Mental and Behavioral Health Grants
59 Grants Total $2,225,000
The mental health system is besieged right now as people deal with profound uncertainty, financial hardship, and isolation, in addition to greater threats of intimate partner violence and child abuse. One national crisis hotline received nine times more calls in March 2020 than it did during the same period last year.
The overall increase in emotional and psychological stress caused by the pandemic is particularly acute among vulnerable communities who already experienced higher rates of behavioral health issues. Prior to this crisis, low-income adults in King County were 15 times more likely to have experienced recent serious psychological distress than high-income adults. Given that racism is itself a public health crisis directly related to persistent racialized violence and the disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 on Black communities, those communities are now facing intensifying primary and secondary trauma. Amid the great and growing need for mental health support, care facilities are racing to adopt tele-health technology, people are losing their healthcare, and cultural stigma about mental health support is deep and persistent, making mental health services that much harder to access.
COVID-19 Response Fund investments in this area focus on direct services for individuals and families in Phase 2’s priority populations who are experiencing trauma. Grants were curated by a table of mental and behavioral health experts who are deeply knowledgeable about the mental health system.
Priority Populations
- People who will be missed by public funding opportunities, including undocumented immigrants and refugees
- Low- and moderate-income essential workers
- People of color, recognizing the disparate health impacts of COVID
- In this funding track, additional priority will be given to supporting youth navigating mental and behavioral health needs
Grantees
API Chaya, $40,000: API Chaya empowers survivors of gender-based violence and human trafficking to gain safety, connection, and wellness. It builds power by educating and mobilizing South Asian, Asian, Pacific Islander, and all immigrant communities to end exploitation and create a world where all people can heal and thrive.
Asian Counseling & Referral Services (ACRS), $25,000: Asian Counseling and Referral Service (ACRS) is providing culturally competent and linguistically accessible mental and behavioral health services—via telehealth or in-person—to Asian American and Pacific Islander individuals and families, whether born in the U.S. or are immigrants or refugees.
Atlantic Street Center, $25,000: Since March, Atlantic Street Center has helped community members access food, technology, mental health services, rental and utilities assistance, and other basic needs in order to decrease the inequities already experienced by adults, youth and families of color.
Center for Human Services (CHS), $25,000: Center for Human Services (CHS) is a trauma-informed organization currently providing mental health services and/or substance use treatment to individuals and families who are experiencing behavioral health issues due to COVID-19. Services use telehealth and are face-to-face in limited situations.
Congregations for the Homeless, $25,000: Congregations for the Homeless provides safe, supportive, trauma-informed street outreach, shelter, day-center services, and housing for individuals experiencing homelessness during the pandemic. It also offers case management and mental health and substance use support.
Consejo Counseling & Referral Services, $80,000: Consejo Counseling & Referral Services is providing trauma-informed outpatient behavioral health services to monolingual undocumented Latinos via telehealth and telephonic services in this region. It is the only agency providing bilingual and bicultural trauma-informed care to undocumented Latino clients in the region.
Country Doctor Community Health Centers, $60,000: Country Doctor Community Health Centers is providing healthcare to people marginalized from the mainstream medical system, including the Latinx and African American communities that have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.
Cowlitz Mental Health, $60,000: Cowlitz Mental Health is creating technology adaptations to its enculturation model for behavioral health, extending the protective benefits of culture and supporting resiliency.
Crisis Connections, $40,000: Crisis Connections operates five programs focused on serving the emotional and physical needs of individuals across Washington state: the 24-Hour Crisis Line, King County 2-1-1, Teen Link, WA Recovery Help Line, and WA Warm Line.
Downtown Emergency Service Center, $25,000: Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC) provides integrated services such as housing, emergency shelter, crisis intervention and healthcare to thousands of homeless and formerly homeless people every day, including those living with mental illness, substance use disorders, and other disabilities.
Encompass, $40,000: Encompass serves East King County through behavioral health services for children and their caregivers experiencing significant disruptive behavior or relationship struggles. It provides evidence-based treatments that enhance the parent-child relationship and parental skill-building in behavior management.
Evergreen Treatment Services, $40,000: Evergreen Treatment Services’ REACH program provides street-based outreach and care coordination for our community’s most vulnerable: people experiencing homelessness, including those with compromised immune systems and lack of resources to practice safe hygiene and social distancing.
Friends of Youth, $40,000: Friends of Youth delivers a broad range of services to youth and their families on the Eastside to improve their emotional stability and self-sufficiency. During the pandemic, it is working to ensure clients have food and basic supplies, counseling, case management, housing support, and connections to community resources.
HealthPoint, $40,000: As the largest healthcare provider to low-income, refugees and immigrants in King County, HealthPoint provides primary, integrated healthcare services, including medical, dental and behavioral.
