Improving Access to Education

Our Foundation Board met in January to begin the work of prioritizing new funding opportunities. We discussed how to meaningfully use the expanded available endowment income of $175,000 annually to support our work, especially following through on our commitment to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Former Board member Dr. Mark Constantine, President and CEO of the Richmond Memorial Health Foundation, facilitated our discussion with great expertise.  Our meeting concluded with a consensus to dedicate a large portion of available funds in scholarships for students from underrepresented communities. These scholarships can support tuition or summer housing for CPE students and training activities of certified educator and psychotherapy students.

The median age of ACPE educators is 60.4; that of ACPE Psychotherapists is 68 years. This means that we could see as many as half of our members retiring during this decade. We urgently need to improve access to ACPE among professionals who represent diverse racial-cultural, spiritual, and social backgrounds and different age cohorts.  

We also will need data to help us understand exactly what type of barriers students from underserved communities face when they want to enter our field. We plan to dedicate funds to gathering and analyzing such data so that we can remove barriers and improve access to education for students in spiritual care, education, and psychotherapy.

We will share details and funding cycles as we work out the next steps. In the meantime, do not hesitate to direct questions to Foundation@acpe.edu. And, we invite you to contribute to this meaningful work by making a gift to the Foundation for ACPE here.

Dagmar Grefe is the Chair of the Foundation for ACPE and can be reached at dgrefe@chla.usc.edu