Biden-Harris Administration Announces Funding to Address Youth Mental Health; Seeks Qualified Peer Reviewers
To address the youth mental health crisis, the Biden-Harris administration has begun new funding actions for the Mental Health Service Professional (MHSP) Demonstration Grant Program and the School-Based Mental Health (SBMH) Services Grant Program. With these two initiatives, the Administration seeks to address the shortage of highly-trained providers in schools. The MHSP will provide over $140M in competitive grants to train school-based mental health providers through innovative partnerships. Likewise, the SBMH will support competitive grants for over $140M in grants to states and school districts to increase the number of mental health service providers in schools. Currently, the US Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education is seeking comments regarding priorities for the MHSP and SBMH programs. Comments close on September 1, 2022 and requests for proposals will follow thereafter. Award announcements and requests for proposals for other related grant programs will be forthcoming in the following months.
Read the announcement here.
The Office of Safe and Supportive Schools (OSSS) invites applications from qualified peer reviewers with relevant backgrounds to read and evaluate FY2022 grant competitions for the Project Prevent Grant Program, School-Based Mental Health Services Grant Program, and the Mental Health Services Professional Demonstration Grant Program. The review process requires individuals to attend an orientation, use criterion based scoring, prepare written comments to support scores, and participate in panel discussions. The reviews will be conducted online, and the process entails a commitment of 35-40 hours. Each reviewer will review 8-10 applications and take part in approximately three conference calls. The time commitment is compressed and may occur within as little as two weeks. The OSSS provides further information with links to a registration form on its website.
Read more here.