$10.1M in Department of Education grants will enhance mental health services across Indiana

Indiana University has received two new multimillion-dollar grants from the U.S. Department of Education that will contribute substantially to the mental well-being of K-12 students across the state, while also enriching our teacher, social work, and counselor training programs.

The IU School of Social Work has been awarded a five-year, $5.7 million grant to expand the social work workforce providing mental health care in local schools. Master of Social Work students will be placed in school districts in Tippecanoe County, Lafayette and Indianapolis' Pike Township. The university-school district partnerships will increase access to evidence-based mental health services for children and youth and strengthen IU’s robust pipeline of mental health professionals.

The Department of Education also awarded $4.4 million to three IU regional campuses—Kokomo, Richmond, and South Bend. This five-year grant will address the need for school psychologists in our communities by preparing greater numbers of highly skilled, licensed school psychologists. It will also support the reopening of the IU South Bend Community Counseling Clinic. Staffed by graduate students from various counseling programs, the clinic will provide essential services to individuals, children, and families in the South Bend region while offering virtual support to people in Richmond and Kokomo.

Both of these grants will add to the work the School of Education in Bloomington is doing with the five-year, $3.4 million grant it received last year to recruit, train and retain school counselors in the Richland Bean Blossom Community School Corp.

These significant milestones illustrate our ongoing commitment to prioritizing mental health and well-being across the communities we serve.

Pamela Whitten

President
Indiana University