Walker Awarded $1.6m Workforce Development Grant

NEEDHAM, Mass. (March 2, 2023) - Walker Therapeutic & Educational Programs (Walker) has received a $1.6 million Home‑ and Community-Based Services (HCBS) and Human Services Workforce Grant to launch the Wellness Coach Project, a new initiative designed to meet the increasing behavioral health needs of middle and high school youth through an expanded pipeline of behavioral health professionals.

The Wellness Coach Project will launch in March 2023, in collaboration with several partner organizations. Over the course of two years, Walker will recruit, train, place, and certify 50 Wellness Coaches to provide targeted student support services to over 1,000 youth in schools in and around Boston. Wellness Coaches will be equipped to assist middle and high school students with developing prosocial skills and behaviors that address issues such as anxiety, social isolation, feelings of hopelessness, and unhealthy sleep, eating, and screentime patterns.

Wellness Coaches will earn a living expense stipend and college credits toward associates degrees in behavioral health or education‑related programs at local community colleges.

An additional component of the project is a Wellness Internship that offers high school juniors and seniors opportunities to take early college level courses and learn firsthand about professional roles in child-, youth-, and family-serving organizations.

“We see this project as a key strategy for meeting surging community needs for children’s behavioral health services, while also growing and diversifying the field,” shared Walker’s President and CEO, Dr. Gene Takahashi. “We are running dangerously short of behavioral health and education professionals. It’s a critical time to be creative in how we recruit and introduce future professionals to the field.”

Walker’s consulting and innovation center, Walker Solutions, will design and lead the Wellness Coach Project. Walker Solutions’ Executive Director, Jake Murray, points to the ‘learn and earn’ aspect of the project as essential: “To make this opportunity accessible to a wide range of candidates, it is key to offer stipends, free credits towards a degree, flexibility to work part-time, and job placement support upon program completion. For too many, life gets in the way, and taking a full break for full time study is not an option.”

About Walker: Founded in 1961, Walker Therapeutic & Educational Programs leading non‑profit organization providing a continuum of intensive, highly therapeutic academic and behavioral health programs to children, youth, and families across the Commonwealth. Walker’s continuum includes residential and group home programs, community-based programs, outpatient and in-home services, and coaching, consultation, and professional development.