IKRON of Greater Seattle, $40,000: IKRON of Greater Seattle provides mental health, substance use and employment support to low-income individuals on the Eastside facing multiple barriers to support. A large majority of IKRON clients have past trauma histories and are currently facing an increase in trauma symptoms due to the pandemic.
India Association of Western Washington, $25,000: India Association of Western Washington provides culturally nuanced moderated support services on virtual platforms for the Asian Indian community (youth, families, and seniors) experiencing isolation, anxiety, and sudden personal losses in family, employment and education.
International Community Health Services (ICHS), $25,000: International Community Health Services offers COVID-19 testing in-clinic and via drive-through, as well as COVID-19 outreach and education, culturally responsive telehealth or telephone visits with behavioral health providers, and more.
International Drop-In Center, $40,000: International Drop-In Center supports vulnerable low-income first-generation elders with counseling and wellness checks to help them navigate social isolation.
Iraqi Community Center of Washington, $40,000: Iraqi Community Center of Washington supports the empowerment, leadership development, and self-reliance of Iraqi refugees throughout South King County and the Seattle area. It is currently helping individuals and families access resources and providing culturally and linguistically competent case management support.
Kent Youth and Family Services, $40,000: Kent Youth and Family Services provides mental health services, substance use disorder treatment, homelessness prevention, case management, and a variety of other services for low-income and marginalized communities in South King County, targeting additional resources toward families directly affected by the pandemic.
King County Sexual Assault Resource Center, $25,000: King County Sexual Assault Resource Center is maintaining all of its services for victims of sexual assault and abuse and their families: therapy, parent education for non-offending caregivers, legal advocacy, and a 24-hour resource line. All are provided through telehealth and phone, in Spanish and English.
LifeWire, $25,000: LifeWire helps adults, children, and youth who have been impacted by domestic violence to build safer, healthier homes. It offers support, resources, and professional services including survivor advocacy, mental health therapy, legal advocacy, shelter, and housing.
Mother Africa, $40,000: Mother Africa provides a culturally supportive environment to individuals and families during COVID-19, connecting communities to resources and supporting them to build resilience.
Mother Nation, $40,000: Mother Nation is mobilized to meet the on-the-ground needs of Native women and families during this crisis. Frontline staff deliver direct support to unhoused families as well as families surviving abuse in the home, providing mobile assistance as well as online and phone advocacy, circles, cultural services, traditional medicine and support.
Muslim Community and Neighborhood Association, $25,000: Muslim Community and Neighborhood Association builds strong communities as families, connecting communities and neighborhoods together using traditional family values.
NAMI Eastside, $25,000: NAMI-Eastside is virtually providing free mental health support to people with lived experience of mental illness and their families during the COVID-19 pandemic.
NAVOS, $60,000: Navos helps those who are suffering from mental illness and substance use disorders. Care teams are adapting where and how they do their work to continue providing essential inpatient and outpatient treatments and supported housing services to children, youth, and adults.
Neighborcare Health, $40,000: Neighborcare Health provides comprehensive integrated health care for the most vulnerable populations in the greater Seattle area, including robust behavioral health care.
New Beginnings, $25,000: New Beginnings supports domestic violence survivors through an array of services that include trauma-informed advocacy and mental health therapy. Amid the COVID-19 crisis, it is helping survivors navigate increased anxiety, depression, and trauma responses.
Northshore Youth & Family Services, $25,000: Northshore Youth & Family Services’ professional mental health and chemical dependency counselors provide therapy for individuals and family members in a comfortable and supportive environment.
Odessa Brown Clinic, $60,000: Odessa Brown Clinic is an enduring community partner with a dedication to promoting quality pediatric care, family advocacy, health collaboration, mentoring and education in a culturally relevant context.
Perinatal Support Washington, $25,000: Perinatal Support Washington (PS-WA) connects pregnant and new parents who are experiencing anxiety and depression with the appropriate resources to safeguard their mental health and their growing families. During the pandemic, it has expanded its free parent support line (including Spanish-speaking services), moved support groups to virtual platforms, and tracked therapists with telehealth openings.
Puentes, $40,000: Puentes mobilizes mental health resources to help undocumented migrants and their families cope and flourish. It is offering pro-bono psychotherapy to individuals, children, and families during the pandemic and providing psychological evaluations for individuals in immigration proceedings.
Refugee Women’s Alliance, $60,000: Refugee Women’s Alliance is providing over-the-phone and teletherapy to ongoing and new behavioral health clients, in addition to providing support around basic needs, housing, and public health information.
Refugees Northwest, $25,000: Refugees Northwest – LCS supports refugees and asylum-seekers with programs such as trauma-focused mental health services, torture treatment, unaccompanied minor foster care, asylum assistance, complex medical case management, and more.
