Mental Health Talent Pipeline
In 2018, my predecessor at the Healthcare Foundation Northern Sonoma County launched an innovative pilot program called the Mental Health Talent Pipeline, to provide scholarships to bilingual/bicultural students pursuing mental health professions. When I arrived in 2020 and met the brilliant students in the program, I asked how it was working for them. They unanimously said that more help with tuition was what they needed most, as they were all carrying significant student debt and working multiple jobs. As a result, and with support from some key individual donors, we developed a multi-year partnership between Healthcare Foundation and University of San Francisco, Santa Rosa Campus, to provide 100% scholarships to three new bilingual/bicultural students each year in their master’s level Counseling Psychology Program.
When the current contract with USF ends in 2027, twenty-seven students will have obtained their Master’s degrees, resulting in over 5,000 unique client visits per year, expanding access to mental health services among low-income, Latine residents of Sonoma County. The Healthcare Foundation and USF are interest expanding the program to provide scholarships to Black and Indigenous students.
