Project Grant H79SM091654

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration awarded $503,040 to Homedale Joint School District 370 on September 30, 2026, under the Center for Mental Health Services Projects of Regional and National Significance program (CFDA 93.532) to implement Project Connect: Building Trauma-Informed Schools, Families, and Community, a four-year initiative serving rural Owyhee County, Idaho.

Project Connect will strengthen trauma-informed school mental health supports for students in pre-K through grade 12, parents and caregivers, school staff, law enforcement partners, early childhood partners, behavioral health providers, and community members. The district operates three school sites serving 1,256 students. Deliverables include formalizing partnership with Insight Counseling as a credentialed mental health treatment provider, establishing a trauma-informed community coalition and interagency agreements, implementing school-based screening, referral, triage, warm handoff, care coordination, treatment linkage, and follow-up workflows, and strengthening coordination with 988 and local crisis response resources. The project will provide trauma-informed training and technical assistance to address student mental health, safety, bullying, social connection, and help-seeking needs by building one coordinated school and community mental health system.

Partners include Insight Counseling, Azevedo Consulting, Results Learning Center, Mental Health Collaborative, Thriving Minds, the Center for Safe and Resilient Schools and Workplaces, and a local trauma-informed community coalition including school leaders, early childhood partners, law enforcement, probation, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, and parents.

The performance period runs through September 29, 2030, with place of performance in Homedale, Idaho.