Early Career Service Grants

APA Committee on Early Career Psychologists (CECP) is pleased to announce their Early Career Service Grants. This year, CECP is excited to award grants that align with their strategic priorities. Awardees selected will be granted up to $2,500 each. Grants will be given to support the implementation of direct psychological services/programs that (1) are not eligible or likely to receive financial support from other funding agencies, and (2) are not likely to be delivered without the funding support. Examples of the type of services/programs CECP is seeking to support include, but in no way are limited to:

• services that provide evidence-based training to community serving organizations;
• mental health workshops; and
• professional development programs for community staff providers.

• Applicants must be a dues-paid member of APA in any membership category

• Applicants should have received a doctorate degree in psychology within the last 10 years

• The services/program must have a significant impact on psychology and/or society

• Awardees must agree to allow CECP to publicize their work through some type of public forum, either in-person or virtually, at an APA convention or a CECP sponsored event

• Awardees must commit to completing a semi-annual progress report and virtual meeting with CECP

Submission materials

Applicants will need to address the following sections (150 word maximum per question): 

• description of the problem being addressed;
• detailed description of the clinical or research project to be implemented;
• description of the ways that psychological science supports the proposed project and intended outcomes (evidence base);
• clearly outlined and measurable goals of the proposed project (feasibility);
• description of how you will measure the impact of your program or project;
• description of funding need and proposed budget. Please note:
• • Funds may not be used to support indirect or overhead costs, participant travel, or to compensate the awardee or other individuals who are conducting clinical services or research.
  • The proposed services/project must not generate any revenue for the participants or their workplace. If participant fees are to be collected, they must be designated to a specific charitable organization. Please describe this in the budget proposal.
  • Recommendation: Include a 3% buffer as part of contingency estimates in your proposed budget.

The application period for the Early Career Service Grants is currently closed. The application portal will open a month before the deadline.

2024

Melissa Dudley, PhD
The proposed project seeks to provide pro bono autism spectrum disorder (ASD) evaluations to individuals in rural underserved communities and increase the number of psychologists trained to administer comprehensive Autism diagnostic evaluations in the area. The current clinical project aims to provide a training course on best practices in autism diagnosis and assessment and year-long practicum experience for school psychology doctoral students at Alfred University. Prior to the practicum, students will be trained by university faculty on evidence-based assessment measures for ASD diagnosis.

Peejay Bengwasan, PhD
The proposed comprehensive workshop is designed to provide a deep dive into the foundations of clinical supervision and equip participants in the Philippines. Participants will learn essential skills and knowledge to excel in their clinical supervisory roles. The workshop will begin with lectures incorporating foundations of clinical supervision, establishing supervisory relationships, ethical decision-making, and addressing challenges related to malpractice. The second part of the workshop will focus on developing the competencies of a clinical supervisor through exercises and active discussion, applying concepts of clinical supervision in different contexts, and witnessing a roundtable discussion about the personal experiences of clinical supervisors in different stages of their careers–early, middle, and late career.

2022

Dana Collins, PhD
“Addressing Racial Trauma with Mindfulness”
The proposed project is designed to provide Black youth with psycho-education about different forms of racism and how experiences with racism may result in racial trauma as well as equip youth with mindfulness skills to help them identify symptoms of racial trauma. This intervention will consist of a series of sessions that include dyadic teaching, group discussion, and experiential exercises. The first session will serve as an overview of the intervention, followed by sessions that will detail the different forms of racism and how they may manifest as racial trauma, and then the final sessions will introduce participants to mindfulness practices. 

Tanisha Hill-Jarrett, PhD
“Aging & Afrofuturism: Reimagining Black Woman Futures as a Tool for Radical Healing”
The proposed programming will consist of a 10-week workshop series titled, "Radical Imagination: A Dream Space for Black Women" conducted locally with Black women in the San Francisco Bay Area. Participants will include ten self-identifying Black women aged 50 or older. All sessions will include a mini didactic to contextualize the session, guided group conversation with a psychologist as facilitator, and an arts project or wellness activity. It is anticipated through this workshop that participants will gain the following skills such as an increase knowledge about chronic gender and race-related stress, develop a culturally relevant toolkit of skills to facilitate healing, and describe Afrofuturism and apply the framework to create futurist art that challenges systems of oppression.

