subject: Students In Psychology Masters Programs Work With Local Organizations To Provide Services [print this page] Ever since the Chicago School of Professional Psychology opened its Los Angeles campus in 2008, it has been dedicated to working with members of the community to provide mental health services. These services include crisis intervention training, education programs for local citizens, general counseling, research programs, and free or low cost programs.
A recent expansion of this community outreach commitment came in the form of the Forensic Training Institute. This new institute was designed because of an ever growing need for psychology related programs within the field of forensics. The mission is to provide exceptional training for the community as a whole, while providing career development skills and hands on learning experiences for current students enrolled in psychology masters programs or participating in an online masters degree psychology focused program.
The new Forensic Training Institute has partnered with law enforcement agencies, parents, other students and faculty, community leaders, ex-gang members, and other interested parties to create an eight hour crisis intervention training program that is free of charge. The program has become a valuable asset to the community as well as a huge success; last year more than four hundred people attended the conference.
Students from various focuses of psychology, including business psychology, clinical psychology, and industrial and organizational psychology, take part in the community outreach effort. These students along with other members of the Institute work closely with local government groups to design strategic plans, assign interns to work in mental health clinics, provide guidelines for evidence based practices, and to provide guidelines for training other outreach volunteers.
Since the program has been implemented, homicides are down; better relationships have been formed between law enforcement, and the community, along with outreach volunteers. By maintaining and developing these types of training programs, and by continuing to conduct real world research, both members of the community and students thrive in a variety of ways that will carry forth for generations to come.
