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The U.S. Department of Education has awarded ������Ƶ Community Schools (BUCS) a five-year grant, totaling more than $4.5 million, to expand mental health services in Chenango County as part of its Mental Health Service Provider Demonstration Grant Program. This initiative, entitled Empowering Rural Communities: Promoting Mental Health, Equity, and Wellbeing Through a University-assisted Community Schools Approach, will expand social work support to students and families in the Norwich and Oxford school districts with the ability to serve 2,310 students and their families.

Chenango County has been designated a Health Professional Shortage Area according to the Chenango County Community Health Assessment. This lack of primary care and mental health services leaves families, school systems and community agencies with the task of addressing complex student needs with very limited resources. Connecting this need to the university-assisted community school approach that mobilizes higher education in partnership with schools, families and community members provided a strong foundation for this successful proposal.

Laura Bronstein, founding director of BUCS and dean of Binghamton’s College of Community and Public Affairs, is excited to expand this program to Chenango County.

“As a leader in university-assisted community schools for small cities and rural communities, BUCS works with communities locally and beyond to support success for all students through out-of-classroom support in collaboration with institutions of higher education and community partners,” Bronstein said. “Increasingly, children are being left behind due to challenges that even the best teachers can’t address on their own. This includes issues like anxiety and depression, violence, poverty and many others that interfere with students’ abilities to focus on learning in the classroom. This new grant allows us to expand our support for mental health challenges that have been skyrocketing among youth, especially since the pandemic, and to have Binghamton’s community school faculty guide this work with evidence-based knowledge.”

Empowering Rural Communities will fund a full-time project director and two full-time community schools coordinators, one for each district. The director will serve Chenango County, working with partners to join current efforts to understand resources while exploring ways in which university-assisted community school strategies can support a regional approach to enhancing mental health and well-being. Community school coordinators will be placed on site with up to four social work interns each to work collaboratively with school staff to identify areas of strength and explore ways in which social work interns can fill unmet needs.

BUCS staff and interns will be trained by SUNY Morrisville and ������Ƶ Community Schools around topics relevant to working with children and their families in a school setting. The training provided to social work interns will be held on-site at SUNY Morrisville and leverage the expertise of their Human Services faculty. The grant will also provide financial support to expand opportunities and create a pathway for SUNY Morrisville undergraduate students to enroll in ������Ƶ’s master’s of social work program, helping to prepare more trained mental health professionals to serve the region.

Luann Kida, executive director of BUCS and principal investigator (PI) on this project, will support the project director and ensure that the team has what they need to be successful.

“As a resident of Chenango County and a social worker with more than 20y years of experience, I am beyond excited to bring these needed resources to my home community,” she said. “I look forward to working with my neighbors to build on the expertise we have developed through our work in Broome and Tioga County while we leverage the power of partnerships to serve Chenango County.”

Kelley Cook, an assistant professor in ������Ƶ’s Department of Social Work and co-PI on this project, will bring her social work clinical experience to this project and work with SUNY Morrisville to support the development of the training curriculum for social work interns. Tara Edmunds, director of strategic partnerships at BUCS, will be supporting intern recruitment and serving as a mentor to the two Community School coordinators to support their implementation of this project.

������Ƶ Community Schools will be launching this project in 2025. Meetings with school and community partners will begin immediately to start planning, hiring staff and recruiting social work interns to ensure the project is ready to launch in the two districts at the start of the 2025-2026 school year. While this project will be based in the Norwich and Oxford school districts, BUCS will also be working with DCMO BOCES and Chenango County Behavioral Health Services to support mental health and well-being throughout Chenango County.