce that the graduate counseling program at West Virginia University was awarded a Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration (MHSP) Grant during the 2022-2023 academic year.
The MHSP Program provides competitive grants to support and demonstrate innovative partnerships to train school-based mental health services providers for employment in schools and local educational agencies (LEAs). The grant is supported by the U.S. Department of Education as part of an award totaling $5,197,251 over a five-year period from 2022 to 2027 with 0% financed with non-governmental sources. The award amount for the annual budget period 04/01/2023-12/31/2023 is $990,226. The goal of this program is to increase the number and diversity of high-quality, trained providers available to address the shortages of mental health services professionals in schools served by high-need LEAs. Our MHSP grant is titled the “Mountaineer School-Based Mental Health Fellows Program.”
The Mountaineer School-Based Mental Health Fellows Program is an innovative partnership between WVU’s on campus Counseling Program and Harrison County Public Schools in West Virginia. The purpose of this grant is to address student mental health needs by increasing the number of school-based mental health services providers in high-need school districts in West Virginia, increasing the number of service providers from diverse backgrounds or from the communities they serve, and ensuring that all service providers are trained in inclusive practices. This program is open to incoming school counseling students AND clinical mental health students in the on-campus program who are U.S. citizens (note: students in WVU’s digitally delivered program are ineligible for this program). Students selected for this program are eligible to receive up to two years of generous financial, academic, and social support designed to support your success in the counseling program and beyond. Yearly, six incoming counseling program students are selected for this program.