History of the NBCC Foundation

The NBCC Foundation was organized in 2005 and held its first board meeting in San Diego in August 2006. Dr. Wayne Lanning, a former NBCC Board Chair, was selected as the first Chair of the Foundation.

The Foundation Board of Trustees held additional meetings in March 2007, January 2008, and November 2008 to organize and facilitate the work of the Foundation. These efforts have established internal policies and procedures for operating the Foundation, as well as plans for public projects and works.

Most notably, the Foundation Trustees have approved funding for:

• Scholarships for military and veterans who pursue careers in counseling and agree to continue serving the military population.
• Scholarships for individuals from rural areas who pursue careers in counseling and agree to return to these underserved locations.
• Mental Health Facilitator training in Malawi, Africa. The Mental Health Facilitator program focuses on improving access to community-based mental health care in foreign countries. The grant helped fund the first MHF "training of trainers" course at the Guidance Counseling and Youth Development Centre for Africa in Lilongwe, Malawi, in February 2008.
• Mental Health Facilitator training in Bhutan. The funding provides for training of trainers in the country in continuation of its mission to expand mental health services abroad.
• Mental Health Facilitator emergency training in Sichuan Province, China.