VESTAL — The U.S. Department of Education has awarded Binghamton University Community Schools (BUCS) a five-year grant totaling more than $4.5 million to expand mental-health services in Chenango County.

The effort is part of the Mental Health Service Provider Demonstration grant program, Binghamton University said in its announcement.

The initiative — entitled Empowering Rural Communities: Promoting Mental Health, Equity, and Wellbeing Through a University-assisted Community Schools Approach — will expand social-work support to students and families in the Norwich and Oxford school districts. The project will serve 2,310 students and their families.

Binghamton University cites the Chenango County Community Health Assessment as indicating Chenango County has been designated a Health Professional Shortage Area.

The lack of primary care and mental-health services leaves families, school systems, and community agencies with the task of addressing complex student needs with limited resources. Connecting this need to the university-assisted community school approach that mobilizes higher education in partnership with schools, families and community members “provided a strong foundation for this successful proposal,” the SUNY school said.

Laura Bronstein, founding director of BUCS and dean of Binghamton University’s College of Community and Public Affairs, said she is excited to expand this program to Chenango County.

“As a leader in university-assisted community schools for small cities and rural communities, BUCS works with communities locally and beyond to support success for all students through out-of-classroom support in collaboration with institutions of higher education and community partners,” Bronstein said in the Binghamton announcement. “Increasingly, children are being left behind due to challenges that even the best teachers can’t address on their own. This includes issues like anxiety and depression, violence, poverty and many others that interfere with students’ abilities to focus on learning in the classroom. This new grant allows us to expand our support for mental health challenges that have been skyrocketing among youth, especially since the pandemic, and to have Binghamton’s community school faculty guide this work with evidence-based knowledge.”

Funding from the Empowering Rural Communities program will pay for a full-time project director and two full-time community-schools coordinators, one for each district. The director will serve Chenango County, working with partners to join current efforts to understand resources.

They’ll also explore ways in which university-assisted community school strategies can support a regional approach to enhancing mental health and well-being. Community school coordinators will be placed on site with up to four social-work interns each to work with school staff to identify areas of strength and explore ways in which social-work interns can fill unmet needs, Binghamton University said.