Outreach

Counseling Center counselors and counselor trainees often present workshops or educational programs on campus. In the past, topics have included:

  • Coping with Stress
  • Communicating More Effectively
  • Dealing with Differences
  • Coping with Eating and Body Image Concerns
  • How to Help a Student in Distress

WCU Outreach Mission Statement

Outreach services are an integral part of the activities conducted in the Department of Counseling and Psychological Services. Our outreach services aim to serve the campus community as a whole by extending our clinical and educational services beyond the walls of the Counseling Center. We offer a variety of outreach services to the university community with the goal of creating and maintaining a healthy, psychologically-minded student population. Our outreach services allow the provision of deliberate, systematic, and creative psycho-educational programming with a multicultural and developmental perspective on prevention, wellness, and student self-help. Such efforts allow us to work collaboratively with students, staff, and faculty across campus to ensure student engagement and success.

Our programming is geared towards providing:
  1. Support
    1. We are able to come to classes or be present at events and meetings, etc. in order to provide support and care to the WCU Community. We also have our Dog Therapy Program - which is a team of certified therapy dogs that visit campus on a regular basis. Also, upon request and with sufficient advance notice, our therapy dogs can be present at other campus events/programs.

  2. Education
    1. We are able to provide workshops to classes, organizations, meetings, and events. Examples of workshop topics we have presented include stress management, improving communication, resiliency building, and conflict resolution.
    2. For Faculty and Staff, we offer WCU Cares training. WCU Cares is a gatekeeper training program that teaches others how to: (1.) Recognize warning signs and risk factors of distress and suicide; (2.) Assess the level of risk for someone in distress/crisis; (3.) Ask someone if they are thinking of suicide; and (4.) Refer someone to the appropriate resources. Suicide prevention is a community responsibility — the more we know and can look out for one another, the safer the community becomes.

  3. Advocacy
    1. The Counseling Center works to promote mental health services, both on campus and in the WC community, along with raising awareness on mental health issues and reducing stigma. Some examples of our advocacy work: Our annual "Checkup From the Neck Up" Week and Screening Day, attending classes to speak about our services and mental health, participating programs and initiatives on campus, etc. We are happy to collaborate with other offices, groups, and organizations on promoting mental health awareness and advocacy.

Outreach requests are available to students, faculty, and staff with sufficient notice (at least two weeks). While we do our best to accommodate as many requests as possible, there are times when the volume and timing of requests is simply more than we can meet, given other clinical demands.

You can submit outreach requests here: https://form.jotform.com/220254985831056 .

For questions about outreach programs you can contact: CCoutreach@wcupa.edu

Humanity & Resilience Project

Rationale for this Project:

With college student distress on the rise, we believe that educating students on how to build resiliency to better cope with life’s struggles is more important than ever.  One of the major ways to build resiliency is by building stronger social connections.

With the prevalence of social media and the recent impact of the pandemic, students are prone to feeling isolated, and can falsely believe that no one else is struggling.  This adds SHAME to our experience, because we can feel like something is “wrong” with us if we are struggling.  We aim to help students realize that they are NOT ALONE.  We want to show students how to connect by being OPEN and VULNERABLE about their struggles.  Vulnerability can build connections that are more AUTHENTIC and SUPPORTIVE. 

Purpose of the Project:

Foster resilience, well-being and belongingness at West Chester University through shared humanity, vulnerability and meaningful connections

Goals of the Project:

Help students build meaningful connections with each other
Normalize struggle and the need for support
Provide education on how our shared humanity/vulnerability can build resilience
Teach skills to help students cope with challenges while validating them

Be on the look out for our programs such as Dine & Discuss, Speed Connecting, & Preparing your Emotional Stormkit around campus. Follow us on Instagram for updates: @WCUCounselingCenter

We are also able to come to your classroom, program, event and do this programming. Reach out to Dr. Stephanie Sibley for more information or with questions.

Inspirational & Informative TED Talks

(The messages of the talks generally align with the Humanity & Resilience Project)

Resources

Dog Therapy

Dog Therapy Schedule 

Dog Therapy Requests
If you would like the therapy dogs to attend an event your organization or group are hosting, please submit a request here: https://form.jotform.com/220254985831056. You can contact our outreach coordinator (CCoutreach@wcupa.edu) with additional questions.  We do our best to meet all outreach requests but because the therapy dogs book up quickly and already have PR commitments with us, requests will be filled when possible!