New Great Minds Fellowship Incentive Updates & Updates to Exiting GMF Program

The Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (OhioMHAS) has announced a new facet of the Great Minds initiative – The Great Minds Workforce Commitment Incentive Program.

Under this new program, recent graduates can apply to potentially receive as much as $20,000 in grant funding to support loan repayment if they commit to working at a CBHC in Ohio for at least one year of full-time employment (at least 32 hours per week). The amount of funding per successful applicant is subject to availability. Funds can be used to help graduates cover costs related to their education.

To qualify for the new Workforce Commitment Incentive Program, applicants must have graduated or received certification in or after May 2023 from one of the following types of academic programs attained through a certificate program, associate degree, bachelor’s degree, or graduate degree: mental health counseling, psychiatric and mental health nursing, substance abuse/addiction counseling, social work, or marriage and family counseling. Applicants also must be employed or have an offer of employment for a clinical position at an eligible CBHC with a start date no later than January 6, 2025.

Loan repayment is up to $20,000, subject to availability of funds.  Great Minds Fellowship Workforce Commitment Incentive Program funds may be used to repay the principal and interest of an educational loan issued by the government or a financial institution taken by an individual for tuition and other educational expenses such as fees, books, and room and board. Personal loans or loans from any other entity, including family, are not eligible.

Applications for the Great Minds Workforce Commitment Incentive Program will be available on the program webpage beginning October 1, 2024, and the application period will close on November 15, 2024. Additional information and an FAQ are available on the Great Minds Workforce Commitment Incentive Program webpage.  Questions may be directed to [email protected]. 

Additional GMF Updates

OhioMHAS hosted a webinar outlining updates to the Great Minds Fellowship program available to students actively engaged in attaining a degree in the designated academic programs and the Welcome Back Campaign.  Those updates include the following: 

Changes to Great Minds Internship Site Support funding:

  • Amounts awarded to agencies per intern hosted is increasing to $4500 and $5000, depending on if you are in an Ohio Health Improvement Zone or HRSA Shortage area.
  • Some schools will have the flexibility to increase student award amounts up to $15,000.
  • You can also be the lucky ones to share with students that the amounts awarded to students, once they graduate and get hired by a participating CBHC of their choice, will be increasing from $5,000 to $10,000 (to be administered by a 3rd party vendor).

Changes to Welcome Back Campaign funding:

  • An administrative fee allowance has been created for this initiative to cover related agency expenses and will be able to be requested on current hires (FY25), and backdated for FY24 hires (those that were approved and paid). This fee will be $300 per Welcome Back hire.
  • Recruitment bonuses will need to be paid to new employee before disbursement requests can be made.

Directions for FY 25 applications:

  • For grantees that received funding in FY 24:  will receive an email in the coming weeks from the GFMS system that your grant has been renewed. Upon receiving that email, grantees can use the updated FY 25 guidebooks for each program to complete their grant renewals. These will be posted on the corresponding program website when the applications go live.

For more information, visit:

These resources are also  available on the OhioMHAS funding page.  The deadline to submit applications is Dec. 31, 2024. Questions? Please contact the workforce email box at: [email protected].