Since 2010, the Center for Community Mental Health’s (CCMH) mission has been twofold: train George Mason University students to become behavioral healthcare professionals and provide evidence-based, accessible, and affordable mental health care to members of the Northern Virginia community.
The center’s latest partnership checks both boxes.
Earlier this month, the CCMH, in conjunction with nonprofits Claude Moore Opportunities and the ConnerStrong Foundation, hosted a four-day training led by Sources of Strength, a nationally renowned, evidence-based suicide prevention program for nearly 30 trainees, which included more than 20 George Mason students. The goal is for the Sources of Strength curriculum to be implemented in local schools across Virginia, to improve mental health among youth populations.
“This was an incredible opportunity to bring together impactful partners to meet both aspects of our mission,” CCMH director Robyn Mehlenbeck said. “To be an integral part of expanding the youth mental health workforce here in Virginia while also providing our George Mason undergrads some really unique opportunities to both be trained and then credentialed to give them career paths.”
In addition to the Sources of Strength training, 12 Youth Mental Health Corps members through Serve Virginia, and seven Youth Mental Health AmeriCorps members—all George Mason or Rappahannock Community College students—are participating in a two-semester course entitled “Special Topics: Supporting the Youth Mental Health Workforce.” By taking the course, all 19 students will meet requirements for state certification.
Five of the AmeriCorps students, and 12 of the Youth Mental Health Corps students will seek certification as a Qualified Mental Health Professional-Trainee through George Mason while two will receive certification as a Behavioral Health Technician Assistant through Rappahannock Community College. Both certifications are through the Virginia State Board of Counseling and provide more job options for these students.
“It is an exciting opportunity through multiple lenses,” said Lucy McClellan, a George Mason clinical psychology PhD candidate who is teaching the course. “There is this ongoing youth mental health crisis. Engaging these motivated and passionate students in this mental health service training will be a step toward addressing that. Sending them out into Virginia to help the youth in Virginia make progress toward mental well-being and addressing these needs. At the same time, it is really exciting for our students here at George Mason and the students we are working with at Rappahannock Community College because it can be challenging to find mental health service experience as an undergraduate. So this experience is really integral.”
Bill Hazel serves as the CEO of Claude Moore Opportunities, which, in collaboration with Danville Community College and the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research, sponsored the seven AmeriCorps members. Hazel was previously the Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Resources and senior advisor for innovation and community engagement at George Mason.
Since leaving his role as the Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Resources in 2014, Hazel jokes he has been on his atonement tour to address all the areas he “couldn’t or didn’t fix” while in his post. He said lack of “meaningful support” through behavioral healthcare remains a growing issue, especially for younger generations.
“What is important about this group (of students) is it is a potential workforce to deliver the service,” Hazel said. “With youth in particular, when you get to be a certain age, maybe you lose touch (with the younger generation). So these (trainees) are as near peer as you can get to dealing with teens. We have a lot of young people, who, probably in many cases, have been there, and should be able to establish rapport. Our hope is that this training will be personally beneficial, as they look at their own situations and their own goals in life and that it will provide them career opportunities they will enjoy.”
Tom Worosz, the president and founder of the ConnerStrong Foundation, has sponsored Sources of Strength training and implementation in approximately 20 schools in Virginia. Worosz founded the ConnerStrong Foundation in 2017 after his son, Conner, died by suicide the year before at 17 years old.
The foundation’s mission is to bring awareness to mental health issues and suicide prevention and to change the discussion about mental health, especially for teenagers and young adults. The foundation has partnered with the CCMH for the last five years. Mehlenbeck and George Mason clinical psychology students hold monthly virtual workshops for parents of school-aged children from K-12 that are available throughout the school year. The workshops address a variety of topics, including domestic violence, social media, artificial intelligence, and graduation.
“Topics that are going to resonate with parents that they are dealing with their children,” Worosz said. “If I looked back at 2017, what did I think we would be doing at this point? I could never imagine this. That, in a nutshell, is the beauty of it. Through finding those like-minded people in our community—Robyn Mehlenbeck, her team, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences Dean Ann Ardis, Dr. Hazel and his staff over at Claude Moore Opportunities—and others within the community who have that like-minded notion to change the way we address mental health. Especially in our kids, we cover all age groups, but especially getting to our kids early and often, has been a blessing.”
September 29, 2025