American Counseling Association Foundation Awards Five Grants

Five American Counseling Association members received $500 grants from the American Counseling Association Foundation to fund counseling-related projects designed to help clients and communities. The projects selected for support in this round of grants focus on the mental health of youth during COVID-19, students and families. 

The grant recipients and their projects include:

Rayelle Davis, Ellerslie, MD | Healing Appalachia

This project will focus on psychoeducational workshops designed to help participants increase their sense of empathy and understanding of themselves and the world around them to bring about healing at the community level and to help reduce the stigma surrounding mental health.

Hulya Ermis-Demirtas, Menomonie, WI | Resilient Warriors: An expressive art-based resiliency program to promote rural elementary students' resilience, coping, and well-being

This study will have implications for school counselors and school-based mental health professionals working with elementary students. The current quasi-experimental study aims to test the effectiveness of a ten-week expressive art-based resiliency program on rural upper elementary students’ resilience, adaptive coping, and psychological well-being.

Mariaimeé Gonzalez, Seattle, WA | Unpacking Internalized Racism (for BIPOC) Doctoral Students and Professional Counselors

This project will focus on providing support to BIPOC Doctoral Students via an online course about unpacking internalized racism. By learning racial healing, they hope to take their resilience and mental liberation to work with their communities, students, and clients.

Marja Humphrey, Laurel, MD | Self-Care Poetry Slam

This project will focus on using poetry, an expressive art, to allow participants to have cathartic moments in a shared experience with their peers and mentors. Participants will become familiar with the Mindful Self-Care Scale (MSCS; Cook-Cottone, 2018) and consider how this tool is useful for their population of interest.

Rebecca Matthews, Greensboro, NC | Amplifying BIPOC Voices: From Advocacy to Action

The project will facilitate the dissemination of vital information to policymakers and stakeholders regarding Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) experiences of systemic and individual barriers to healthcare, thereby amplifying BIPOC voices on a national level.

The American Counseling Association Foundation provides grants twice a year to ACA members who are licensed professional counselors, counselor educators, or graduate students. The grants are awarded to individuals who are expanding their clinical services, reaching out to culturally diverse populations, or creating resources for those in need of counseling support. Grant applications are available online during each application period.

Additional information about the American Counseling Association Foundation, including donation opportunities, is available on the foundation’s webpage. The American Counseling Association Foundation receives no financial support from American Counseling Association member dues.