UM Receives $9.4 Million to Improve Youth Behavioural Health.

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The University of Montana (UM) has announced a significant $9.4 million gift from the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation to support initiatives addressing challenges in K-12 education and behavioral health in Montana. The donation will bolster a two-pronged initiative at the UM Phyllis J. Washington College of Education.

The gift will establish the Institute for Positive Education, which will integrate positive psychology into the college’s curriculum, focusing on developing strengths-based well-being rather than suppressing negative behavior. This approach aims to improve youth behavioral health in Montana.

Additionally, the donation will support the Phyllis J. Washington Scholars Program, which will provide financial assistance to academically excellent students who commit to teaching in Montana schools for three years after graduation. This program aims to incentivize graduates to stay in the state and contribute to the local education system.

According to UM Department of Counseling professor John Sommers-Flanagan, “The Institute for Positive Education will infuse the principles of positive psychology into educational environments throughout Montana and beyond. If we focus on growing and nurturing strengths, skills, and virtues within teachers and students, then anxiety, depression, and trauma will shrink in their significance because students will have internal ways of managing their distress.”

The Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation has a long history of supporting the University of Montana, having previously donated funds that led to the college being renamed after Phyllis Washington. The foundation also supported the construction of a new wing of the Phyllis J. Washington Education Center, which was unveiled in 2019.

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