City of clarksville requests funds to hire an additional wellness counselor to expand our established wellness program and work alongside our current wellness counselor

The Department of Justice Community Oriented Policing Program awarded the City of Clarksville $200,000 on October 1, 2025, under the Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act (CFDA 16.070) to hire an additional wellness counselor and expand its established officer mental health and wellness program.

The City of Clarksville will use the funding to add a second wellness counselor to its law enforcement department, which serves over 400 personnel and families. The current wellness counselor, funded through a prior LEMHWA award, conducted more than 400 individual appointments in the preceding year and provided scene responses for emergent mental health support. The additional counselor will expand capacity to meet growing demand for time-sensitive and complex mental health services within the department.

Performance period runs from October 1, 2025, through September 30, 2027. Work is performed in Clarksville, Tennessee. The City of Clarksville is the ultimate recipient and responsible for semiannual programmatic performance reports and quarterly financial reports to the COPS Office, along with a final closeout report upon completion. Award recipients must cooperate with COPS Office monitoring activities, including site visits and compliance reviews.

With over 400 personnel and families in our department, the current wellness program must expand in order to keep up with the time sensitive and often complex needs of our employees. Our current wellness counselor, which was made possible with the 2022 lemhwa grant, had over 400 individual appointments last year; this is in addition to unnumbered scene responses for emergent mental support. We believe that a healthy officer and a supported family are crucial to our community and desire to continue to support our departments mental wellness mission with this funding opportunity.