Renegades For Life Inc., $40,000: Renegades For Life Inc. is addressing the growing needs of child abuse, domestic abuse, and immigrants.
Renton Area Youth Services, $40,000: Renton Area Youth Services provides high-quality, integrated behavioral healthcare and prevention services to children, youth and families, to restore hope for a healthier future.
Ryther, $25,000: Ryther is helping youth navigate their mental and behavioral health needs during COVID-19, providing assessments and assistance as well as short- and long-term therapies.
Sea Mar, $25,000: Sea Mar specializes in service to Latinos in Washington state, providing comprehensive health, housing, educational, and cultural services to diverse communities.
Seattle Counseling Service, $25,000: Seattle Counseling Service is offering telehealth and telephone behavioral services to its LGBTQ community.
Seattle Indian Health Board, $40,000: Seattle Indian Health Board provides culturally appropriate, accessible health and human services to American Indians and Alaska Natives.
Seattle’s H.O.M.E. For All, $25,000: SHFA has joined with Building Changes and others to assist underserved communities and communities of color with food, clothing, financial assistance, and mental health counseling services.
Somali Community Services of Seattle, $40,000: Somali Community Services of Seattle helps refugees undergo a smooth transition process and become self-sufficient in the United States.
Somali Health Board, $60,000: Somali Health Board was formed in 2012 by Somali health professionals and volunteers concerned about the health disparities that disproportionately affect new immigrants and refugees in King County. During the pandemic, it is working to eliminate and reduce health disparities.
Sound, $60,000: Sound is providing behavioral health support and therapeutic intervention services for individuals and families in shelters, homeless encampments, supported housing units, and other venues throughout the community. Its programs respond directly to heightened anxiety and economic dislocation caused by the pandemic.
Sound Alliance, IAF Northwest, $25,000: Sound Alliance, IAF Northwest’s Social Connection Project increases social connection within the community, reaching out to people who are isolated via phone or video calls to share stories, discuss pressures and concerns related to COVID-19 to support their overall health.
Southwest Youth and Family Services, $25,000: Southwest Youth and Family Services provides high-quality, integrated behavioral healthcare and prevention services to children, youth and families.
Therapeutic Health Services, $40,000: Therapeutic Health Services provides substance-use and mental health treatment and counseling to a diverse patient population on the path to recovery.
Ukrainian Community Center, $40,000: Ukrainian Community Center provides behavioral health services and support tailored to the individual’s mental health needs, including the specific needs of refugees and immigrants.
United Indians of All Tribes, $40,000: United Indians of All Tribes provides educational, cultural, and social services that reconnect Indigenous people in the Puget Sound region to their heritage by strengthening their sense of belonging and significance as Native people. During the pandemic, it is mobilizing resources for Indigenous individuals to ensure vulnerable families are safely housed, fed, and supported. This support includes providing social services through 12 wrap-around programs.
UTOPIA, $25,000: UTOPIA provides sacred spaces to strengthen the minds and bodies of QTPIs—queer and trans Pacific Islanders—through community organizing, community care, civic engagement, and cultural stewardship.
Valley Cities, $60,000: Valley Cities is providing telehealth and phone consultation with clients living in its 52 units of housing for formerly homeless individuals. It operates 11 outpatient clinics, a voluntary detox facility, a residential substance use facility, and an involuntary treatment facility.
VietQ, $25,000: VietQ is a collective of LGBTQ Vietnamese organizers in Washington, with the majority of its members in King County. It support, celebrates, and raises visibility for the LGBTQ Vietnamese community.
Voices of Tomorrow, $60,000: Voices of Tomorrow serves East African immigrant and refugee communities and is currently providing direct resource distribution to families in need, translating and disseminating public health information, engaging community through virtual listening sessions, and offering educational workshops to support families’ social-emotional wellbeing.
WAPI, $40,000: WAPI is continuing to provide mental health substance use treatment, primarily to youth in communities of color. It is also providing substance-use treatment to adults of color, so that youth don’t age out of its programs.
We R Native, $25,000: We R Native is a multimedia health resource for Native teens and young adults. Through its interactive website, text messaging service, social media channels, and “Ask Auntie” Q&A service, it provides medically accurate information reviewed by experts in public health, mental health, COVID-19, community engagement, and health activism.
You Grow Girl, $60,000: You Grow Girl! is providing trauma-informed and culturally-enriching behavioral health counseling, crisis intervention and basic need support services to young women and their families who have been mentally and economically impacted by COVID-19.
Youth Eastside Services, $25,000: Youth Eastside Services serves children and youth from birth to age 22 with serious behavioral, mental health, trauma, and/or substance use issues, along with their families, regardless of the ability to pay. During the pandemic, it is delivering its services via telehealth.
Lean more about Phase 2’s Childcare grants and Emergency Financial Assistance grants.