Rural and Tribal Behavioral Health MSW Campus Advanced Year Fellowship (RTBH CAY)

Oliner Altruism Institute 
Department of Social Work, Cal Poly Humboldt

The Rural and Tribal Behavioral Health MSW Campus Advanced Year Fellowship (RTBH CAY) is committed to transforming behavioral health ecosystems to address structural inequalities; respond to intersections between culture, trauma, and colonization; and expansively represent equitable, diverse, inclusionary, and welcoming services, supervision, and workforces. In doing so, the program enacts the Oliner Altruism Institute’s purpose to seek out ways to enhance altruism and prosocial behavior in society. 

High debt burdens, living expenses, and requirements for internship/practicum/field placement hours are reported by students, educators, and employers as significant barriers to college affordability, persistence, and completion, especially for adult learners, low-income students, and caregivers. The RTBH CAY Fellowship strengthens California's behavioral health workforce by providing financial, career, professional, and academic support to selected applicants entering Cal Poly Humboldt’s MSW On-campus Advanced Year who have a strong interest in providing behavioral health services in underserved rural and Tribal communities. 

There is a shortage of behavioral health professionals who are trained to provide integrated behavioral health care in high-need/high-demand areas of California, particularly with children, adolescents, and young adults. Locally, regionally, statewide, and nationally, the behavioral health workforce is not reflective of the population of people who receive services, including people from underserved communities and people with lived experience as consumers of behavioral health services and/or family members of consumers. MSW students entering the advanced year of the campus program who are committed to providing integrated behavioral health care in high-need/high-demand areas of the state and are interested in working with children, adolescents, and young adults are encouraged to apply.

RTBH CAY Fellows will:

• Receive $50,000 in stipend funding during the 2026-27 academic year,
• Join a monthly online behavioral health seminar on the first Wednesday of each month from 4:00pm-5:30pm,
• Complete an eligible internship, which is generally a setting that provides integrated, team-based behavioral health care in an underserved community,
• Commit to one year of post-graduate employment providing direct clinical services (on the path toward licensure) in organizational settings that receive public funding and are located in high-need/high-demand communities,
• Complete details can be found in the program application.

Applications for a Rural and Tribal Behavioral Health MSW Campus Advanced Year Fellowship (RTBH CAY) for the Class of 2027 will be accepted through March 27, 2026 and can be found here. The application includes a personal statement essay (about 1 single-spaced page) in response to the prompt: “Please describe your interest in behavioral health work that serves rural and Tribal communities after you earn your MSW.”

For more information contact:

Ronnie Swartz, Ph.D., LCSW
Behavioral Health Workforce Development Coordinator
Director, Oliner Altruism Institute
swartz@humboldt.edu  707.826.4562

Partial funding for this program is provided by the federal government. The Administrator for the funding organization, the Health Resources and Services Administration, has stated that HRSA is “firmly committed to protecting and improving the health and well-being of Americans, particularly those who are underserved, medically vulnerable, or live in areas where access to care is limited” and that “HRSA is emphasizing targeted investments that strengthen the nation’s core healthcare infrastructure, address pressing health challenges, and deliver real results for communities across the country." 

As a federally funded program, there is some level of uncertainty about program requirements and consistency. While Cal Poly Humboldt's Department of Social Work has many years of experience working with federal, state, and other funding sources, the university cannot guarantee program stability.