The New Hampshire (NH) Department of Education has been awarded nearly $10 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, to carry out Project AWARE (Advancing Wellness and Resilience in Education) across the next five years. The funding was part of the President and Vice President’s Now Is the Time plan, which aims to expand access to mental health services and make schools safer.
Oversight & Coordination
The NHDOE serves as the oversight and coordinating body accountable for carrying out the project.
Implementation
The central aim of New Hampshire’s “Now Is The Time” Project Advancing Wellness and Resilience in Education (AWARE) is to build systems that support child safety and mental health. Project AWARE works to encourage and sustain local resources capable of addressing mental health and substance abuse concerns. It establishes communication channels and organizational partnerships that greatly raise the likelihood these issues are handled appropriately and in ways that produce the most positive possible outcomes.
Each year, Project AWARE will reach roughly 4,000 children, youth, and families and train about 700 adults who work with youth, in partnership with three Local Educational Agencies: Berlin Public Schools, Franklin School District, and SAU #7, which serves Colebrook, Pittsburg, and Stewartstown.
Goals
The goals of Project AWARE-NH are:
1) Deliver Youth Mental Health First Aid and Mental Health First Aid training to teachers, athletic coaches, playground attendants, and others able to recognize and respond to mental health concerns.
2) Apply a multi-tiered framework that lowers school violence, bullying, behavior problems, suspensions, substance abuse, and punitive or exclusionary discipline practices.
3) Lessen the need for intensive treatment, out-of-home placement, hospitalization, or incarceration of children and youth in every region.
4) Meaningfully strengthen the involvement of schools, families, and youth in decision-making at the policy, practice, and individual levels.