Florida Atlantic University Wins $1.2 Million Grant to Expand Free Youth Mental Health Services

Families raising children with intellectual and developmental disabilities often carry a weight that extends far beyond the diagnosis itself. Emotional strain, behavioral challenges and relentless caregiving demands can accumulate over years, yet finding affordable mental health care from professionals genuinely trained to understand these needs remains one of the most persistent gaps in community health. In parts of Palm Beach County, Florida, where shortages of mental health practitioners compound the problem, children and caregivers can go months or years without meaningful support. A new initiative at Florida Atlantic University aims to change that equation, and it arrives with both funding and a built-in pipeline of future clinicians.

FAU’s College of Education has received a $1.2 million grant from the Children’s Services Council of Palm Beach County to launch OWLS-FLY, an acronym for Opportunity, Wellness, Leadership & Strength with Families Leading Youth. The three-year program will deliver free counseling and family support services to children ages 6 to 17 and their families, with half of its capacity deliberately reserved for youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities, their siblings and their caregivers. The funding comes through the Council’s fiscal 2026 Request for Proposals for Youth Development, which prioritized youth mental health as a central focus area.

The program’s architecture reflects a growing consensus in clinical psychology and counselor education: child mental health cannot be treated in isolation from family systems. OWLS-FLY will operate through a university-based counseling clinic that combines direct service delivery with specialized graduate-level training and formal partnerships with community organizations. Families will have access to individual counseling for youth, family therapy sessions, parent and co-parenting groups, and other supportive services, all available either in person or through telehealth platforms. Telehealth delivery is particularly significant for families in designated mental health professional shortage areas, where transportation and provider scarcity often make consistent attendance difficult.

Services will be delivered by advanced graduate counseling students pursuing education specialist degrees, along with postdoctoral scholars, all working under close supervision from licensed faculty and clinicians. This supervised-training model serves a dual purpose. Families receive care at no cost, while the next generation of counselors accumulates hundreds of supervised clinical hours working with populations they might otherwise rarely encounter during standard training. The model mirrors successful clinic-based training programs at universities nationwide, where research consistently shows that structured supervision produces competent clinicians while expanding community access to care.

Eligibility priorities reveal the program’s public health logic. OWLS-FLY will prioritize low-income families, households located in federally designated mental health professional shortage areas, children with significant exposure to adverse childhood experiences, autistic youth and other children with intellectual and developmental disabilities, their siblings, and families referred through community partner organizations. Adverse childhood experiences, which include exposure to violence, household instability and neglect, are well-documented risk factors for long-term mental and physical health outcomes, making early intervention a measurable investment rather than a charitable gesture.

Kelly Emelianchik-Key, Ph.D., a professor in FAU’s Department of Counselor Education and the initiative’s principal investigator, said the grant creates an opportunity to make a meaningful difference for families who too often face barriers to mental health care. She explained that bringing accessible, family-centered services together with specialized counselor training can support children’s emotional well-being, strengthen families and ensure more families encounter professionals who understand their unique needs. Her oversight will span program administration, curriculum design and clinical quality assurance across the three-year funding period.

Alexander M. Fields, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Counselor Education and co-principal investigator, emphasized the clinical rationale behind the program’s family-systems orientation. He noted that children with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families can encounter mental health challenges requiring more specialized support than traditional services typically provide. Fields stressed that a child’s well-being is connected to the entire family unit, and that systematically evaluating outcomes for youth with disabilities will help identify what works, strengthen the services provided and inform future approaches to disability-informed mental health care. His research leadership signals that OWLS-FLY is designed not just as a service program but as an evidence-generating one.

Beyond direct clinical services, OWLS-FLY establishes a structured training pathway intended to address the workforce shortage at its root. Each year, eight to twelve advanced graduate counseling students will complete a specialized four-course training sequence and accumulate supervised clinical experience with diverse youth populations. The curriculum is designed to build both theoretical knowledge and practical skills for addressing the emotional, behavioral and family needs of children with and without disabilities. Over three years, this means roughly two dozen to three dozen counselors entering the field with disability-informed training they would be unlikely to receive in conventional graduate programs, where disability-specific coursework is often limited to a single elective.

The initiative’s stated goals extend across multiple levels of impact: improving emotional well-being among children and teens, reducing caregiver stress, strengthening family relationships and expanding access to specialized mental healthcare throughout Palm Beach County. Postdoctoral researchers Christina Ladd, Ph.D., and Rotem Moshe, Ph.D., will support implementation through clinical instruction and supervision, clinic operations, client data management and assessment of program outcomes, ensuring the evaluation component remains rigorous and continuous rather than retrospective.

Charles Dukes, Ed.D., Ph.D., dean of FAU’s College of Education, framed the grant as an example of how a university can integrate education, research and community engagement to address a pressing public need. In his view, expanding access to mental health services while preparing highly trained counselors to serve children and families with diverse needs advances the college’s dual commitment to developing skilled professionals and building stronger communities. If OWLS-FLY meets its objectives, the model could offer a replicable template for other counties confronting the same twin crises: a shortage of disability-competent mental health providers and families left waiting for care that should never have been this hard to find.

Subject of Research: A university-based family-centered youth mental health services and counselor training program in Palm Beach County

Article Title: FAU receives $1.2 grant to expand youth mental health services

Article References: FAU receives $1.2 grant to expand youth mental health services. (n.d.). Original publication

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Keywords: youth mental health, intellectual and developmental disabilities, Florida Atlantic University, counselor training, Palm Beach County, family therapy, telehealth, adverse childhood experiences, Children's Services Council, mental health workforce shortage, autism, community mental health