Region 06 West Cook ISC 2 receives $1.5M Center for Mental Health Services Projects of Regional and National Significance grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

Project thrive: transforming health, resilience, intervention, vitality, and education - region 06 west cook intermediate service center no. 2 (WEST40) will implement project thrive across western cook county, Illinois, strengthening school-based behavioral health systems serving approximately 80,028 pk-12 students across 38 public school districts while providing tier 2 and tier 3 services to 7,193 students at 6 demonstration sites. Through a three-tiered multi-tiered system of supports framework, thrive will expand mental health promotion, suicide prevention, behavioral health literacy, early identification, workforce development, brief interventions, and care coordination. Students needing intensive support will be connected with student advocates who provide individualized care coordination, family engagement, crisis response, and closed-loop referrals through community behavioral health providers. Over the five-year project period, thrive will provide intensive behavioral health coordination for approximately 2,400 students, train 2,500 educators, school personnel, and community partners, engage 1,500 families, and implement universal behavioral health screening across all demonstration sites. The project will strengthen referral completion and an integrated network of school and community behavioral health partnerships to sustain services beyond the grant period.