The VOICE initiative also calls for at least two “community conversation” events per year and features a preventive outreach program that aims to help parents, school staff, and other concerned community members recognize early signs of mental illness in their children also is part of the VOICE program.

The counselor training portion of the VOICE initiative began at the start of the school year. In each of the three years covered by the grant, up to 15 graduate-level Viterbo mental health counseling students per year will receive $10,000 stipends as they serve part-time unpaid internships at clinics and hospitals that work with clients in rural and underserved areas of the Coulee Region. The stipends help cover the extra time and travel expense involved in serving internships far from campus.

“The rural communities that got to have these students as interns, you have no idea how excited they were,” said Murray, adding that the stipend is far from the biggest motivator for students in the program. “The people who are in this program aren’t doing this for the money. They are doing this because it’s a calling.”