 Yue Hong, PsyD  
“Supporting Trainees of Diverse Backgrounds in Clinical Neuropsychology”
The purpose of this three-part webinar program is to raise awareness about the obstacles faced by trainees from diverse backgrounds, inform supervisor/faculties on ways to improve their effectiveness in supervisory roles with trainees from diverse backgrounds, and to empower trainees from diverse backgrounds as they navigate challenging experiences that are fraught with complexities. This webinar series will be developed through a collaboration between the Asian Neuropsychological Association and Hispanic Neuropsychological Society. It is also anticipated that other collaborators from professional organizations such as the Society for Black Neuropsychology, Queer Neuropsychological Society, and APA Division 40 (Society for Clinical Neuropsychology) will be invited to participate.

Kristy McRaney, PhD
“Increasing Service Availability by Leveraging Transdiagnostic Group Offerings: Addressing Mental Health Service Shortages in Southern Mississippi”
The primary goal of this project is to increase delivery of critical behavioral health services in south Mississippi via group interventions and aim to increase the University of Southern Mississippi Center for Behavioral Health capacity to provide group-based services to underserved individuals. Group therapy offerings will be expanded to improve mood symptoms and functional capacities in adults as well as general distress in youth related to anxiety/depression. Therapy will be implemented via hybrid modality (i.e., offering in face-to-face and telehealth) to support accessibility of services. Social Rhythm Therapy will be implemented in group format and provided to adult clients. Unified Protocols for Treatment of Emotional Disorders for Children and Adolescents will be provided to youth clients in a group format.

2021

Amy H. Lee, PhD, and Kristin Bernard, PhD
“Addressing Mental Health Inequity by Enhancing Trauma-Specific Care for Youth from Historically Marginalized Communities”
The proposed project seeks to implement Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) across both outpatient clinics by facilitating a 3-day initial training and ongoing monthly consultation with a nationally certified trainer. The goals for the inaugural year of this initiative is to include a routine trauma screen for youth referred for therapy, establish core faculty trained and certified in TF-CBT to provide ongoing trauma-specific services, facilitate continuity of care from higher acuity settings, and increase the number of youth from historically marginalized communities receiving trauma-specific services.

Joseph S. DeLuca, PhD
“Targeting Stigma and Race-Based Traumatic Stress in Early-Stage Psychosis Care via a Professional Development Program and Workgroup”
The proposed initiative’s goal is to improve the recognition of Race-Based Traumatic Stress and stigma among youth in the early stages of psychosis to help guide treatment and enhance engagement. The aim is to deliver a recorded 45–60-minute evidence based professional development presentation to early psychosis providers which will help enhance their ability and comfort to provide culturally responsive early psychosis services.

Madison W. Silverstein, JD, PhD
“An Anti-Racist Training and Mentoring Program for Future Psychologists of Color”
The overarching objective of this project is to combat the major barriers that contribute to the lack of representation of students of color in graduate psychology programs and, as a result, enhance racial equity and justice in the field of psychology. The more specific objective is to offer and evaluate a comprehensive and culturally-informed program (Scholars Committed to Opportunities in Psychological Education) to undergraduate students of color in New Orleans, Louisiana to increase their likelihood of acceptance into a graduate program in psychology.

2019

Ashley Batastini, PhD
A virtual workshop “Improving Community Supervision Outcomes with Psychologically Informed Best Practices,” which addressed current research and best practices for managing justice-involved persons on probation, parole, and/or court diversion. 

Prerna Arora, PhD
“Mental Health First Aid Workshops for Immigrant Serving Community Organizations,” which provides training to youth stakeholders to help improve recognition of mental health concerns among youth and reduce stigma toward mental health treatment.

Farzana Saleem, PhD, and Jessica Jackson, PhD
“The Communicating Race Fully with Grace series” is a project to engage local communities and offer education, tools, and resources related to race, racism, culture, and mental health. 

Akilah Reynolds, PhD, and Martinque Jones, PhD
“Masks Off: Reclaiming the Strong Black Woman” is a workshop that helps support Black women’s mental health and provide psychoeducation.

2018

Dhara Meghani, PhD
A community workshop series “From classroom to community: Enhancing Community Doulas’ Skills in Supporting Young, Low-Income Parents through Infant and Perinatal Mental Health Workshops” to enhance knowledge and skills for community doulas who provide free services to new and expecting young parents in under-resourced areas.

Akilah Reynolds, PhD, and Martinique Jones, PhD
One-day workshop “Redefining Strength Retreat” to support the wellbeing of 20 Black women in a group format by focusing on the concept of strength and infusing culturally adapted principles from evidence-based interventions to help participants see alternatives to the Strong Black Woman schema as appropriate.

Beth Trammell, PhD
A community workshop series “Making Words Matter with Kids: Parent and Teacher Professional Development” to address both parent training, and professional development for caregivers and teachers.