Expanding technical assistance to grantees and nongrantees of RWJF's Caring Across Communities program

The Foundation's program, Caring Across Communities: Addressing Mental Health Needs of Diverse Children and Youth, was designed to fund communities to establish school connected mental health services for students who require them, with an emphasis on overcoming the cultural and language barriers of children residing in immigrant and refugee families.Access to mental health care is difficult for all ages and populations. It is especially difficult for new members of our communities especially those with limited English proficiency. We know from research that many children and adolescents have mental health needs that go unmet. School staffs want to help their new populations, but they have limited avenues for obtaining information on the health and education issues facing these populations. In 2006, RWJF launched a new project, Caring Across Communities (CAC), out of the Center for Health and Health Care in Schools (CHHCS), to address these issues. CAC was developed to address the mental health needs of diverse children and youth. The response to CAC's call for proposals showed tremendous interest and need across the nation. They received 355 brief proposals and could only choose 15 as sites. There is now an opportunity to reach out to those schools not funded that are seeking technical assistance to improve the mental health of their students. This expansion of CAC's technical assistance will use the Center for Health and Health Care in Schools' Web site as the foundation to extend their knowledge and technical assistance. CHHCS has been very successful using web-based learning methodologies to organizations seeking guidance. This grant will allow them to provide technical assistance to more than their current 15 grantees.

Grant Details

Amount Awarded $302,378.00

Awarded on: 6/19/2007

Time frame: 7/1/2007 - 7/31/2010

Grant Number: 61284