Reclaiming Futures Launches Major New Initiative: Project Thrive

Over the past several years, Reclaiming Futures has designed and helped implement innovative school-based strategies to respond to and prevent mental health challenges for students, and to help schools in high need communities create a climate of wellness and public health equity. Our efforts have recently been recognized and we are excited to announce a major new multi-year project funded by the federal Department of Education. We are calling this new initiative Project Thrive. Project Thrive is about helping young people achieve mental wellness and reach their potential, while at the same time helping mental health professionals thrive at all stages of their careers (from graduate education to continuing professional education) and to build impactful and satisfying careers as school-based mental health professionals.

Project Thrive stands to have a significant impact on the mental health workforce in Oregon’s most high need schools in tribal, rural/frontier and predominantly Latinx communities, and ultimately on the mental health of students across the state. The grant will fund a unique collaboration between Reclaiming Futures, the PSU School of Social Work, and the System of Care Institute directed by our colleague Brooke Rizor as well as key community partners - The Latino Network, the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board and La Clinica.  Together we will train a new generation of school social workers recruited from these high-need communities with specialized skills needed for work in these settings. The project will bring a state-of-the-art school-based mental health screening model developed by Reclaiming Futures to some of the neediest schools in Oregon. We look forward to sharing our progress with you as the project unfolds. You can learn more about the details in this Portland Tribune article: Portland State University receives $6M for school mental health program