BVU, Siouxland Mental Health Center Bond Through Partnership
Employees and families of Siouxland Mental Health Center may receive grant funding to lower overall cost of education while enrolled in BVU classes. BVU professors and staff are available to share expertise with SMHC in training programs, workshops, and more.
Buena Vista University (BVU) and Siouxland Mental Health Center (SMHC) have entered into a Strategic Partnership that will benefit both organizations as they work to build up the people and the communities they serve.
Under the agreement, employees of SMHC, as well as their spouses and dependents, may receive grant funding to lower the overall cost of education while enrolled in classes on BVU’s Storm Lake campus. Partner grant funding also lowers the cost per credit hour for students enrolled in BVU’s convenient online/hybrid undergraduate programs or the organizational leadership graduate program courses.
BVU professors and staff are also available for training programs, workshops, and more should administrators and teachers with Siouxland Mental Health Center seek those services and expertise.
“It will be exciting to see members of SMHC continue to strengthen their careers in serving others while benefiting those they serve and their community through all we can offer at BVU.”
Katie Smith, BVU Director of Strategic Partnerships
“The Strategic Partnership with BVU represents a great opportunity for our employees, offering them the chance to expand upon educational benefits, something that’s so important not only in our professional lives and careers, but in our personal lives, and in the health and well-being of the community at-large,” says SMHC CEO Sheila Martin.
“We’re extremely pleased to be a partner with a great organization like Siouxland Mental Health Center,” says Katie Smith, BVU Director of Strategic Partnerships. “It will be exciting to see members of SMHC continue to strengthen their careers in serving others while benefiting those they serve and their community through all we can offer at BVU.”
Siouxland Mental Health Center, which employs approximately 100 persons who reside in Iowa, South Dakota, and Nebraska, serves all individuals within Woodbury County for the treatment of mental illness. While the main SMHC facility is in Sioux City, SMHC has partnered with several agencies to establish alternative sites to increase accessibility to mental health care. Mental health therapists are stationed within the Sioux City Community School District, Western Iowa Tech Community College, and Juvenile Court Services. Additionally, SMHC positions a Care Coordinator within Mercy Medical Center and UnityPoint Health Systems, offering assistance to patients with mental illness in accessing services.
BVU has long enjoyed strong educational ties in and around Sioux City, home to Western Iowa Tech Community College, a campus that has collaborated with BVU for decades. Students enrolled in a program through WITCC can seamlessly transfer their credits toward their bachelor’s degree at BVU. Students receive personal support including admissions and enrollment counseling and academic advising in Sioux City through BVU’s office on the WITCC campus.
SMHC, which hosts a number of BVU interns, provides comprehensive adult, child, and adolescent mental health services, including therapy. A pharmacy is located within SMHC’s central site. Services are provided to all who request, regardless of one’s ability to pay. Services for young people include psychiatric evaluations by a child and adolescent psychiatrist. The organization’s Children’s Mental Health Program helps to maintain children in the home.
For more information about BVU’s Strategic Partnerships and partner opportunities, please visit the BVU website at bvu.edu/strategic-partnerships or contact Katie Smith at SmithK@bvu.edu.