UTRGV will receive two grants from the Department of Education this past month totaling over $11 million dollars for training counselors, social workers, and psychologists at the university.
These two awards are part of an even more significant one. Last January, the first installment of this award was made. The total grant award is a total of a little over $17 million dollars that is divided into five years.
For this year, the awards designated were $5.6 million and $5.8 million, allowing for more than 120 graduate students to be trained for the support of local School Districts.
According to the press release from Congressman Gonzalez, this grant is from the Mental Health Service Professionals Demonstration Program. They provide grants to support the training of mental health professionals for their employment in schools and local agencies.
Congressman Vicente Gonzalez expressed that mental health is one of the most pressing issues facing our children and communities and that this funding will help train the next generation of mental health professionals that will help the community
UTRGV Senior vice president for Research and dean of the Graduate College Dr. Can “John” Saygin, expressed the importance of being a state university with a significant social impact as UTRGV.
“As a state university under the University of Texas System, we have the obligation to serve our community, our region, and the state of Texas. I don’t think there’s any other UT institution out there that has such a footprint that distributes 125 miles in South Texas with our teaching and research facilities. We are everywhere. That means that everything we do is going to have a social impact, so this project, actually, is a great example of how a university, a public university, can make a social impact, a visible social impact,” Saying said. “…and something like this, the mental health peace, which is very important to what we do, and it all adds value to the community and improves the quality of life, so it makes a happy community.”
In the next 5 years, UTRGV will continue to receive this kind of award, to help the improvement of mental health in our community. For information about counseling services that UTRGV provides you can call and make an appointment at (956) 665-2574 in Edinburg and (956) 882 3897 in Brownsville.
