GGUSD Receives Grant to Expand Mental Health Support

• Tuesday, April 29, 2025

Garden Grove Unified School District was selected to receive a $1.4 million state grant to support and expand the district’s ASPIRE social work program which provides a school-based social worker at every campus.

The funds, provided through the state’s Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative, will be used to support staffing, infrastructure and training to ensure uninterrupted coverage of mental health support at the district’s 67 schools.

“We are grateful for additional state resources that allow us to invest in district priorities like ensuring every child in our district has easy access to high-quality mental health support in their school,” said Board of Education Trustee Walter Muneton. “This grant will bolster the district’s widely-successful ASPIRE Social Work program which continues to have a transformative impact on the mental health needs of our students.”

The ASPIRE System of Care is a three-tiered approach including prevention, intervention and postvention, which earned a 2023 Golden Bell Award from the California School Board Association as a model of excellence in supporting student well-being. 

Mental health has been a consistent focus in GGUSD for many years and is a primary component of Goal 2 of the district’s three foundational goals: academic skills (Goal 1), personal skills (Goal 2) and lifelong success (Goal 3). Demonstrating its commitment to mental health, GGUSD’s Board of Education approved the Safe and Welcoming Schools Resolution in 2017 and launched a comprehensive Choose Wellness Campaign with the adoption of Resolution 11 in 2019. The Choose Wellness campaign paved the way for the growth of the ASPIRE System of Care, a network of school social workers, mental health specialists and social work interns.

The ASPIRE system of care fosters an environment of support at school through the effective implementation of school-based counseling that helps students thrive academically, emotionally and socially.

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