The Boston Children’s Hospital Neighborhood Partnerships program (BCHNP) is a school-based behavioral health program committed to working with school communities most impacted by systemic inequities. BCHNP is a part of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Boston Children’s Hospital. Our purpose is to promote the social, emotional, and behavioral health and well-being of students, caregivers, and staff in partnership with the Boston Public Schools (BPS). We collaborate with community members and organizations to provide clinical care, consultation, professional development, research, and advocacy. BCHNP has partnered with BPS for 19 years.
BCHNP has a team of 16 staff members and partners with school communities in four primary ways:
- Full-Service Schools: BCHNP clinicians work onsite in partnering schools to provide a range of clinical, early intervention, and prevention and health promotion services to students, as well as professional development, consultation, and capacity building services to each school community. A BCHNP study of three-year outcomes is published in the Journal of School Health.
- The Clough Foundation Training and Access Project (TAP): BCHNP-TAP consultants provide high-quality professional development and consultation over the course of a two-year partnership in five schools. The goal of BCHNP-TAP is to build the capacity of these partnering schools to develop the systems, protocols, and procedures needed to effectively and sustainably address the social, emotional, and behavioral health needs of their students. An evaluation of this professional development and consultation model is published in Children and Schools.
- TAP Online: Expanding opportunities for capacity building beyond Boston, TAP Online offers free online trainings for educators everywhere on social, emotional, and behavioral health in schools.
- Community Collaborations: To extend our program’s reach further within and beyond Boston, BCHNP provides targeted professional development, consultation, and/or capacity building services outside of our school partnership network in Boston.
The goals of BCHNP are to:
- promote the social, emotional, and behavioral health and well-being of students, caregivers, and school staff
- increase access for youth and families to equitable, culturally responsive services and supports in schools
- build the capacity of schools and school staff to develop the systems, protocols, and procedures needed to effectively and sustainably address the needs of their students
- promote systemic change in behavioral health service delivery and address systemic inequities by shifting to incorporate the political determinants of health and social justice in the understanding of wellness
