The JFS Mental Health Fellowship Program is an innovative response to the rapidly increasing mental health demand throughout our community, as well as the shortage of Licensed Mental Health providers throughout the state. Our Fellowship Program is designed to provide Master Level Social Workers and Mental Health Counselors with the most advanced trainings, clinical supervision, and support possible so that they can grow in their competency, while carrying out caseloads of 20-25 weekly individual, family, and group sessions in a multitude of community-based, homebased, school-based, and office-based settings (often times carrying out sessions at no cost to the client).

The program is designed to provide JFS Fellows with a plethora of different experiences and trainings so that they can find their specialty and begin to focus more on developing the skillset for the identified specialty. This can range from working with our geriatric, refugee, school-aged, or emerging adult population to trauma, addiction, personality disorders, and family systems therapy.

Together, these fellows will address unmet mental health needs in Delaware by providing upwards of 14,000 individual mental health sessions to nearly 2,000 Delawareans in need of support.

Applications for fellows are ongoing! Applicants must have completed the appropriate master’s program to qualify for LCSW or LPCMH licensure in Delaware.

JFS fellows receive our support for two years while they participate in meaningful work and leadership development, and we help prepare them to take and pass the LCSW or LPCMH test. Two years of post-licensure employment in Delaware is required (with JFS or other mental health social service agencies).

In May 2022, U.S. Senators Tom Carper and Chris Coons, as well as Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester (all D-Del.) visited the Salvation Army in Wilmington to announce over $5 million in federal funding for projects to help improve the quality of life for Delawareans throughout the state. $3.5 million of that funding was designated to JFS Delaware for the Mental Health Fellowship Program.

This funding is part of nearly $100 million for community projects up and down the state secured by Delaware’s congressional delegation. These investments were included in the 2022 Omnibus Appropriations Bill signed into law by President Biden on March 15, 2022.

“Organizations like Jewish Family Services, the Salvation Army, and Westside Health have been instrumental in helping support Delawareans through difficult and unprecedented times,” Senator Coons said. “I’m grateful to have helped deliver millions of dollars in critical funding to groups doing the work on the ground to meet the needs of our communities in Wilmington and across the state.”