The PATHWAYS Program provides culturally-sensitive individual and group counseling, family outreach and engagement, and consultation services for youth in the Boston Public Schools.
The program is offered to students who are coping with significant life challenges that interfere with their ability to learn, function and thrive in school, at home, and in the community.
The program's primary objectives are to promote a supportive learning environment, enhance students' coping skills, and create pathways toward a bright and successful future.
Founded in 2013, the PATHWAYS Program is a unique campus-community collaboration between William James College and the Boston Public Schools. As a school-based counseling program, it is designed to address the unmet social-emotional needs of students by providing an array of trauma-informed, culturally-sensitive, and systems-oriented mental health services. The program focuses on students who have experienced traumatic life events, are coping with significant psychological and emotional distress, and have engaged in disruptive behaviors (e.g., school truancy, chronic absenteeism) that may interfere with their academic performance and social-emotional well-being.
The program’s primary objective is to increase access for urban youth to school-based, culturally-sensitive, and trauma-informed mental health services that are aimed at raising students’ awareness of the impact of trauma on well-being, enhancing students’ positive coping skills, promoting students’ attitudes toward school engagement, increasing graduation rates, and improving the overall psychosocial well-being of urban youth.
Services provided through the PATHWAYS Program include comprehensive psychosocial and intake assessments, individual therapy, group counseling, case management and care coordination. The program also offers school-based consultation services, family outreach and engagement, and referrals to outpatient and in-home therapy.
The PATHWAYS Program offers field education experiences for practicum-level graduate students who are enrolled in the counseling and clinical psychology programs at William James College. Trainees must have prior clinical, volunteering, and/or work-related experience with children, adolescents, and families; a demonstrated interest in providing trauma-informed care and culturally-responsive clinical services to urban youths and families; and a strong commitment to working in a school setting.
The practicum training program is designed to prepare graduate students to meet the growing demand for culturally-sensitive mental health services for individuals and groups from culturally diverse backgrounds. Trainees receive hands-on clinical training and acquire the knowledge and skills needed to deliver trauma-informed, systems-based, and client-centered mental health care to youth and families from historically marginalized and underserved communities.
Please contact:
Gemima St. Louis, PhD
Associate Professor and Director, The PATHWAYS Program
William James College
1 Wells Avenue, Newton, MA 02349
gemima_stlouis@williamjames.edu
617-327-6777 x1241
Dearborn STEM Academy
John D. O'Bryant School of Mathematics & Science
For information about the program please contact Gemima St. Louis, PhD at gemima_stlouis@williamjames.edu.
