Growing Resilience, Opportunities, and Wellness in Delaware Schools
Project GROW is a partnership between Delaware school systems, university training programs and centers, and state and community agencies to advance training and practice in evidence-based, equity-centered school mental health service delivery within a multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) framework.
Funded by the United States Department of Education through the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant Program and the Delaware Department of Education, Project GROW seeks to address two documented societal crises: (a) the prevalence of mental health needs among children and adolescents and (b) the shortage of school-based mental health service professionals.
Our Approach
Growing: Project GROW focuses on capacity-building. That includes building the capacities of schools to address PK–12 students’ mental health needs within MTSS frameworks. It also includes building the capacities of graduate student trainees to serve in school leadership positions as systems change agents.
Resilience: Project GROW seeks to support the resilience of individuals, organizations, and communities. Project GROW recognizes the tremendous personal and institutional impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as of historical and recent societal injustices related to discrimination and oppression (e.g., on the basis of race, ethnicity, language, religion, gender identity, or sexual identity). In response, Project GROW adopts a systemic approach to promoting protective policies and practices and ensuring the sustainability of support initiatives and outcomes.
Opportunities: Project GROW creates a variety of new opportunities: for schools to receive technical assistance with regards to MTSS, for PK–12 students to receive inclusive and affirming mental health services, and for individuals from a variety of backgrounds to complete graduate education in a school mental health field.
Wellness: Project GROW centers on promoting wellbeing–supporting the wellness of PK–12 students in schools, of school-based professionals, and of graduate student trainees. Project GROW assists schools with adopting promotion and prevention practices, trains graduate students to be experts in these areas, and provides enhanced support to graduate students to ensure their wellbeing and success.
In Delaware Schools: Project GROW is a state-wide initiative, supporting schools and providing training opportunities across Delaware.
Our Objectives
To address the prevalence of youth mental health needs, we seek to:
- Facilitate Delaware school districts’ adoption of policies, systems, and structures for MTSS in alignment with state regulations
- Increase Delaware schools’ high-quality implementation of equitable, evidence-based prevention and intervention practices for mental health and well-being within MTSS
- Promote Delaware schools’ effective coordination of mental health service delivery for students and families
- Support Delaware schools’ systematic use of data-based decision making procedures (universal screening, disproportionality analysis, progress monitoring) within MTSS
To address the shortage of school-based mental health professionals, we seek to:
- Raise awareness of school mental health professions (school counseling, psychology, and social work) among Delaware residents, particularly residents from racially, linguistically, and socioeconomically minoritized backgrounds
- Advance the recruitment, retention, and graduation of students in Delaware school psychology and social work graduate programs, especially for students from racially, linguistically, and socioeconomically minoritized backgrounds and for school-based professionals looking to respecialize in a school mental health field
- Increase the number of Delaware school psychology and social work graduate students who accept employment in Delaware schools upon graduation