West Virginia Department of Education's (WVDE) 2021 Project AWARE will advance the wellness and resilience of West Virginia students by collaborating with local educational agencies, schools, communities, and families to address the social-emotional, behavioral, and mental health needs of our students. By leveraging stakeholders' resources we will use our varied talents, strengths, and funds to serve our most precious resource - our students.
Project AWARE will enable state and local partners to develop a model of sustainable plans and strategies to improve school culture statewide, increase student well-being and success, prepare educators, strengthen collaboration between the state and LEAs, and forge community connections to link and leverage available community resources that serve children and families. This grant will serve 10,000 students and 1,500 educators and other adults annually; serving 50,000 students and 7,500 educators and other adults over the five-year course of the project.
West Virginia (WV), home to about 1.8 million people across 24,038 rugged square miles, ranks 44th of 50 states in overall child well-being. Its economic deterioration has been exacerbated by the state's substance misuse crisis, which alone costs the state's economy $8.8 billion a year - the highest per-capita burden in the country,
The project will focus on three counties-Fayette, Logan, and Wirt-which in 2019 were Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA) in mental health. Wirt students have high needs and few resources; 28% of youth are living in poverty and 11% are homeless. Their child and ten death rate is 77.1 per 100,000. Fayette also has 28% of its children living in poverty. The teen birth rate in 2020 was 39.7 per 1,000. In 2019 it ranked 6th in WV for the highest number of overdose fatalities; 61 per 100,000 deaths. In Logan County, 15.5% of babies were born exposed to drugs. Their teen birth rate is 44.2 per 1,000 births; 31% of children live in poverty. The county ranked 4th in WV for the highest number of fatal overdose deaths at 81 per 100,000.
WVDE's Project AWARE will meet its overall project goals of increasing the capacity of state and local educational and behavioral health systems to provide direct, comprehensive services to students and to increase awareness of and training in mental health through evidence-based practices including Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and Expanded School Mental Health (ESMH). The project schools will receive focused guidance, support, and technical assistance to improve, increase, and strengthen the mental health services available to students and their families, as well as licensed mental health professionals to provide direct, on-site services and to coordinate care through outside service providers.
Project evaluation will consist of both process and outcome measures, assessing, among other things, infrastructure development, service delivery, and sustainability in addressing students' mental health needs to ensure goals are met, initiatives are effective, and to promote wide-scale adoption of successful practices and programs.
